A. Philip Randolph in World War II: Home Front

A. Philip Randolph in World War II: Home Front

A. Philip Randolph (1889–1979) was the leader of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters union who, in 1941, proposed a March on Washington to protest racial discrimination in the expanding war industries and the military.

In 1941, Randolph planned to organize some 100,000 African Americans to march in Washington, D.C. "for jobs in national defense and equal integration in the fighting forces." Ultimately, he canceled the march when President Franklin Roosevelt agreed to end discrimination in war employment.