A Tribute to Norman Hill
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
Usually when an event comes up for coverage, the Knickerbocker gets the assignment, but when there showed up on the calendar an event honoring Norman Hill of the A. Philip Randolph Institute, the editor of The New York Sun asked if he could fill in for your humble correspondent. The editor explained that Mr. Hill was one of the most admirable figures in New York City today, and he just wanted the honor of shaking Mr. Hill’s hand. The editor’s report:
“Norman Hill himself was greeting guests at the entrance to the second floor hall of the New-York Historical Society, where more than 100 friends and admirers had gathered to make their salute. Mr. Hill was in his usual good humor, though he has lost his sight and carries a white cane. It is often said of him that he may have lost his sight, but he hasn’t lost his vision, which is of a civil rights struggle invested in the principles of racial equality, the free trade union movement, and political democracy.
“Over his long career, Mr.Hill worked with the Congress of Racial Equality, the American Federation of Labor Congress of Industrial Organizations, before he headed the institute named for A. Philip Randolph, who, in the 1920s, had organized the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters into one of the most important labor unions in American history and, in the early days of World War II, forced FDR to sign an order integrating the defense industries.
“The press handout on Mr. Hill characterized his career this way: ‘During the 1960s, Hill led campaigns that in tegrated the work force at major companies throughout the country including the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, A &P stores, and the Trailways bus company and desegregated restaurants from Baltimore to Washington, D.C. Hill also served as staff coordinator for the 1963 March on Washington, helped coordinate Dr. Martin Luther King’s get out the vote tour, and planned and directed the civil rights demonstration at the 1964 Republican Convention.’
“The reception included veterans of many of these campaigns. The Knickerbocker spoke with Arch Puddington and Adrian Karatnycky of Freedom House, both of whom worked for Mr. Hill at the A. Philip Randolph Institute. The work included registering large numbers of voters. The Knick also spoke with Mr. Hill’s wife, Velma Murphy Hill, herself a memorable figure in the civil rights movement and a national board member of the A. Philip Randolph Institute, and Edith ‘Eadie’ Shanker, the widow of the former president of the American Federation of Teachers, Albert Shanker.”
The APRI president, Clayola Brown, chaired the program that evening. Speakers included the president of the New York City Central Labor Council/AFL-CIO, Brian McLaughlin; a City Council member, Alan Gerson, and the executive vice president of UNITE HERE, Edgar Romney, national secretary of the A. Philip Randolph Institute. The event co-chairs were the president emerita of the National Council of Negro Women, Dorothy Height, the AFL-CIO president, John Sweeney, and Rep. John Lewis, a Democrat of Georgia.
Senators Schumer and Clinton sent greetings, as did Rep. Jerrold Nadler, Mayor Bloomberg, and Mr. Lewis, another towering figure in the civil rights movement. The president of Manhattan, C. Virginia Fields, issued a formal proclamation saluting Mr. Hill “for his many outstanding achievements and activities toward promoting racial equality and economic justice.”
The Knickerbocker spoke later with National Endowment for Democracy’s president, Carl Gershman, who worked at the APRI between 1969 and 1971. He said Mr. Hill’s sophisticated worldview encompassed not just American race relations and domestic politics but that he had “a global perspective” of politics and a commitment to the struggle for democracy internationally.
At the event, Mrs. Hill spoke about how she and her husband had met during a civil rights demonstration in Chicago at the Republican Party Convention in 1960. During the summers of 1960 and 1961, they led a campaign to integrate Rainbow Beach on the South Side of Chicago. At the time, she was president of the NAACP youth chapter in Chicago. As they were leaving Rainbow Beach during the “wade-in” campaign, a gang of white youths attacked, and Mrs. Hill was hit in the head with a rock, resulting in an injury requiring 17 stitches. Mr. Hill carried her off the beach.
Mr. Hill spoke about how he was influenced and guided by both A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin. He spoke of the five principles that served as the undergirding for their labor and civil rights activities: These were, firstly, a commitment to a society in which racial equality and economic justice would prevail; secondly, development of a majoritarian strategy that would include coalition politics to pursue racial equality and economic justice; thirdly, that the initiative for change should come from those who are mistreated, exploited, and discriminated against (such that they gain strength, awareness, and confidence); fourthly, a commitment to mass action, whether it be through demonstration, rally, march, picket line, or boycott, and finally, that the commitment be to nonviolent mass action.
