A. Philip Randolph’s Radical, Stirring Speech at the 1963 March on Washington
The official head of the August 28, 1963, March on Washington was socialist A. Philip Randolph. In his speech, reprinted here, he called for restructuring society so the “sanctity of private property takes second place to the sanctity of the human personality.”
Socialist civil rights leader A. Philip Randolph gives a press interview, 1964. (Ed Ford / Library of Congress)
We’re gathered here for the longest demonstration in the history of this nation. Let the nation and the world know the meaning of our numbers.
We are not a pressure group, we are not an organization or a group of organizations, we are not a mob. We are the advanced guard of a massive, moral revolution for jobs and freedom. This revolution reverberates throughout the land, touching every city, every town, every village where black men are segregated, oppressed, and exploited.
But this civil rights revolution is not confined to the Negro, nor is it confined to civil rights, for our white allies know that they cannot be free while we are not. And we know that we have no future in a society in which 6 million black and white people are unemployed and millions more live in poverty.
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