March on Washington

The Moving Spirit of A. Phillip Randolph

March originator A. Phillip Randolph, whose interest was jobs for African Americans, had attempted to plan a mass march on Washington in 1941. In response, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was fearful of such a massive march, intervened by quickly signing an executive order banning discrimination in the defense industries and creating the Fair Employee Practice Committee. Randolph's vision would not be signed away that easily, however. In 1962, Randolph met with Bayard Rustin, who would become the deputy director of the march, and they decided that the focus of the march should be economic equality. At the time, the country was still feeling the ripple effects of the recession of 1959, and over a million African Americans were looking for work. In fact, the black unemployment rate was twice as high as the white unemployment rate.

However, with the mass violence in Birmingham, Alabama, and President John F. Kennedy's civil rights bill still stuck in limbo in Congress, the scope of the march changed to equality in regard to civil rights as well as jobs. On June 11, 1963, the same day that Kennedy made his civil rights speech, and a day before the murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers, King announced plans for the march to the press.

Some NAACP and NUL members were leery of getting involved in the march, fearing it would be a violent and controversial event, while groups like SNCC and CORE, who were a little more radical, insisted on controversy. But by June all six organizations had agreed to participate. With just 2 months to plan the event, Rustin and his team of CORE volunteers managed to pull together a well-organized march. The official budget for the march was only $120,000. Buttons were sold for 25 cents each and contributions came in from around the country to fund the march. A portfolio-style memento was also sold, with Life magazine photographs of dog attacks, homes destroyed by fire, and other civil rights movement pictures; the book was sold for $1 and 40,000 were printed. Celebrities also participated in the cause to raise money. The Friday prior to the march a fundraiser concert was put on at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem and well-known artists participated—Josephine Baker, Thelonious Monk, Herbie Mann, Quincy Jones, and Tony Bennet. James Baldwin and Burt Lancaster led a march in Paris in support of the March in Washington. President Kennedy tried to persuade the leaders of the event to cancel the march, saying, “We want success in Congress, not just a big show at the Capitol…. Yes, I'm for the bill, but I am damned if I will vote for it at the point of a gun.” When he was unable to stop the march, he publicly supported it.

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