A. Philip Randolph was probably the preeminent African American civil rights activist of the early twentieth century, working from his capacity as president of the National Negro Congress and head of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters labor union. In the May 1941 issue of Black Worker, he issued a “Call to Negro America to March on Washington,” asking for Blacks to demand an end to discrimination in the defense industry and in the military. His call, made in cooperation with the civil rights leaders Bayard Rustin and A. J. Muste, initiated the March on Washington Movement, which lasted until 1947. This movement influenced future civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr., who joined with Randolph in 1963 to organize the historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom (where King made his famous “I Have a Dream” speech).