WORLD WIDE AFRICA THE VOICE OF THE PAN AFRICAN MOVEMENT

"Asa Philip Randolph was about ten when a group of solemn, angry men arrived at his Jacksonville, Florida, home one afternoon. They wanted to see his father, Reverend James William Randolph.  The reverend gathered the men in the family's sparse living room, and they told him what had happened.
A black man had been locked up in the Duval County jail and angry white men were muttering about hanging him without a trial.  Such hangings,  known as lynchings, were terribly familiar to black people, particularly in the South.  But the city of Jacksonville had a tradition of African American pride; the black men gathered in Randolph house were not willing to tolerate lynching.  Guns packed, they were prepared to encircle the jail and greet the white mob with force. They wanted the reverend to join them.
The Randolph's kept two guns in the house, a Bulldog pistol and a shotgun. James Randolph handed his wife the shotgun, took the Bulldog for himself and headed for the Jail. Elizabeth Randolph, a dead shot, kept the gun cradled across her lap for the rest of the night.  The Reverend returned home at dawn, exhausted but relieved.  When the lynch mob was confronted with the jail's armed defenders they wisely backed down."  A. PHILIP RANDOLPH and the AFRICAN AMERICAN LABOR MOVEMENT by Calvin Craig Miller.