<P> In Cambridge, Maryland, a working ‐ class city on the Eastern Shore, Gloria Richardson of SNCC led a movement that pressed for desegregation but also demanded low ‐ rent public housing, job ‐ training, public and private jobs, and an end to police brutality . On June 11, struggles between blacks and whites escalated into violent rioting, leading Maryland Governor J. Millard Tawes to declare martial law . When negotiations between Richardson and Maryland officials faltered, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy directly intervened to negotiate a desegregation agreement . Richardson felt that the increasing participation of poor and working - class blacks was expanding both the power and parameters of the movement, asserting that "the people as a whole really do have more intelligence than a few of their leaders. ʺ </P> <P> In their deliberations during this wave of protests, the Kennedy administration privately felt that militant demonstrations were ʺbad for the countryʺ and that "Negroes are going to push this thing too far ." On May 24, Robert Kennedy had a meeting with prominent black intellectuals to discuss the racial situation . The blacks criticized Kennedy harshly for vacillating on civil rights, and said that the African - American community's thoughts were increasingly turning to violence . The meeting ended with ill will on all sides . Nonetheless, the Kennedys ultimately decided that new legislation for equal public accommodations was essential to drive activists "into the courts and out of the streets ." </P> <P> On June 11, 1963, George Wallace, Governor of Alabama, tried to block the integration of the University of Alabama . President John F. Kennedy sent a military force to make Governor Wallace step aside, allowing the enrollment of Vivian Malone Jones and James Hood . That evening, President Kennedy addressed the nation on TV and radio with his historic civil rights speech, where he lamented "a rising tide of discontent that threatens the public safety ." He called on Congress to pass new civil rights legislation, and urged the country to embrace civil rights as "a moral issue...in our daily lives ." In the early hours of June 12, Medgar Evers, field secretary of the Mississippi NAACP, was assassinated by a member of the Klan . The next week, as promised, on June 19, 1963, President Kennedy submitted his Civil Rights bill to Congress . </P> <P> A. Philip Randolph had planned a march on Washington, D.C., in 1941 to support demands for elimination of employment discrimination in defense industries; he called off the march when the Roosevelt administration met the demand by issuing Executive Order 8802 barring racial discrimination and creating an agency to oversee compliance with the order . </P>

Who contributed strongly to the civil rights movement