MONTHLY REPORT OF LABOR SECRETARY
September 30, 1948
“I Have Always Hated Prejudice”
From a city in Michigan, we have received a request for information on plant relationships involving colored persons. The writer of the letter is running a company whose board of directors is opposed to hiring colored persons. Because of his own sense of fair play, the individual who sent the communication requested extensive information on how to meet the various anti-Negro arguments. An excerpt from his letter is as follows:
“I have always hated prejudice, intolerance, discrimination, and segregation. I have been amazed at the situation whereby an inferior man has been given promotions simply because his skin was a lighter color. The problem to which I have referred is the personnel policy which has limited the hiring to white men. A few Negroes have been interviewed, but as a general rule they have not even been granted that dignity. At the same time we have had to scrape the bottom of the manpower barrel to obtain enough men to man the plant. I have protested against this policy which has meant that in some cases illiterate white men who cannot sign a pay check have been hired and clean cut colored boys with a high school education turned down flat.”
Mr. William Oliver, Co-Director of the Fair Practices & Anti-Discrimination Department, UAW-CIO, who is an alternate for Walter Reuther on the NACCP Labor Committee, accepted an assignment to talk with the plant manager in Detroit. The latter enthusiastically indicated that he wished to talk with Mr. Oliver.
Texas and New Orleans Railroad
From Houston, Texas, we have an interesting problem involving a staunch NAACP member who is employed by the Texas and New Orleans Railroad. He began work at the company in 1924. He was dismissed in 1944 on a charge of insubordination, but was restored to his job with full seniority. The International Association of Machinists, which represents workers in his class, protested against the restoration of his seniority, and, although he was kept on the job, he was denied seniority to which he was entitled. Later, the lodge of the IAM which has jurisdiction sought to have his full seniority restored because they felt “that this case is detrimental to colored organizations throughout the shops and crafts and in some cases undermining morale of its colored members.” As yet, the complainant has not been given his proper seniority and we have taken the matter up with the International Vice President of the IAM in Birmingham whose territory includes Houston.1
Loyalty Investigations
We have noted an increasing number of charges of disloyalty against colored employees in the Federal government.2 The most recent case concerns an employee of the Government Printing Office who has been a consistent fighter against policies of segregation which prevail in the cafeteria and washrooms of the Government Printing Office. Last year, the agency sought to have her retired on a disability pension. This year, an effort is being made to have her dismissed because of alleged connections with organizations which have since been placed on the Attorney General’s list of subversive groups. We are preparing a suggestion for overall action on matters of this kind which we hope will protect the civil rights of the persons employed.3
HHFA Moves to Implement Fair Job Order
The Housing and Home Finance Agency discussed with the Labor Secretary plans for implementing the President’s executive order against discrimination in Federal service.4 Several NAACP recommendations were accepted by the agency. The Civil Service Commission has been slow in making appointments to administer this order and we have met with a number of persons, including Miss Frances Perkins in an effort to speed up the appointments and to ensure the naming of persons who will do a credible job.5
More on the OASI Report
The Old Age and Survivors Insurance of the Social Security Board was the subject of a report on May 28, 1948. Mr. Oscar Ewing, the Federal Security Administrator, instructed the Social Security Administration to put into effect recommendations made by a committee which carefully reviewed the employment practices of the agency and found numerous instances of discrimination based on race. The Labor Secretary was a member of the committee. This month, we had a progress report from the OASI which states that the committee’s recommendations on hiring a colored personnel counselor has been implemented and the man is now on the job. Although no new supervisory openings have occurred as yet, colored supervisors have been assigned to mixed units during the vacation periods of the white supervisors, and the results have been entirely satisfactory. As soon as vacancies occur, colored supervisors will be assigned to mixed units on a permanent basis. Meanwhile, white persons have been added to two units which were formerly all colored. These units have colored supervisors.6
Apprentice Training
At our request, the United States Department of Labor has supplied the NAACP with a mimeographed digest of the pertinent remarks on apprentice training made at the Annual Conference. We are requesting the Department of Branches to send these out in the next mailing to all branches. This material should be useful in directing the attention of branches to the need for doing something in this field.7
Denial of Admission for Scientific Training
Three applicants for training in the scientific field informed the NAACP during the past two weeks that they were denied opportunities to take courses in chemistry and biology because of their race. All of these persons stated that they were turned down by the Department of Agriculture when they sought admission to courses given by the Department at the Wilson Teachers College which is a white school in the District of Columbia.
One of the three also said that she was denied admission to a class in American University. We took these complaints up with Secretary Charles F. Brannan of the Department of Agriculture and Mr. Paul Douglas, President of American University. Mr. Douglas assured us that it was not the policy of American University to deny admission to colored students in any of its departments. He requested that we have the complainant submit an application directly to him for his personal action.
The Secretary of Agriculture has informed us that an investigation of the charges are being made and a formal reply will be sent to the NAACP. Unfortunately, we cannot await the receipt of this reply before submitting this report. However, one of the applicants called to say that she had been instructed to report for the class on the night of September 30
Speaking Engagements
The Labor Secretary spoke at a meeting of the State Branches in Maryland and at the Civil Rights Clearing House in Washington.
MS: MP.
[1] For background on the problems with the IAM, see the headnote on the FEPC and Unions in volume I.
[2] For the racial impact of the loyalty program on blacks primarily because it was felt they were seeking “social equality,” see Bontecou, Federal Loyalty-Security Program 137–40.
[3] See also 11/1 and 12/20/48 and the headnote on National Origin, Alienage, and Loyalty in volume I.
[4] See 8/31/48 for issuance of EO 9980.
[5] In their meeting on September 21, 1948, Mitchell told Frances Perkins, a member of the Civil Service Commission, that the NAACP was “vigorously opposed to having retired government employees serve” on the seven-person committee administering Truman’s nondiscrimination executive order “because such people had for the most part extensive background of discriminatory practices,” and he proposed persons he favored. Perkins, however, said the CSC was opposed to the prolabor movement people because they “would promote rivalries,” as Mitchell reported, between the AFL and the CIO. Mitchell dismissed those objections, stressing that the candidates on the list he had submitted to her were people with “wide experience” in working to end job discrimination, so they “would make a real contribution” on the committee. Perkins nevertheless assured Mitchell that “there would be colored representation on the committee.” Mitchell “attempted to make a strong case for Robert C. Weaver,” whose name was on his list. But Perkins did not commit herself to appointing Weaver because, she told him, several persons who were being considered for appointment to the committee were under FBI investigation. Mitchell memorandum to the files, 9/21/48, MP. See 3/31/48 for an earlier report of Mitchell’s meeting with Perkins.
[6] See the OASI report, 6/18/48, in appendix 1, vol. IV.
[7] Samuel B. Danley, of the U.S. Department of Labor, told the NAACP Annual Conference in June that the Joint Congressional Committee on Housing “unequovically” had established the need for the next five years of 220,000 to 225,000 additional building-trades apprentices in the housing construction industry. He therefore called for the strengthening of such programs. Mitchell told Gloster Current, director of NAACP branches, that he had two thousand copies of Danley’s remarks for distribution throughout the association. A copy of Danley’s remarks and Mitchell’s memorandum of 9/28/48 to Current are in NAACP II: A-526, DLC.