March on Washington Movement - wikipedia March on Washington Movement African - American topics History ( timeline ) Atlantic slave trade African - American history Slavery in the United States History in agriculture African - American business history African - American military history Jim Crow laws Great Migration Redlining Second Great Migration Post-Civil War reform movements Civil rights movement Origins of the civil rights movement Civil rights movement Black Power movement Post -- civil rights era New Great Migration Culture Studies Art Business history Black conductors Black mecca Black schools Black colleges and universities Juneteenth Kwanzaa Literature Museums Music Neighborhoods Religion Black church Black theology Nation of Islam Political movements Afrocentrism Black Power Anarchism Capitalism Conservatism Leftism Nationalism Populism Black Panther Party Garveyism Pan-Africanism Back - to - Africa movement Civic / economic groups Rights organizations National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ( NAACP ) Southern Christian Leadership Conference ( SCLC ) Congress of Racial Equality ( CORE ) Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee ( SNCC ) National Urban League ( NUL ) Association for the Study of African American Life and History ( ASALH ) United Negro College Fund ( UNCF ) Thurgood Marshall College Fund National Black Chamber of Commerce ( NBCC ) National Pan-Hellenic Council ( NPHC ) National Council of Negro Women ( NCNW ) TransAfrica Forum Sports Negro league baseball Athletic associations and conferences Central ( CIAA ) Southern ( SIAC ) Mid-Eastern ( MEAC ) Southwestern ( SWAC ) Ethnic subdivisions Americo - Liberians Black Indians ( Seminoles ) Black Southerners Gullah Igbo Languages English ( American ) ( African American ) Gullah ( Afro - Seminole Creole ) Louisiana Creole French Diaspora Nova Scotia Liberia Sierra Leone France Lists African Americans African - American firsts First mayors US state firsts Landmark African - American legislation African American - related topics Topics related to Black and African people Category : African - American society African American portal The March on Washington Movement ( MOWM ), 1941 -- 1946, organized by activists A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin as a tool to produce a mass march on Washington, D.C., was designed to pressure the U.S. government into desegregating the armed forces and providing fair working opportunities for African Americans. When President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802 in 1941, prohibiting discrimination in the defense industry under contract to federal agencies, Randolph and collaborators called off the march. Randolph continued to promote non-violent actions to advance goals for African Americans. Future civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. and other younger men were strongly influenced by Randolph and his ideals and methods. Contents 1 Background 1.1 State of the nation 1.2 Purpose of the march 2 Leadership 2.1 Women in the movement 3 Chronology 4 Media effect 5 Communist appeal 6 See also 7 References 7.1 Notes 7.2 Bibliography 8 External links Background State of the nation In the lead - up to the United States ' entry into World War II, African Americans resented calls to `` defend democracy '' against Nazi racism while having to deal with discrimination in all sectors of life and business in the United States, especially the South, where they had been disenfranchised since the turn of the century and oppressed by Jim Crow laws. By the fall of 1940, the American economy was emerging from the Depression. The defense boom benefited whites, but black workers were denied opportunities because of widespread racial discrimination in employment. Some government training programs excluded blacks based on their being refused entry to defense industries, and many skilled black workers with proper training were unable to gain employment. In 1940 the president of the North American Aviation Co. was quoted as saying, `` While we are in complete sympathy with the Negro, it is against company policy to employ them as aircraft workers or mechanics... regardless of their training... There will be some jobs as janitors for Negroes. '' It was in this climate that activists began to develop the March on Washington Movement. Purpose of the March The March on Washington Movement was an attempt to pressure the United States government and President Franklin D. Roosevelt into establishing policy and protections against employment discrimination as the nation prepared for war. A. Philip Randolph was the driving force behind the movement, with allies from the NAACP and other civil rights organizations. He had formed and led the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters beginning in 1925. His leadership in the March on Washington Movement, in which organizing middle and lower class members would be so important, was based on his strong experience in grassroots and union organizing. Randolph 's independence from white sources of power was shown when he said of the movement, `` If it costs money to finance a march on Washington, let Negroes pay for it. If any sacrifices are made for Negro rights in national defense, let Negroes make them... '' Leadership Randolph 's leadership and strategy defined the nature of the March on Washington Movement. His reliance on grassroots activism and African - American media and organizations was influenced by his childhood. His father was an African Methodist Episcopal ( AME ) preacher, and Randolph heard numerous parishioners complain about the state of race relations and discrimination. He and his brother were privately tutored, and raised to believe that they were `` as intellectually competent as any white ''. On September 26, 1942, after the MOWM had succeeded in gaining an Executive Order against discrimination in industry, Randolph reiterated that the fight would continue despite these gains. He said, `` Unless this war sound the death knell to the old Anglo - American empire systems, the hapless story of which is one of exploitation for the profit and power of a monopoly - capitalist economy, it will have been fought in vain. '' Women in the Movement The Women 's Auxiliary was a group of mostly wives and relatives of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. They were active within the MOWM primarily in fundraising and community efforts, as well as working broadly to promote ideas of `` concepts of black manhood, female respectability, and class consciousness. '' Chronology Early lobbying efforts to desegregate the military previous to 1941 did not persuade President Roosevelt to take action. On September 27, 1940, the first delegation composed of A. Philip Randolph, Walter White ( NAACP ), and T. Arnold Hill ( National Urban League ), met with President Roosevelt and his top officials. The delegation presented a memorandum demanding immediate integration of all blacks in the armed services. The White House issued a statement saying, `` The policy of the War Department is not to intermingle colored and white enlisted personnel in the same regimental organizations. '' The armed forces were not integrated until 1948, under President Harry S. Truman. Concerned that traditional meetings were not effective, on January 25, 1941, A. Philip Randolph officially proposed a March on Washington to `` highlight the issue. '' In the following months, chapters of the MOWM began to organize for a mass march scheduled for July first of that year. During the spring, organizers estimated they could attract 100,000 marchers for the event. A week before the march was to take place, Mayor Fiorello La Guardia of New York City met with MOWM leadership to inform them of the president 's intentions to issue an executive order establishing the first Fair Employment Practices Committee ( FEPC ) that would prohibit discrimination in federal vocational and training programs. Before the order was signed, the MOWM demanded also that it included a provision for desegregation of war industries. Roosevelt agreed and issued Executive Order 8802, which prohibited discrimination in federal vocational and training programs, and in employment in defense industries contracting with the government. Given this major victory, Randolph agreed to cancel the march. He continued the March on Washington Movement as a way to maintain an organization that could track and lobby for progress, and hold the FEPC to its mission. The MOWM continued rallies throughout the summer on these issues, but the high water mark had passed. The movement 's continued call for nonviolent civil disobedience alienated some black organizations, such as the NAACP, whose leaders withdrew some support. Although organized to bring about the 1941 march on Washington, the MOWM operated until 1947 ; its representatives collaborated with other groups to continue pressure on the federal government. In 1943 Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9346, which expanded coverage of the FEPC to federal agencies beyond those in defense. Randolph continued to promote non-violent actions to advance goals for African Americans. Future civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. and other younger men were strongly influenced by his methods. Media effect While mainstream media had a role in reporting on the movement, African - American media outlets covered it most thoroughly. Early in the spring of 1941, black newspapers expressed skepticism of the movement 's ambitious goals to attract tens of thousands of marchers. The Chicago Defender worried whether even `` 2,000 Negroes would march ''. Their tone changed, however, as the date of the march approached. By May, black newspapers reported on growing support for the march ; The Amsterdam News of New York City ran the front page headline : `` 100,000 in March to Capitol. '' If it was simply a tactic of bluffing, the same tactic was shared by black press as a whole. The Chicago Defender by that time reported `` 50,000 preparing for a March for jobs and justice ''. Communist appeal The MOWM had an uneasy relationship with communist organizations in the U.S. Communists supported the idea of a proletariat uprising but `` they constantly drew a line between the ' job - march ' and its ' war - mongering leadership. ' '' Randolph used various tactics to avoid having communists be part of the March on Washington Movement, as he knew it caused difficulties in gaining support for the larger goals of African Americans. He restricted membership to African Americans ; although black Communists might participate, only a small percentage of the disciplined Communist party members were black. See also Social movements BlackPast.org References Notes Jump up ^ Simkin 1997. Jump up ^ Garfinkel 1969. Jump up ^ Pfeffer 1990, p. 46. Jump up ^ Garfinkel 1969, p. 17. Jump up ^ Miller 2005, p. 63. Jump up ^ Garfinkel 1969, p. 5. Jump up ^ Pfeffer 1990, p. 7. Jump up ^ Randolph 1942. Jump up ^ Chateauvert 1998. Jump up ^ Garfinkel 1969, p. 34. ^ Jump up to : Kindig. Jump up ^ Garfinkel 1969, p. 61. ^ Jump up to : Garfinkel 1969, pp. 57 - 58. ^ Jump up to : Garfinkel 1969, p. 48. Bibliography Chateauvert, Melinda ( 1998 ). Marching together : women of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. Urbana - Champaign, IL : University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0252066367. OCLC 36252874. Retrieved Oct 14, 2014. Garfinkel, Herbert ( 1969 ). When Negroes March : The March on Washington Movement in the Organizational Politics for FEPC. New York : Atheneum. ISBN 0252066367. OCLC 23078. Kindig, Jessie. `` March on Washington Movement ( 1941 -- 1947 ) ''. blackpast.org. Online Encyclopedia of Significant People and Places in African American History. Retrieved Oct 14, 2014. Lucander, David. Winning the War for Democracy : The March on Washington Movement, 1941 - 1946 ( University of Illinois Press ; 2014 ) 320 pages Miller, Calvin Craig ( 2005 ). A. Philip Randolph and the African American labor movement. Greensboro, N.C. : Morgan Reynolds Pub. ISBN 1931798508. OCLC 57010183. Pfeffer, Paula ( 1990 ). A. Philip Randolph, Pioneer of the Civil Rights Movement. Baton Rouge, LA. : Louisiana State University Press. OCLC 47008060. Randolph, A. Philip ( September 26, 1942 ). `` The March on Washington Movement : Excerpts from keynote address to the Policy Conference of the March on Washington Movement ''. http://www.umd.edu. University of Maryland. Archived from the original on Sep 27, 2013. External link in website = ( help ) ( A. Philip Randolph 's Speech ) Simkin, John ( September 1997 ). `` March on Washington in 1941 ''. http://spartacus-educational.com. Archived from the original on April 19, 2014. Retrieved October 14, 2014. External link in website = ( help ) External links MOWM Call and program ( A. Philip Randolph 's Speech ) `` March on Washington Movement ( 1941 -- 1947 ) '' at the Online Encyclopedia of Significant People and Places in African American History ( Blackpast.org ) Civil rights movement ( 1950s and 1960s ) Notable events ( timeline ) Prior to 1954 Murder of Harry and Harriette Moore 1954 -- 1959 Brown v. Board of Education Bolling v. Sharpe Briggs v. Elliott Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County Gebhart v. Belton White America, Inc. Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company Emmett Till Montgomery bus boycott Browder v. Gayle Tallahassee bus boycott Mansfield school desegregation 1957 Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom `` Give Us the Ballot '' Royal Ice Cream sit - in Little Rock Nine National Guard blockade Civil Rights Act of 1957 Kissing Case Biloxi wade - ins 1960 -- 1963 Greensboro sit - ins Nashville sit - ins Sit - in movement Civil Rights Act of 1960 Gomillion v. Lightfoot Boynton v. Virginia Rock Hill sit - ins Robert F. Kennedy 's Law Day Address Freedom Rides attacks Garner v. Louisiana Albany Movement University of Chicago sit - ins `` Second Emancipation Proclamation '' Meredith enrollment, Ole Miss riot `` Segregation now, segregation forever '' Stand in the Schoolhouse Door 1963 Birmingham campaign Letter from Birmingham Jail Children 's Crusade Birmingham riot 16th Street Baptist Church bombing John F. Kennedy 's Report to the American People on Civil Rights March on Washington `` I Have a Dream '' St. Augustine movement 1964 -- 1968 Twenty - fourth Amendment Bloody Tuesday Freedom Summer workers ' murders Civil Rights Act of 1964 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches `` How Long, Not Long '' Voting Rights Act of 1965 Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections March Against Fear White House Conference on Civil Rights Chicago Freedom Movement / Chicago open housing movement Memphis sanitation strike King assassination funeral riots Poor People 's Campaign Civil Rights Act of 1968 Green v. County School Board of New Kent County Activist groups Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights Atlanta Student Movement Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters Congress of Racial Equality ( CORE ) Committee on Appeal for Human Rights Council for United Civil Rights Leadership Dallas County Voters League Deacons for Defense and Justice Georgia Council on Human Relations Highlander Folk School Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights Montgomery Improvement Association Nashville Student Movement NAACP Youth Council Northern Student Movement National Council of Negro Women National Urban League Operation Breadbasket Regional Council of Negro Leadership Southern Christian Leadership Conference ( SCLC ) Southern Regional Council Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee ( SNCC ) The Freedom Singers Wednesdays in Mississippi Women 's Political Council Activists Ralph Abernathy Victoria Gray Adams Zev Aelony Mathew Ahmann William G. Anderson Gwendolyn Armstrong Arnold Aronson Ella Baker Marion Barry Daisy Bates Harry Belafonte James Bevel Claude Black Gloria Blackwell Randolph Blackwell Unita Blackwell Ezell Blair Jr. Joanne Bland Julian Bond Joseph E. Boone William Holmes Borders Amelia Boynton Raylawni Branch Ruby Bridges Aurelia Browder H. Rap Brown Guy Carawan Stokely Carmichael Johnnie Carr James Chaney J.L. Chestnut Colia Lafayette Clark Ramsey Clark Septima Clark Xernona Clayton Eldridge Cleaver Kathleen Cleaver Charles E. Cobb Jr. Annie Lee Cooper Dorothy Cotton Claudette Colvin Vernon Dahmer Jonathan Daniels Joseph DeLaine Dave Dennis Annie Devine Patricia Stephens Due Joseph Ellwanger Charles Evers Medgar Evers Myrlie Evers - Williams Chuck Fager James Farmer Walter Fauntroy James Forman Marie Foster Golden Frinks Andrew Goodman Fred Gray Jack Greenberg Dick Gregory Lawrence Guyot Prathia Hall Fannie Lou Hamer William E. Harbour Vincent Harding Dorothy Height Lola Hendricks Aaron Henry Oliver Hill Donald L. Hollowell James Hood Myles Horton Zilphia Horton T.R.M. Howard Ruby Hurley Jesse Jackson Jimmie Lee Jackson Richie Jean Jackson T.J. Jemison Esau Jenkins Barbara Rose Johns Vernon Johns Frank Minis Johnson Clarence Jones J. Charles Jones Matthew Jones Vernon Jordan Tom Kahn Clyde Kennard A.D. King C.B. King Coretta Scott King Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Sr. Bernard Lafayette James Lawson Bernard Lee Sanford R. Leigh Jim Letherer Stanley Levison John Lewis Viola Liuzzo Z. Alexander Looby Joseph Lowery Clara Luper Malcolm X Mae Mallory Vivian Malone Thurgood Marshall Benjamin Mays Franklin McCain Charles McDew Ralph McGill Floyd McKissick Joseph McNeil James Meredith William Ming Jack Minnis Amzie Moore Douglas E. Moore Harriette Moore Harry T. Moore William Lewis Moore Irene Morgan Bob Moses William Moyer Elijah Muhammad Diane Nash Charles Neblett Edgar Nixon Jack O'Dell James Orange Rosa Parks James Peck Charles Person Homer Plessy Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Fay Bellamy Powell Al Raby Lincoln Ragsdale A. Philip Randolph George Raymond Jr. Bernice Johnson Reagon Cordell Reagon James Reeb Frederick D. Reese Gloria Richardson David Richmond Bernice Robinson Jo Ann Robinson Bayard Rustin Bernie Sanders Michael Schwerner Cleveland Sellers Charles Sherrod Alexander D. Shimkin Fred Shuttlesworth Modjeska Monteith Simkins Glenn E. Smiley A. Maceo Smith Kelly Miller Smith Mary Louise Smith Maxine Smith Ruby Doris Smith - Robinson Charles Kenzie Steele Hank Thomas Dorothy Tillman A.P. Tureaud Hartman Turnbow Albert Turner C.T. Vivian Wyatt Tee Walker Hollis Watkins Walter Francis White Roy Wilkins Hosea Williams Kale Williams Robert F. Williams Andrew Young Whitney Young Sammy Younge Jr. James Zwerg Influences Nonviolence Padayatra Sermon on the Mount Mahatma Gandhi Ahimsa Satyagraha The Kingdom of God Is Within You Frederick Douglass W.E.B. Du Bois Mary McLeod Bethune Related Jim Crow laws Lynching in the United States Plessy v. Ferguson Separate but equal Buchanan v. Warley Hocutt v. Wilson Sweatt v. Painter Heart of Atlanta Motel, Inc. v. United States Katzenbach v. McClung Loving v. Virginia Fifth Circuit Four Brown Chapel Holt Street Baptist Church Edmund Pettus Bridge March on Washington Movement African - American churches attacked Journey of Reconciliation Freedom Songs `` Kumbaya '' `` Keep Your Eyes on the Prize '' `` Oh, Freedom '' `` This Little Light of Mine '' `` We Shall Not Be Moved '' `` We Shall Overcome '' Spring Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam `` Beyond Vietnam : A Time to Break Silence '' Watts riots Voter Education Project 1960s counterculture Honoring In popular culture Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument Freedom Riders National Monument Civil Rights Memorial Other King memorials Noted historians Taylor Branch Clayborne Carson John Dittmer Michael Eric Dyson Chuck Fager Adam Fairclough David Garrow David Halberstam Vincent Harding Steven F. Lawson Doug McAdam Diane McWhorter Charles M. Payne Timothy Tyson Akinyele Umoja Movement photographers Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=March_on_Washington_Movement&oldid=844928623 '' Categories : African - American history between emancipation and the Civil Rights Movement Civil rights organizations African - American organizations Hidden categories : All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from September 2015 CS1 errors : external links Talk Contents About Wikipedia Languages Català Español Français Italiano Latina Svenska Edit links This page was last edited on 8 June 2018, at 04 : 31 ( UTC ). Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia ® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. About Wikipedia

Question: who tried to prevent the march on washington
Answer: President Roosevelt