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Library Involved in Eugene Debs Foundation 56th Annual Banquet and Award

Eugene Debs Foundation 56th Annual Banquet and Award and other activities for this nationally-recognized event on Saturday, October 15, 2022.

The award was presented to the A. Philip Randolph Institute [APRI].

Information on the event is followed by a list of pertinent ISU Library materials.

Schedule for the Day

  • 10:00 am – 12 noon: Walking Tour Labor History Tour of Terre Haute
  • 12 noon: Debs Graveside Ceremony
  • 12 noon – 4pm: Cunningham Memorial Library’s Special Collections open: displays of Debs materials from the Debs Collection; host: Dennis Vetrovec of Special Collections
Dennis Vetrovec, ISU Special Collections, shows off some of the Library’s Debs Collection materials displayed for the occasion in the Cordell Dictionary Room

Debs Collection: https://library.indstate.edu/rbsc/debs/debs-idx.html

  • 2pm – 4pm: APRI Film Screening: “50,000 Black Men Called George” – how Randolph and others worked to organize the porters of the Pullman Rail Company, an effort started in the 1920s and ending

 

 

In the Debs collection is a letter from Randolph to Debs in 1926, just a few months before Debs’ death.

 

 

 

Following the film, Clayola Brown, current president of the APRI and a past recipient of the Debs Award, made remarks and answered questions.

  • 6:00 p.m.: Social Hour and Reception at the Glass Pavilion at Hulman Center
  • 7:00 p.m.: Banquet; Award: A. Philip Randolph Institute. Presented to Clayola Brown, current President of APRI, based in Washington D.C. Several members of the library attended.

https://debsfoundation.org/index.php/2022/08/09/honoring-the-a-philip-randolph-institute/

Historical note:  A. Philip Randolph, one of the foremost spokespersons for black labor,  received the 3rd Debs Award in 1967, just a few years after he organized the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom with Bayard Rustin, and two years after these men founded the Institute. Clayola Brown received the 2012 award. Randolph (1889-1979) was a black labor leader and the father of the modern American civil rights movement.

APRI, the senior constituency group of the AFL-CIO: http://www.apri.org/ 125 Chapters, over 35 States {includes Nationwide Youth Chapters; Bayard Rustin LGBTQ Chapters)

Labor Activist Clayola Brown: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clayola_Brown; https://www.thehistorymakers.org/biography/clayola-brown-41 https://aflcio.org/press/releases/longtime-labor-activist-named-afl-cio-civil-rights-director

ISU LIBRARY MATERIALS

>>ASA PHILIP RANDOLPH

EBOOKS

Reframing Randolph : labor, black freedom, and the legacies of A. Philip Randolph / edited by Andrew E. Kersten and Clarence Lang. 2015.

Contents: A reintroduction to Asa Philip Randolph / Andrew E. Kersten and Clarence Lang — Researching Randolph: Shifting historiographic perspectives / Joe William Trotter, Jr. — A. Philip Randolph: emerging socialist radical / Eric Arnesen — Keeping his faith: A. Philip Randolph’s working-class religion / Cynthia Taylor — Brotherhood men and singing Slackers: A. Philip Randolph’s rhetoric of music and manhood / Robert Hawkins — “The spirit and strategy of the United Front”: Randolph and the National Negro Congress, 1936-1940 / Erik S. Gellman — Organizing gender: A. Philip Randolph and women activists / Melinda Chateauvert — Beyond A. Philip Randolph: Grassroots protest and the March on Washington Movement / David Lucander — The “Void at the Center of the Story”: The Negro American Labor Council and the long civil rights movement / William P. Jones — No exit: A. Philip Randolph and the Ocean Hill-Brownsville Crisis / Jerald Podair.

Winning the war for democracy: the March on Washington Movement, 1941-1946 / David Lucander.

For jobs and freedom: selected speeches and writings of A. Philip Randolph / edited by Andrew E. Kersten and David Lucander.

Philip Randolph and the struggle for civil rights / Cornelius L. Bynum.

Philip Randolph: the religious journey of an African American labor leader / Cynthia Taylor.

PRINT

Keeping the faith : A. Philip Randolph, Milton P. Webster, and the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, 1925-37 : with a new preface / William H. Harris. HD6515.R36 H37 1991

Philip Randolph, pioneer of the civil rights movement / Paula F. Pfeffer. E185.97 .R27

When Negroes march; the March on Washington Movement in the organizational politics for FEPC. 1959. E185.61 .G23

Hand in hand : ten Black men who changed America  by Andrea Davis Pinkney ; paintings by Brian Pinkney. ISU Children’s Materials 973.0496 Pink

Philip Randolph : integration in the workplace by Sarah Wright ; with an introduction by Andrew Young. ISU Children’s Materials B Rand

Philip Randolph / Sally Hanley. ISU Children’s Materials B Rand

Forward march to freedom : a biography of A. Philip Randolph  by Barbara Kaye Greenleaf ; illustrated by Charles Waterhouse. ISU Children’s Materials B Rand

VIDEO

Portrait in black: A. Philip Randolph produced by Bill Buckley and Tracy Sugarman. 11 minutes. from Black Studies in Video series

Philip Randolph : for jobs & freedom / California Newsreel ; produced by Dante J. James ; written by Juan Williams, Dante J. James. Online video; Alexander Street. 87 minutes

Philip Randolph : introducing Martin Luther King at Lincoln Memorial (incomplete) produced by Educational Video Group.. 3 minutes

Philip Randolph : For Jobs and Freedom / California Newsreel. 1996. Contents: A. Phillip Randolph (2:00); Randolph’s Early Life (4:54); Randolph in Harlem (6:44); Randolph During World War I (3:50); Randolph After the War (3:46); Pullman Porters (5:14); Randolph and the Porters (6:32); The Labor Movement (3:37); Randolph During the Depression (6:01); Randolph and FDR (6:53); Randolph and Wartime Jobs (3:02); Randolph and an Integrated Military (5:51); Randolph and the AFL-CIO (6:21); Civil Rights Movement (6:09); Planning the March on Washington (4:35); The March on Washington (8:24)

PULLMAN PORTERS AND LABOR AND AFRICAN-AMERICANS

Pullman porters and the rise of protest politics in Black America, 1925-1945 / Beth Tompkins Bates. HD8039.R362 U63 2001 and ebook

The Defender : how the legendary Black newspaper changed America : from the age of the Pullman porters to the age of Obama / Ethan Michaeli. PN4899.C395 D55 2016

I, too, am America / Langston Hughes ; illustrated by Bryan Collier. Reprinted from: The collected poems of Langston Hughes. Copyright 1994 by The Estate of Langston Hughes ?? NO CALL NUMBER

Marching together : women of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters / Melinda Chateauvert.    HD 6515 .R362 B763 1998

Those Pullman blues : an oral history of the African American railroad attendant / David D. Perata. HD 8039 .R36 P47 1996

A long hard journey : the story of the pullman porter / by Patricia and Frederick McKissack. ISU Children’s Materials  331.88 McKi

Miles of smiles, years of struggle : the untold story of the Black Pullman porter / Columbia Historical Society in cooperation with the Smithsonian Institution’s Office of Folklore Programs ; produced and directed by Jack Santino and Paul Wagner. e-video 60 minutes.

The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, its origin and development, by Brailsford R. Brazeal. Foreword by Leo Wolman. 1946. HD6515 .R36B83

No crystal stair : Black life and the Messenger, 1917-1928 / Theodore Kornweibel, Jr. 1975. E185.5 .M582 K67

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Special Collections Highlights Debs Collection (September 28)

Special Collections staffer, Dennis Vetrovec, and visitor, Cathy McGuire

On Saturday September 28, the Debs Foundation sponsored numerous events leading up to the Debs Award Dinner. This included special Saturday access to Special Collections’ Debs Collection.  Special Collections staffer Dennis Vetrovec chose many unique items from the Collection to display and staffed the open hours from 1pm – 4pm. Based on the reaction of the many people who took advantage of this opportunity, he chose well. People from all around the U.S. (California, North Dakota, Illinois, etc.) spent time poring over materials that included:

  • Photographs
  • Editorial Cartoons
  • Records from the National Archives, including court cases
  • Postcards
  • Correspondence
  • Proceedings of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen
  • Magazine of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen (Debs was a contributor and editor)
  • Manuscript of BLF membership written by Debs in part
  • Journals contemporary with the creation of the Debs Foundation
  • Leftist newspapers like the Appeal to Reason and clippings

middle: Michelle Morahn, Kate Debs researcher and Debs Foundation Secretary

In addition, two cases focused on Seymour Stedman, Debs’ lawyer and running mate, and David Karsner, Debs’ contemporary biographer.

Debs Collection materials displayed in the Cordell Dictionary Room
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“Fight for $15” featured at Debs Foundation event (September 28)

Neal Bisno at the podium; Foundation President Noel Beasley and Betty Douglas at the table

On Saturday September 28, the Debs Foundation sponsored numerous events leading up to the Debs Award Dinner. One event was held in the Library Events Area: the Debs Award winner, Mary Kay Edwards, International President of the Service Employees International Union {SEIU}, was scheduled to speak about the “Fight for $15” movement (to raise minimum wage to $15). Unfortunately due to illness, she was unable to travel to Terre Haute. In her place, speakers from the movement presented information, a short video, and hosted a q/a session: Betty Douglas, a 61-year-old mother of three and McDonald’s employee and now activist and Neal Bisno, Executive Vice-President of the SEIU, along with Debs Foundation President Noel Beasley. 

Neal Bisno at the podium
Audience attending “Fight for $15”; Foundation President, Noel Beasley at the podium
Audience watching video on “Fight for $15”
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October 20: “At the River I Stand” with William “Bill” Lucy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Film is available to ISU community within the Films on Demand database. Blogger’s note: this is a powerful film about a difficult time in American history. It is both historical and timely.  I urge you to take the time to watch it!

Description: This documentary unravels the complex historical forces that turned a strike by Memphis sanitation workers into a national conflagration, ultimately leading to the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Reconstructing two eventful months in the spring of 1968, the film brings into sharp relief issues that have become only more urgent with time: the connection between economic and civil rights, debates over strategies for change, and the fight for dignity for all working people. Stirring historical footage shows the community mobilizing behind the strikers, and retired sanitation workers recall their fear about going up against “the white power structure” when they struck for higher wages and union recognition.

Read about Bill Lucy

Following the photos you’ll find a bibliography of ISU Library resources.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Audience applauds after Mr. Lucy finishes speaking and answering questions.

Bibliography to accompany Program: