This is What I Believe.

[BrotherIvan]

79. I don't know that it was necessarily an evolution

I have read quite a lot about how his ideas developed, including the writings of Gandhi and Tolstoy. The march to the sea in India to make salt was highly symbolic and Dr. King was very taken with the effectiveness of nonviolent confrontarion. The March on Washington was a mix of workers unions and civil rights leaders. Remember, the civil rights movement wasn't just Dr. King, there was quite a lot of incredible people who were a part of it. I am proud to say I have gotten to know Dr. Abernathy's (drop dead gorgeous) daughter in my film work. They knew that economic disenfranchisement was part of the struggle.

Here's more info

The impetus for a march on Washington developed over a long period of time, and earlier efforts to organize such a demonstration included the March on Washington Movement of the 1940s. A. Philip Randolph—the president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, president of the Negro American Labor Council,[6] and vice president of the AFL-CIO—was a key instigator in 1941. With Bayard Rustin, Randolph called for 10,000 black workers to march on Washington, in protest of discriminatory hiring by U.S. military contractors and demanding an Executive Order.[14] Faced with a mass march scheduled for July 1, 1941, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802 on June 25.[15] The order established the Committee on Fair Employment Practice and banning discriminatory hiring in the defense industry.[16] Randolph called off the March.[17]

Randolph and Rustin continued to organize around the idea of a mass march on Washington. They envisioned several large marches during the 1940s, but all were called off (despite criticism from Rustin).[18] Their Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom, held at the Lincoln Memorial on May 17, 1957, featured key leaders including Adam Clayton Powell, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Roy Wilkins. Mahalia Jackson performed.[19]

The 1963 march was an important part of the rapidly expanding Civil Rights Movement, which involved demonstrations and nonviolent direct action across the United States.[20] 1963 also marked the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation by Abraham Lincoln. Members of The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference put aside their differences and came together for the march. Many whites and blacks also came together in the urgency for change in the nation.

Violent confrontations broke out in the South: in Cambridge, Maryland; Pine Bluff, Arkansas; Goldsboro, North Carolina; Somerville, Tennessee; Saint Augustine, Florida; and across Mississippi. Most of these incidents involved white people retaliating against nonviolent demonstrators.[21] Many people wanted to march on Washington, but disagreed over how the march should be conducted. Some called for a complete shutdown of the city through civil disobedience. Others argued that the movement should remain nationwide in scope, rather than focus its energies on the capitol.[22] There was widespread perception that the Kennedy administration had not lived up to its promises in the 1960 election; King described Kennedy's race policy as "tokenism".[23]

The public failure of the Baldwin–Kennedy meeting on May 24, 1963, underscored the divide between the needs of Black America and the understanding of Washington politicians. But it also provoked the Kennedys to action on the civil rights issue.[24] On June 11, President John F. Kennedy gave his famous civil rights address on national television and radio, announcing that he would begin to push for civil rights legislation—the law which eventually became the Civil Rights Act of 1964. That night, Mississippi activist Medgar Evers was murdered in his own driveway, further escalating national tension around the issue of racial equality.[25]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_on_Washington_for_Jobs_and_Freedom