Monthly Report of Labor Secretary, September 30, 1946

MONTHLY REPORT OF LABOR SECRETARY

September 30, 1946

USES —

One of the outstanding events in this month’s operations was the changeover of the system of segregation in the USES in Washington.1

Secretary Schwellenbach pledged in a conference with us on September 11 that segregation would be ended in the District office and his promise became effective on Monday, September 30.2 Thus ended one of the problems in the District employment field. It was also of national significance in that various persons including Secretary Henry Wallace had attacked this arrangement.

Unfortunately, the change was announced while the Department of Labor was also releasing a new policy for the operation of the USES when it is returned to the States on November 15. This policy is so bad that I am recommending that the Association study some legal method for challenging the dispensing of forty two million dollars ($42,000,000.00) of the Federal money to the States without proper safeguards against discrimination.3

LABOR COMMITTEE

We now have commitments from the following persons to serve on the National NAACP Labor Committee:

For the AFL, Frank Fenton, Director of Organization; Boris Shishkin, Economist; and Nelson H. Cruikshank, Director of Social Insurance.

For the CIO, Walter Ruether, President of UAW-CIO; George L. P. Weaver, Director, National CIO, Committee to Abolish -Discrimination; Willard S. Townsend, President, Transport Service Employees of America; Mr. Charles Houston, Palmer Webber, and Alfred B. Lewis have also agreed to serve.4

Because of a conflict in dates, previous plans to hold a meeting of this Committee in September have been changed, and we are now seeking to hold the first meeting on October 24 in New York.

FEPC LEGISLATION

We have been in touch with the chairman of the group working for FEPC in California and supplied him with information he requested for use in arousing public interest. At our request, information has also been sent to California by the New York State Commission Against Discrimination, and the New Jersey FEPC officials. We have also sent suggestions for branch activity in connection with passage of this very urgent legislation. It will be recalled that this measure is to be voted on in the November elections in California.

LAY-OFFS BY GOVERNMENT AGENCIES

In order to curtail discrimination in the current government lay-offs, we are proposing that certain action be taken by the War Department and other large government employers. This action is defined in a letter which has been submitted to the Secretary for consideration.5 One important aspect of it involves the gathering of statistics on employment of colored persons.

SPEECHES AND PUBLICATIONS

This month I delivered two speeches in Detroit at the request of the local branch, and one speech for the Pennsylvania State Conference of Branches in Newcastle. A scheduled speech in Pittsburgh was cancelled because of a power strike. At the request of the Pittsburgh Courier, I wrote an article on the USES which appeared in the September 28 issue.

Clarence Mitchell

MS: NAACP IX: 200, DLC.

[1] Clearly involved in bringing about this change was the Washington NAACP branch. In a letter of August 12, 1946, to George E. C. Hayes, president of the branch, Mitchell urged the office to “to send a large number of protests against the policy of segregation in the District Employment Service to Mr. Robert Goodwin, Director of the USES.” Mitchell told Hayes that opposing the end of segregation in the USES were the American Legion, some local employer groups, and an unnamed AFL official. See also Mitchell’s letter of 8/13/46 to Schwellenbach, secretary of labor. Both letters are in NAACP/1167, DHU-MS. See also 8/31/46, note 2.

The United Public Workers of America, CIO, provided “Some Facts on Discrimination against Negroes in Government Hiring,” as follows:

United States Employment Service: Since agencies have been authorized to hire direct, they have received from the Civil Service Commission permission to place direct orders with the Washington USES. The Washington USES is run on a completely Jim Crow basis. The telephone procedure at the Washington USES in receiving job orders from employers is to request whether or not the employer wants Negro or white workers. Recently, a government agency was discovered making a request for several hundred white workers. Segregated files are maintained by the Washington USES. When a job order is received, a duplicate slip is made which is sent to the Negro Section. Discrimination against Negroes arises when there is a time lapse between the arrival of the original order in the white section and the arrival of the duplicate order in the Negro Section. This time lapse has frequently been known to be at least several hundred days.

Despite the fact that the same number of employees are assigned to the Negro section as to the white section, the Negro workers are forced to carry a much heavier workload, thereby decreasing the service to Negro job applicants. A visit to the local USES office would show the long lines in front of the Negro section and the comparatively shorter lines in front of the white section, thus further decreasing the opportunity of the Negro job applicant to secure equal and just treatment in his search for economic security. Already one Negro applicant has been brutally beaten and jailed because he refused to conform with the pattern of segregation and Jim Crow, which this agency had set up.

The statement then provided five specific cases of discrimination. NAACP II: A-662, DLC.


[2] Mitchell was considerably strengthened in the September 11, 1946, meeting with Schwellenbach by the positions of eleven representatives of ten national organizations. Consequently, in his report on the conference, Mitchell seemed to have regarded it as most significant that Schwellenbach said there was no question about the wrong of having a segregated office setup in the USES in Washington, and he pledged that his office would abolish it as quickly as possibly. He said that there were some administrative problems to be settled, but when they were, segregation in the D.C. office would end. The plan for ending segregation had already been drawn up, Mitchell was assured. “Position Taken by Organization Attending Meeting on USES Return to the States,” attached to Mitchell’s letter to White, 9/17/46, in NAACP II: A-653, DLC.

Joining Mitchell in the meeting were Robert C. Weaver, American Council on Race Relations (ACRR); Will Maslow, AJCong.; Julius Thomas, NUL; Frank S. Loescher, AJCong. and AFSC; George L. P. Weaver, CIO Anti-discrimination Committee; Massaosatou Kido, Japanese-American Citzens League; Rev. W. H. Jernagin, Federal Council of Churches; and I. M. Ornburn, AFL. Pittsburgh Courier 9/21/46, 12, copy along with other materials in NAACP II: A-653, DLC.

This victory was especially significant for Mitchell because it underscored the principle, established by the FEPC, that federal dollars should not be used to support discrimination. Watson, Lion in the Lobby 153.


[3] See also, among others, 8/31, 10/31, and 11/30/46.


[4] See 12/30/46 for the complete board.


[5] Mitchell attached the proposed letter to Robert P. Patterson, secretary of war, to his September 23, 1946, memorandum to White. Mitchell said he drafted the letter “because one rather hazardous problem” was involved, namely, the request for employees to provide information on their race. The draft requested Patterson’s cooperation in preventing racial discrimination in the current layoff of government employees. It had been found, the draft said, that African Americans released by agencies for wartime service did not have the same opportunity as whites for reemployment. Furthermore, many African Americans had received “suspiciously low efficiency ratings” when they were released from their wartime jobs. In other cases, agencies refused flatly to hire displaced African Americans even though openings existed. The draft recommended several steps that the Department of War should take to avoid such discrimination. NAACP II: A-662, DLC.