 The school was named in honor of A. Philip Randolph, an African-American labor movement and civil rights leader, during a standing-room-only dedication ceremony in 1980 in which Reverend Jesse Jackson was the keynote speaker.While his namesake was included in the full name of the school, it was not common to refer to the school "by" his name (but instead "Northside Skills Center") until its reappropriation.The highest level of the building in the center is focused for this particular subject.