One of the key events of the civil rights movement was the March on Washington on August 28, 1963. The march, more formally the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, was a massive political rally organized to support and promote economic and civil rights for African Americans. Estimates of the number of participants range from two hundred thousand to three hundred thousand.

The March on Washington was the brainchild of A. Philip Randolph, a civil rights leader who was the president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and president of the Negro American Labor Council. Randolph had proposed a similar march in 1941 to protest segregation and discrimination in the military and in defense industries during World War II. The march never took place, for President Franklin Roosevelt created the Committee on Fair Employment Practice and issued an executive order barring discrimination in defense industries (but not the military). The 1963 march was put together by a...