A. Philip Randolph: The Religious Journey of an African American Leader (review)

Religious and the nonreligious participants of many social movements strategically and intentionally attempt to use religion to achieve changes they hope for in society. Religious organizations are often crucial sources for a wide variety of material resources for movements. Religious beliefs and practices provide the ideological bases for building the rhetoric of protest as well as mobilizing the faithful through songs, prayers, and other ritual moments. Clergy also are necessary allies for the success of movements, not only because they speak on behalf of their communities and one might say they also speak for God. As Taylor's historical biography of A. Philip Randolph shows, these religious dynamics were clearly at work in the first half of the twentieth century in the first efforts at mobilizing a mass movement of African Americans to challenge their second-class citizenship and demand complete equality in American society. Randolph emerges as a pioneer labor and civil rights activist who sought to use the resources of Black religion as a foundation for this movement.

In this biography, Taylor challenges and corrects the longstanding assumption that A. Philip Randolph stood out as an atheist, with little sympathy for religion or religious organizations, in the early civil rights struggles for black equality. We learn that scholars have argued that if Randolph used religious rhetoric in speeches, then he was simply saying whatever was expedient to move his audience to action. Taylor's thorough recounting of Randolph's life as an activist turns both assertions on their head, while holding on to the idea that Randolph's relationship to religion generally and the Black Church in particular was complex and changed over Randolph's life course and the successes and failures of his protest activities. As with many social movement activists before him and since, Randolph distinguished between "true" religion that sought to create justice, equality, and peace in the here and now and "false" religion that diverted the attention of believers to an other worldly paradise while leaving this world in its current state of inequality, violence, and injustice. Although he may have frowned upon the latter form of religious expression, he embraced the former. Randolph aligned himself with progressive Black clergy and white liberal Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish leaders to achieve better working conditions for Black workers in the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP), as well as an end to lynching and segregation for all African Americans.

Taylor's account of Randolph's religious development unfolds in three parts. The opening chapter covers Randolph's early years. He comes of age in a family that had strong religious commitments among some members, especially his grandmother and parents, and the rejection of religion but a commitment to social justice among others, including his grandfather. Drawing from both parts of his family's background, Randolph adopted his own brand of Christian humanism. He was able to combine the Christian beliefs from his African Methodist Episcopal (AME) upbringing with the belief in the unity, equality, and brotherhood of all people under God that he absorbed from his connections to Judaism and to the Christian socialism of labor activists like Eugene V. Debs.

In the second portion of the story, Taylor recounts Randolph's experiences as a journalist with The Messenger and then as president of the BSCP. In both instances, Taylor shows the interaction between Randolph's personal and public ties to the Black Church. What was the most interesting in reading about Randolph's years with the paper was to see the transformation of The Messenger from a source for free thinking and radical opinion to the voice of the BSCP. In these years at the paper, Randolph faced a profound problem. How would he or any other movement leader offer clear and direct critiques of reactionary and conservative forms of Black religion that kept African Americans from fighting segregation without alienating the majority of the Black community who will take such critiques as...