Memorandum on Telephone Call from Mr. Cy W. Record in Atlanta, Georgia

To:  Mr. George M. Johnson

From: Clarence Mitchell

Subject: Long distance telephone call from Mr. Cy Record in Atlanta, Georgia

February 5, 1943

On the above date, Mr. Record called us to give the following information:

  1. He stated that the Vultee Aircraft, Gulf Shipbuilding, Brecon Bag Loading, and the McEvoy Companies, all of which were called in for hearings in Birmingham, show some numerical progress in Negro employment.1 He stated that the Alabama Shipbuilding Company has a smaller percentage of Negroes because of overall increases in employment but the numerical figure on Negroes has increased. He states that as of January 1943 the company employed 1,056 semi-skilled Negroes and 4,181 unskilled. He notes an increase of 56 in the semi-skilled group.2

The Gulf Shipbuilding Company remains approximately the same except that 50 Negroes were employed several weeks ago. None of them were skilled. The Brecon Company reports 52 semi-skilled colored women employed on power sewing machines, and a total of 493 Negroes out of 3,360 persons. The Vultee Company has increased its Negro personnel from 30 to 64 out of a total of 5,527 persons. All of the Negroes are still unskilled. The McEvoy Company has increased from 550 Negroes in November to 861 in January. Some of the Negroes at McEvoy are skilled. Mr. Record also reported on the Bell Aircraft training program indicating that trainees are being turned out at the rate of 60 per month and that a total of 200 have already been trained. He feels that the company will employ a great many Negroes although it is not yet in production. Mr. Record felt that a sufficient number of persons would not be available for the Bell Aircraft Company unless there is some revision of shifts in order to accommodate persons who could not attend at the present hours.

  1. We discussed the effect of his confidential material getting into the hands of the Regional Director [Burton Morley] and it was his feeling that it had a healthy effect on the situation. It was Mr. Record’s belief that while no great changes for the good have taken place, the regional office would be more careful in the future when handling matters affecting Negroes.

MS: copy, HqR1, Office Memoranda. M.

1. On the Birmingham hearings, held in June 1942, see Merl E. Reed, Seedtime for the Modern Civil Rights Movement: The President's Committee on Fair Employment Practice, 1941-1945 66–74; and HqR17, Records Relating to Hearings; Robert C. Weaver, Negro Labor: A National Problem 36–37; Herbert R. Northrup, Organized Labor and the Negro 206; headnote on Aircraft Industry.


2. Regarding a complaint against the Vultee plant in Nashville, the FEPC found that, based on the evidence, “particularly on the fact that no Negroes are employed on the production line and on evidence tending to indicate fear by the Management of racial disturbances, that the Company, contrary to Executive Order 8802, maintains a policy of discrimination in employment on account of race.” FEPC, “Revised Summary and Findings,” n.d. The Committee therefore directed the plant to take seven steps to comply with the executive order, including instructing its personnel officers and employees “to recruit and employ workers solely on the basis of the qualifications of applicants or workers without regard to their race, creed, color or national origin, and in the case of qualified aliens, to submit to the Secretary of War or Secretary of the Navy applications for consent to employ” such persons in accordance with War-Navy regulations. Similar directives were issued to the other firms investigated at the Birmingham hearings. See HqR77, Office Files of Eugene Davidson. Misc.; for background, see the headnotes on the Shipbuilding Industry and on the Aircraft Industries.