This Issue: A. Philip Randolph is one of many -- and one of the most outstanding -- examples of Black Americans and union leaders who fought for immigration reductions on behalf of ALL American workers

Most NumbersUSA members and regular readers of the newsletter know about Barbara Jordan and her work as chair of the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform. This Labor Day let's remember another prominent civil rights activist who championed immigration reduction.

A. Philip Randolph (1889-1979) is best remembered as a union leader and a fierce opponent of segregation. Along with Bayard Rustin, Randolph organized and led the 1963 March on Washington, known to most Americans as the event where Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

Randolph spent much of his career as a union organizer, most successfully after the U.S. made major reductions in annual immigration in 1924. The next year he formed and served as the inaugural president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first labor union led by and composed of African Americans to receive a charter in the American Federation of Labor (AFL). Randolph understood that immigration reduction would benefit all American workers, but it was especially vital for Black Americans, since immigration had historically allowed employers to offer Blacks poor wages and working conditions, or to simply refuse to hire them altogether if a ready pool of immigrant workers was available.

This was readily apparent to Randolph, as it was to other Black leaders at the time, who grew increasingly critical of mass immigration following WWI. In addition, Randolph's position on immigration echoed earlier complaints by Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, and W.E.B. Du Bois, and anticipated the efforts of Coretta Scott King and Barbara Jordan in the 1980s and 1990s.

Randolph's immigration position also was shared by many of his fellow labor union leaders, like Samuel Gompers, founder of the AFL. It was common sense-logic then to recognize that employers could leverage immigration to effectively divest workers of bargaining power, and it remains just as true today.

What makes Randolph an example for today's immigration restrictionists, and why he was so revered as a civil rights pioneer by the 1960s is that he opposed discrimination against immigrants and rejected racial quotas on immigrant admissions. Randolph actually supported a total moratorium on immigration, and he did so in order to help all Americans, regardless of their race, religion, or national origin.

What is disheartening today is to see many labor union leaders abandon Randolph's commitment to American workers, taking positions that ultimately undermine their stated commitment to the union rank-and-file. The AFL-CIO, formed when the AFL merged with the Congress of Industrial Organizations in 1955, illustrates this point.

The AFL-CIO rhetoric today hearkens back to the heyday of union organizing and power, but in practice it has over the last two decades endorsed immigration legislation containing amnesty, major increases in annual admissions, and massive expansion of guest worker programs; the very legislation crafted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce --obviously no friend of the American worker.

This does not mean union members agree with union leadership. A great deal has been written about Trump's success with union members in 2016, and their opposition to the dual trend of shipping jobs overseas while also importing large numbers of foreign workers to take jobs in the U.S. The problem facing non-public sector union members (excluding government employees at local, state, and federal levels) is that their numbers have declined precipitously since the 1970s as has their influence over national policy issues. In 2020, only 6.3% of private sector workers belonged to a union. There are various reasons for this trend, with one being that the federal government allows employers to use foreign workers to undermine unionization -- what Randolph successfully fought against.

It is true Randolph was involved with the Socialist Party and ran unsuccessfully on its ticket for New York State Comptroller in 1920. However, as a Black man who grew up in the segregated South (Florida) and experienced constant racism throughout his life, Randolph had reason to conclude that the two-party system of his day offered little recourse to someone dedicated to racial equality. Moreover, the political landscape was not today's, when members of both parties, despite however the corporate press may label them, support using immigration to privatize profits for employers while socializing the costs to subsidize "cheap labor."

Donald Trump did shift the political ground with his emphasis on reforming immigration to protect American workers. Politicians like J.D. Vance in Ohio and Blake Masters in Arizona have picked up the mantle, running as pro-worker Republicans. It's too early to see how this will shake out -- if Republican leaders if and when they regain control in Congress will effectively legislate genuine immigration reform, and if enough pressure can be brought to bear on the Democratic leadership to abandon their reckless immigration policies that have hurt working Americans. But a concerted movement by working Americans that is not beholden to party but to pro-worker policies is encouraging.

Randolph's life and dedication to American workers is inspiring and is what Labor Day is truly about. We all appreciate a long weekend and enjoying Summer's last hurrah. So have a great Labor Day weekend, and let us be inspired by patriots who blazed the trail for those who fight today for an immigration policy in the interest of ALL Americans.

Eric Ruark, Director of research