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Article: March on Washington
- Article from:
- Dictionary of American History
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MARCH ON WASHINGTON
MARCH ON WASHINGTON.
In June 1941, Asa Philip Randolph, president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, informed President Franklin D. Roosevelt that 100,000 protesters would march on the nation's capital unless the president acted to end racial discrimination in federal government and defense industry employment. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802 (barring discrimination in the government and defense industry), thereby averting the march.
Randolph revived his idea for a mass march in 1963. The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, as it came to be known, addressed issues including high unemployment rates for African Americans, school integration, ...