Monthly Report of Labor Secretary, November 30, 1946

[1] Areas on which the proposal provided guidance were reflected in the section headings: “Before Taking Action on Any Problem Ask Yourself the Following Questions,” “In Handling Specific Complaints Determine These Facts,” and “How to Initiate Local Action.” Guidance was also offered for “Branch Action on Complaints,” notably on “Refusal to Hire,” “Refusal to Upgrade,” Refusal to Train,” “Wage Discrimination,” “Discriminatory Dismissals,” and “Discrimination by Unions.” See, in appendix 1, vol. IV, 3/7/47.

[2] For the historical roots of this problem, see the headnote on Street and Local Railways in volume I.

[3] The complaint was filed by William Bailey. In a meeting with Bailey and union representatives, Mitchell suggested that the union invoke a pertinent feature of its contract that provided for the appointment of an impartial arbitrator. Afterward, the union would take the matter to the NLRB if it was unsuccessful in obtaining Bailey’s reinstatement through the arbitrator. The local, however, refused to support Bailey’s case. Mitchell’s note, apparently to the files, 12/13/46; his memorandum to White, 11/[30]/46; and another memorandum, 1/3/47, all of which are in a file on the Bailey case, NAACP IX: 214, DLC. Other related materials, including Mitchell’s memorandum to the files, 8/28/47, are in NAACP WB-183, DLC. See also 6/2/47.

[4] Mitchell asked Gloster B. Current, director of branches, to check on the Society for Truth, and he reported that members of his staff in Florida had been unable to “substantiate or locate any evidence pointing towards existence of such an organization.” Current’s letter to Mitchell, 12/10/46, NAACP IX: 214, DLC.

[5] This former associate from the OPM could not be identified.

[6] See memorandum from Will Maslow, director of field operations, FEPC, to Malcolm Ross, chairman, FEPC, and George M. Johnson, deputy chairman, FEPC, 3/27/45, in appendix 1, vol. IV. One of the most celebrated developments in this area was the March 5, 1945, passage by the New York legislature of the Ives-Quinn bill against discrimination, which was signed by Gov. Thomas E. Dewey on March 12, 1945. The law declared that discrimination in employment against any resident of the state because of race, color, creed, or national origin was a matter of state concern. Such discrimination, the law said, not only threatened the rights and proper privileges of the people but also menaced the institutions and foundation of a free democratic state. In principle, the law incorporated President Roosevelt’s EO 8802. Recommended by Dewey, it was developed by a twenty-three-member commission created by the legislature. Fifteen of those members were appointed by the governor, and the rest were members of the legislature. The Ives-Quinn law established a permanent and independent state agency that was appointed by the governor. “State FEPC—What the People Say,” American Council on Race Relations, in HqR2, Office Files of Malcolm Ross, June 1940–June 1946, Tensions.

[7] The initial announcement was that the eighteen hundred local offices of the USES would be returned to the states on November 16, 1946, but they were actually returned on Friday, November 15. Under the new relationship, the federal government continued to finance the operation of the offices. New York Times 9/17/46, 26, 10/1/46, 2, and 11/12/46, 19. See also 7/31, 9/30, 11/30, and 12/30/46 reports.

[8] For an example of the letters, see copy of Mitchell’s letter to Gov. Ralph F. Gates of Indiana, 10/3/46, attached to a memorandum from Gloster B. Current, director of branches, to NAACP state conference presidents and executive secretaries, 10/7/46, NAACP II: A-653, DLC.

[9] In a letter to Goodwin, Mitchell expressed his continuing concern about the lack of information on the state of employment among minority groups in construction. He suggested that the shipbuilding industry be regarded as an example of the problem and that it be used to “make a determination of whether those non-white persons formerly employed in it,” who were now registered with the USES, had skills that would be useful in construction. Mitchell letter to Goodwin, 9/24/46, NAACP II: A-662, DLC. See also 8/31 and 9/30/46.

[10] See 7/31, 8/31, and 12/30/46.

[11] See 10/31/46.

[12] The Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen was one of the thirteen most powerful railway unions against whom the FEPC held hearings on their practices of racial discrimination in 1943. See HqR64, Central Files of the FEPC, Railroads, Findings; see also introduction to volumes I and II, as well as Watson, Lion in the Lobby 131.

[13] No additional information was found on these cases, but for a general background on the long-running struggles against discrimination in the railroads, see in particular the introduction to volumes I and II.

[14] See the headnote on the Telephone Industry in volume I.

[15] Mitchell told White that “it would be a risk” for anyone else to see his report, which was very candid regarding (1) the failure of African Americans to take advantage of the CIO’s liberal policy and participate more fully in its local union activity and at the convention, and (2) the CIO’s internal politicking and personalities. His observations led him to conclude that it was inappropriate to label factions inside the CIO as either right-wingers or left-wingers because “few of the latter” could have been described as communists, if that was what was meant by the term left wing and few of the others could have been considered socialists or conservatives, if that was what right wing meant. Mitchell memorandum to Walter White, 11/26/46, MP.

[16] See Mitchell’s comments on the packinghouse workers at 4/8/46, in volume II. His references there were to the Chicago NAACP branch.

[17] This and the following paragraph were taken verbatim from Mitchell’s 11/26/46 memorandum to White, MP.

[18] The NAACP was equally opposed to the seating of Sen. Theodore G. Bilbo. It angrily protested Bilbo’s vitriolic, race-baiting campaign for the Senate primary election on July 2, 1946. Consequently, he was prevented from taking his seat when the Senate convened on the following January 3. He died on August 21, 1947, still a “senator-elect.” See Walter White’s letter of 11/23/46 to Allen J. Ellender, chairman, Special Senate Campaign Investigating Committee, and Leslie Perry memorandum, 12/28/46, to NAACP branches, NAACP IX: 19, DLC; “Full Senate Inquiry Is Voted on Bilbo’s Right to His Seat,” New York Times 11/17/46, 1; New York Times 8/22/46, 1, 10; “Negroes! Jews! Catholics!” editorial, Crisis 52 (April 1945): 216; “Oust Bilbo?” editorial, Crisis 53 (October 1946): 297; (selections of Senate debate on 1/3/47) “Today It Is the Senate . . . ,” Crisis 54 (March 1947): 80, 94; “Theodore G. Bilbo,” editorial, Crisis 54 (September 1947): 265; White, Man Called White 89; Watson, Lion in the Lobby 185.

[19] In addition to the NAACP, the principal organization seeking to abolish the poll tax by legislation was the National Committee to Abolish the Poll Tax. In Congress, leading allies were Rep. Vito Marcantonio (ALP-N.Y.), Rep. George Bender (R-Ohio), and Sen. Claude Pepper (D-Fla.). Reports of the Washington Bureau, 1/31/47, 2/28/47. See the headnote on the Struggle to Abolish the Poll Tax.

[20] See 9/30/47.

[21] See the headnote on the Struggle for a Permanent FEPC, 1942–54.

[22] Complementing the legal and political struggles was the Council of Social Agencies for the District of Columbia, which authorized a survey of race relations in the capital. The study was done under the direction of Joseph Douglass, executive secretary of the Washington Urban League. The study showed that in the areas of health, housing, education, and employment in D.C., African Americans suffered great discrimination as a result of segregation. On November 4, 1946, the study was submitted to the Committee on Race Relations of the Council of Social Agencies. Report of the Washington Bureau, 1/31/47, NAACP II: A-655, DLC.

In spring 1947, Leslie Perry prepared a comprehensive statement for Rep. Adam Clayton Powell Jr., from Harlem, on the areas of discrimination in D.C., the history of state and federal legislation, the international significance of the problem in the capital, and the positions of numerous church and other groups opposing this racism. Powell delivered the statement at a hearing before the House District Committee on a civil rights bill, which was reserved for members of Congress who had introduced legislation in this area. Report of the Washington Bureau, 4/30/47, NAACP II: A-655, DLC.

[23] In his testimony on this subject before the Senate Education Subcommittee, Perry urged adoption of legislation that would progressively increase federal appropriations until the federal government guaranteed each child in every state “a minimum per capita expenditure of $100.” He presented comprehensive tables showing the per capita expenditure for white and black children in eleven states as well as the disparity between the salaries of white and black teachers in ten states. Report of the Washington Bureau, 4/30/47, NAACP II: A-655, DLC. Leslie Perry, 4/28/47, Hearings 341–45; 5/14/47, Hearings 394–405. See also 4/3, 5/8, 11/3, 12/4, and 12/21/50.

[24] This struggle was developing in the federal courts and would lead to the group of decisions issued by the Supreme Court in 1948 in Hurd v. Hodge Shelley v. Kraemer Sipes v. McGhee and Urciolo v. Hodge. See Monthly Report of the Legal Department, 6/47, 7/47, 9/47, 10/47, and 11/47 in the Report of the Secretary for corresponding months, all EC. The 11/47 report provides a summary of the NAACP’s brief in Sipes which was its case. See the headnote on Segregation in Federal Housing Programs.

[25] The term of Philip Murray, president of the CIO, on the board became effective in 1947. NAACP, Annual Report 1947, 94.

[26] Ada Lois Sipuel applied to enter the University of Oklahoma Law School in January 1946. The state, however, refused to admit her, insisting that if she turned down its offer of a scholarship to attend law school outside the state, Oklahoma was not legally obligated to create a separate school for her. That action set the stage for Thurgood Marshall’s taking the case, Sipuel v. University of Oklahoma to the U. S. Supreme Court in 1948, where, for the first time, he launched an attack on the separate but equal doctrine. The Supreme Court ruled, in effect, that the university either had to admit Sipuel to its white law school, open up a separate school for her, or suspend the white law school until it opened one for blacks. Kluger, Simple Justice 259.

[27] In Morgan v. Virginia the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that state laws requiring segregated travel could not be enforced against passengers traveling from one state to another. Subsequently, the U.S. Department of Justice brought suit against the Southern Railway Company for refusing dining car service to Elmer Henderson, Mitchell’s former FEPC colleague. At that time, struggles were being waged against Jim Crow practices in interstate travel on buses and railroad cars in the cases of Morgan v. Virginia and Henderson v. United States. Kluger, Simple Justice 238, 277.