March On Washington Movement - Leadership

Leadership

Randolphs's leadership and strategy defined the nature of the March on Washington Movement. His reliance on grassroots activism and African-American media and organizations can be traced back to his early childhood. His father was an African Methodist Episcopal (AME) preacher, and Randolph heard parishioners as they complained about the state of race relations and discrimination. He and his brother were privately tutored, and raised to believe that they were “as intellectually competent as any white.” Randolph’s goals were no less ambitious than his character and rhetoric. On September 26, 1942, after the MOWM had influenced policy change in Washington, Randolph reiterated that the fight was ongoing, despite some gains. 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.”