Which Black labor leader organized the 1941 March on Washington Movement?

A. Philip Randolph organized the 1941 March on Washington Movement to protest racial discrimination in defense industries.

Randolph was president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, a major Black-led labor union. He threatened to bring tens of thousands of African Americans to Washington unless President Franklin D. Roosevelt acted against discriminatory hiring in wartime industries.

Roosevelt responded by issuing Executive Order 8802 on June 25, 1941. The order barred racial discrimination in defense work and created the Fair Employment Practice Committee. Randolph then called off the planned march.

This earlier movement is distinct from the 1963 March on Washington. Randolph participated in the later event, but Bayard Rustin served as its principal organizer. Randolph’s 1941 pressure campaign also helped establish the pattern of mass protest linked to federal civil-rights action.