 Kennedy responded by sending Congress a comprehensive civil rights bill, and ordered Attorney General Robert Kennedy to file federal lawsuits against segregated schools, and to deny funds for discriminatory programs.Doctor King launched a massive march on Washington in August, 1963, bringing out 200,000 demonstrators in front of the Lincoln Memorial, the largest political assembly in the nation's history.The Kennedy administration now gave full-fledged support to the civil rights movement, but powerful southern congressmen blocked any legislation.