Which two individuals, along with MLK, coordinated mass turnout and nonviolent actions for the March on Washington?

• A. Rosa Parks and Thurgood Marshall
• B. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin
• C. John Lewis and James Meredith
• D. Ella Baker and James Farmer

Answer: (B)

The question hinges on who organized the March on Washington alongside Martin Luther King Jr., focusing on leadership and planning behind a large, nonviolent protest.

The two key organizers were A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin. Randolph had long championed a mass demonstration to push for federal civil rights legislation and had spearheaded the idea through the March on Washington Movement, rallying labor unions and civil rights groups to demand action. Bayard Rustin was a master organizer and strategist who specialized in nonviolent direct action; he mapped out the march’s logistics, coordinated diverse groups, and shaped its nonviolent framework, ensuring broad participation from labor, religious groups, and civil rights organizations. Together with MLK, they built a coalition that could mobilize a massive, peaceful turnout under a unified message of jobs and freedom.

Other figures played important roles in the broader movement, but they did not coordinate the March on Washington in the same way. Parks is best known for sparking the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and Marshall was a leading NAACP lawyer; Lewis and Meredith were important participants and speakers but not the primary organizers; Baker and Farmer were influential organizers in different streams of the movement but not the principal coordinating duo for this event.