Primary Sources: Civil Rights in America - Events: March on Washington Movement (1940s)

"This poster, from A. Philip Randolph's planned March on Washington in 1941, illustrates several issues central to the march. The threat of a large-scale public protest persuaded President Roosevelt to issue Executive Order 8802, which banned racially motivated employment discrimination in federal government and the defense industry."

"In this letter, labor leader A. Philip Randolph suggests to Walter White “a mass March on Washington” by thousands of African Americans to protest discrimination in defense industries and the armed forces. On June 18, 1941, A. Philip Randolph and Walter White met at the White House with President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Assistant Secretary of War Robert Paterson, and other government officials. On June 25, the threat of the march prompted President Roosevelt to sign Executive Order 8802, which banned discrimination in defense industries receiving government contracts. The Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC) was established to investigate and monitor hiring."

"In May 1941, as it became clear that the U.S. would probably be entering World War II, black labor leader A. Philip Randolph and other activists founded the March on Washington Movement (MOWM). They called for a mass march on the nation's capital to protest job discrimination in government financed jobs and segregation in the military. On June 24, 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802, which banned racial discrimination in government employment, defense industries, and training programs. MOWM leaders called off the march, though they continued to organize other civil rights campaigns. Activists' vision of a mass march on Washington was eventually realized at the August 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, which drew over 250,000 people."

"Neva Ryan, president of Chicago's Domestic Workers Association, was the program chair of the MOWM Chicago Division. This letter indicates her active and early involvement in planning the program of the Chicago rally, which was still in its formative stages. Ryan's letter reveals how careful march activists had to be in their efforts to present their civil rights agenda as patriotic Americans."

" In this letter, Webster revealed his increasing frustration with the Chicago MOWM. Webster complained again of Burton's decision to appoint two Chicago women, Irene McCoy Gaines and Pauline Reed, to chair some of the committees. The letter is significant in its expression of Webster's male-centered approach to organizing: he planned to build a committee of 500 Pullman porters to finance the upcoming demonstration. Even if he could implement this woman-free strategy, he told Randolph, "it looks like a nice piece of grief for us around here.""

"This letter describes the gender-based tensions in Chicago to MOWM leader A. Philip Randolph, who was in Chicago to mend the growing rift in the Chicago division. Ethel Payne, a daughter of a Pullman porter, clearly had known Randolph for some time. Payne's letter reveals that Randolph had responded quickly to Webster's concerns about the Chicago MOWM and had met with the division on 14 April to settle the differences between the Brotherhood men and the women activists. Payne, frustrated with a leadership style that threatened the success of the upcoming rally, warned Randolph that the women activists were losing patience with the male leaders of the division and that the "fires of revolt are spreading fast.""

"Petitioning for a conference with the president "at the earliest possible date" to address and counteract "the new danger that threatens FEPC"; signed by Walter White, Channing H. Tobias, Lester Granger, Frank R. Corosswaith, Morris Milgram, Sidney Goldstein, Max Yergan, Ann Arnold Hedgeman, and Movement Director A. Philip Randolph."