Initiated by A. Philip Randolph, the president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and vice president of the AFL-CIO, and organized by the gay rights advocate and socialist Bayard Rustin, the 1963 March on Washington drew between 200,000 and 300,000 people. The demonstration was instrumental in helping to pass the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 National Voting Rights Act.
The march began at the Washington Monument and ended at the Lincoln Memorial, where Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his historic "I Have a Dream" speech.
