Edward Waters College will establish the A. Philip Randolph Institute for Law, Race, Social Justice and Economic Policy with a grant from the Jessie Ball duPont Fund.
“It was a multi-year grant in the six-figure range. We are not sharing the exact amount,” said EWC spokesman R. Scott Evans.
A news release states the college will use the grant to provide opportunities for students, scholars, practitioners and community members to examine and exchange ideas related to race, law, criminal justice and socioeconomic policy matters through research, lectures, symposia and scholarship.
“This is a tremendous opportunity and potentially transformative development for our institution and the greater Jacksonville community,” said EWC President A. Zachary Faison Jr. in the release.
The Randolph Institute will promote positive change through research-based policy recommendations made to state and local government, law enforcement, business, civic and economic development agencies to help achieve improvements related to race, law and social and economic justice, the release states.
“We are proud to honor the legacy of A. Philip Randolph by expanding opportunities for scholarship, open dialogue and policy recommendations at a critical time for our community,” said Mari Kuraishi, president of the Jessie Ball duPont Fund, in the release.
Asa Philip Randolph was born in Crescent City in 1889. His family moved to Jacksonville in 1891.
He attended Edward Waters College before transferring to Bethune Cookman College, where he graduated.
Randolph is credited with leading the formation in 1925 of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first African American labor union.
He also contributed to ending racial discrimination in government defense factories and desegregating the armed forces, both done through presidential decrees in 1941 and 1948, respectively.
Randolph died at the age of 90 and his ashes were interred at the A. Philip Randolph Institute in Washington, D.C.