[3] In 1940 the president of the North American Aviation Co. was quoted as saying, "While we are in complete sympathy with the Negro, it is against company policy to employ them as aircraft workers or mechanics ... regardless of their training....
The March on Washington Movement was an attempt to pressure the United States government and President Franklin D. Roosevelt into establishing policy and protections against employment discrimination as the nation prepared for war.
[5] Randolph's independence from white sources of power was shown when he said of the movement, "If it costs money to finance a march on Washington, let Negroes pay for it.
His father was an African Methodist Episcopal (AME) preacher, and Randolph heard numerous parishioners complain about the state of race relations and discrimination.
He said, "Unless this war sound the death knell to the old Anglo-American empire systems, the hapless story of which is one of exploitation for the profit and power of a monopoly-capitalist economy, it will have been fought in vain.
They were active within the MOWM primarily in fundraising and community efforts, as well as working broadly to promote ideas of "concepts of black manhood, female respectability, and class consciousness.
On September 27, 1940, the first delegation composed of A. Philip Randolph, Walter White (NAACP), and T. Arnold Hill (National Urban League), met with President Roosevelt and his top officials.
A week before the march was to take place, Mayor Fiorello La Guardia of New York City met with MOWM leadership to inform them of the president's intentions to issue an executive order establishing the first Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC) that would prohibit discrimination in federal vocational and training programs.
Roosevelt agreed and issued Executive Order 8802, which prohibited discrimination in federal vocational and training programs, and in employment in defense industries contracting with the government.
'"[14] Randolph used various tactics to avoid having communists be part of the March on Washington Movement, as he knew it caused difficulties in gaining support for the larger goals of African Americans.