A. Philip Randolph Institute Prospectus searchable text

A. Philip Randolph Institute*

Prospectus

I.        PURPOSES

          American Negroes are engaged in a great social struggle.  For the last decade, they have gone into the streets, into the courts, and into the legislative halls to challenge and to transform undemocratic attitudes and institutions.

          Because of their constant pressure, their probing, and their mass action, Negroes, with their white allies, have unveiled basic inadequacies in the American social and economic structure.  Problems that only a few years ago seemed to be simply facets of discrimination and segregation are now revealed to be deeply rooted in social institutions that brutalize not only the Negro but, in one way or another, all Americans.

          In the past, white immigrant minorities were integrated into American life in periods when Western lands were open, when the economy was expanding, and when the trade union movement was developing.  During those times, the Negro was barred from full membership in American society by segregation, discrimination, and the demoralization growing out of slavery and the reconstruction period.  Today, as the Negro attempts to move from an under

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class into full partnership, he must combat not only segregation and

discrimination but must also face a revolutionary technology which is rapidly

displacing labor, both Negro and white.  Even if tomorrow, Negroes were to become white, they would still be entrapped in their joblessness.  The three hundred year heritage of inadequate education and training in the midst of rapidly spreading automation and cybernation cripples the Negro in his struggle for jobs, quality integrated education, and the elimination of slums.

          At this time – when the number of jobs is declining, when the ranks of white poor and unemployed are growing, and when the schools are incapable of preparing young people to cope with the urban automated society of the future – the Negro by himself does not possess sufficient economic or political power to effect basic changes.  The white community must also be organized and in motion.  United, we can win the social reforms which America needs.

          Thus, the A. Philip Randolph Institute is founded to assist in achieving this unity.  The Institute is committed to strengthening the alliance needed to insure democratic change; to projecting political, social, and economic programs that will improve the condition of all Americans; and to stimulating united action on behalf of all of America’s oppressed and forgotten people.  This it will do by serving civil rights activists and by encouraging the participation of the labor movement, religious groups, liberals, intellectuals, and students in the work of the civil rights movement.

II.       PROGRAM

          To perpetuate the policies and ideas of A. Philip Randolph, the Institute will undertake programs in the following areas:

          A.      Mobilizing the intellectual resources of the Negro, labor, academic and professional communities with the object of expanding and intensifying their participation in the day-to-day work of the civil rights movement as it seeks to develop strategies and meet concrete problems.  While numerous individuals from these communities are personally committed, their involvement has not thus far been coordinated.  Their talents are sorely needed for:  the preparation of far-reaching social and economic programs, serious school integration plans, briefs and studies of the mechanics of Congressional and political party functioning; the issuing of pamphlets and study guides, for both leadership, and rank-and-file activists, on automation, nonviolent strategy, community organizing, and other questions that vitally concern the civil rights movement, directly and indirectly; the drafting of testimony for Congressional committees, platform committees, etc.; the staffing of educational conferences, workshops and institutes, etc.

          B.      Conducting workshops on nonviolence and social change for civil rights activists in established organizations, their local affiliates, and for ad hoc groups of young militants, North and South.  The Randolph Institute can play a unique role in helping to educate the new generation of civil rights activists to an understanding of the political, social, and economic dimensions of nonviolent action.

          C.      Servicing local mass action projects such as school boycotts, rent strikes, marches on state capitols, etc., with the object of securing the widest base of support for these activities, advising on organizational tactics, and, where possible, augmenting local staffs.  Such assistance could best be given to ad hoc and unaffiliated groups by the Randolph Institute precisely because it does not seek a membership base or local affiliates, and therefore does not stand in a competitive relationship with established organizations.

          D.      Striving to extend the basis for united mass action by the civil rights organizations on the national level in the belief that the pace of civil rights progress will henceforth be determined largely by whether the total resources of the movement can be brought to bear on strategic social, political, and economic obstacles to racial equality.  To this end, the Randolph Institute would encourage the development and execution of national projects on which the major civil rights groups could agree.

          E.      Working consciously and systematically to strengthen the Negro-labor alliance, sharing Mr. Randolph’s life-long belief in the overlapping of both groups’ fundamental interests in the interdependence of their struggles for democracy, and in the viability of their mutual cooperation.  Recognizing that the Negro-labor alliance cannot fully emerge so long as discrimination persists in some unions, the Institute would view its own efforts to abolish such discrimination as deepening, not assailing, the Negro-labor alliance.  In addition, the Institute will strive to open new channels of communication with labor and seek its support for concrete projects, local and national.

III.      STRUCTURE

          A.      Officers

                   1.  Chairman of the Board -- A. Philip Randolph

                   2.  Treasurer --                     Dr. Robert Gilmore

                   3.  Director --                        Bayard Rustin

          B.      Board of Directors, consisting of some 15 people, will be responsible for policy decisions and for directing the staff.

          C.      National Advisory Committee, the functions of which is to bring together some of the best relevant minds from the academic, labor and religious communities to maintain a steady flow of ideas, to help staff institutes and conferences, to prepare possible papers and to advise the Board of Directors and the staff.

IV.     FINANCES

          As the figures below indicate, the annual budget of the A. Philip Randolph Institute will be approximately $76,600.  Past organizational experience indicates the necessity of initially establishing a financial base that will carry the organization through its first three years.  Unless commitments for three years’ support can be secured at the outset, it will be difficult for the Institute to project meaningful long-term programs.

          A.      Staff Salaries                                               $39,500     

                   Staff shall consist of the director, field

                   secretary, administrative assistant and

                   two secretaries.

          B.      Office and Operating Expenses                     10,600

          C.      Travel                                                                        5,000

          D.      Program                                                        21,500

                   Publications, Conferences Services,

                   Workshops, Institutes.                                                   $76,000