> The head of the Pullman Porters union (I forget both his name and the
> name of the union) threatened a mass strike if Truman did not
> desegregate the military. Truman said, "I wish you hadn't said that." He
> replied, "Mr President, I wish I hadn't had to say that." So while it is
> certainly important to allow for Cold War pressures, as far as I know
> that pressure never brought about a single change that wasn't the
> immediate result of considerable internal pressure, almost always
> resisted at first. As I said in an earlier post, the Kennedys tried
> really hard to block the March on Washington -- and without that March
> the '60s would have been quite different...
>
>
> Carrol
That was A. Philip Randolph, head of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.
- shrill