Memorandum on Material to Be Submitted for the War Manpower Commission Report

ROUGH DRAFT

MEMORANDUM

The following is my suggestion for material which might be submitted in response to the request of Mr. Yoder’s office.¹ You, of course, may wish to revise this considerably:

The President’s Committee on Fair Employment Practice was established by Executive Order 8802 of June 25, 1941. During the year from April 1942 to April 1943, it handled approximately 7,000 complaints from members of various minority groups alleging discrimination either by war industries or Government agencies. In addition, between October 1, 1942 and March 1, 1943, over 1,000 reports of discriminatory hiring practices were filed with the Committee by the USES. Such reports are filed only when employers have given an order indicating that vacancies exist but have refused to accept members of a minority group coming within the purview of Executive Order 8802. There has been some improvement in the over-all employment of minority groups in industry but there is still a {widespread} tendency to confine Negroes to unskilled jobs and to exclude altogether {Negro women and} persons who are Jewish or aliens. Generally speaking, the problem affecting another large minority group, namely the Spanish-American workers, is confined to the Southwest. In this area the conditions faced by these workers are very similar to those faced by Negroes in other areas.

A statement made by the Reports and Analysis Division of the Employment Security Office of the Social Security Board in May 1942, showed in 17,474 establishments there were 5.3% non-white, in July 1942 in 21,771 industries there were 5.8% non-white, and in November 1942, in 14,861 establishments, 6% of all employees were non-white. Numerically, the employment of non-whites in May 1942 as shown by the report was 464,095, in July it was 696,338, and in November it was 793,045.

Thus it can be seen that there has been some increase in the over-all employment, and in certain industries the percentage of non-white has been higher than the increase for all industries. An example of this is shipbuilding, which in July 1942 had 5.7% non-whites. In November, non-whites were 7%.

The Committee has not had called to its attention any special legislative enactments by communities or states which would prohibit the employment of Negroes in war industries. However, there are numerous agreements and constitutional provisions in various organizations which exclude members of minority groups from war employment.

{The prime concern of minorities at present is providing for the full utilization of the skills [illegible] of Negroes through upgrading and training, greater use of Jewish persons and relaxation of discriminatory policies which prevent the employment of aliens and Negro women. The problem regarding Negro women is particularly acute considering present employment shortages and the present emphasis on the integration of women into industry}.