ABSTRACT
The 1963 March on Washington had its origins in a similar demonstration planned by A. Philip Randolph in 1941, which he had threatened to lead if President Franklin D. Roosevelt did not act to combat racial discrimination in wartime industries. In June 1963, plans for the March on Washington evolved into an event that promised to unite all of the major civil rights organizations in one single demonstration. Representatives of those organizations were in New York to attend a meeting called by Taconic Foundation president Stephen R. Currier. At the meeting, Currier suggested the formation of a Council for United Civil Rights Leadership (CUCRL) that would collect and then distribute financial contributions to the movement between the leading organizations to avoid squabbles over funding. An umbrella term for organizations promoting the interests of black Muslims, the most well known being the Nation of Islam. Martin Luther King demanded federal intervention to protect the black community from further white terrorism.
