Walter White, and NYA Minority Affairs Director Mary McLeod Bethune forced FDR to address the issue. Randolph, working with other civil rights activists, organized the 1941 March on Washington Movement to protest racial discrimination in the defense industry and the military and threatened to bring 250,000 African Americans to Washington to demonstrate against congressional resistance to fair employment. FDR sent ER and New York City Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia to negotiate with March on Washington leaders. ER returned, telling FDR that their plans were firm, that only an antidiscrimination ordinance would prevent what promised to be the largest demonstration in our capital's history. ER urged FDR to act for both moral and political reasons. FDR agreed, but would only go so far. He agreed to have th FEPC prohibit discrimination in defense plants, but he refused to address the issue of segregation in the military, which had been Randolph's original concern. ]