Monthly Report of Labor Secretary, November 1, 1947

MONTHLY REPORT OF LABOR SECRETARY

November 1, 1947

 

Atomic Energy Employment

In response to an NAACP request, the Atomic Energy Commission has indicated that it will establish a policy of fair employment on projects under its supervision. The NAACP request pointed out that during the war there was considerable discrimination against minority groups in projects at Pasco, Washington, and in Tennessee. The NAACP’s statement also pointed out that the War Department had declined to remedy some of this discrimination during the war on the ground that there was no time for social experiments.1

We have directed this matter to the National Technical Association which is an organization of colored persons in various scientific fields. We have asked that its representatives urge qualified colored persons to go into the field of atomic energy and inform us of instances of discrimination.

NAACP Policy on Strikes

Branches of the NAACP have been asked to give assistance in settling strikes at Ansonia and Bridgeport in Connecticut, Boston, and Baltimore. We have received from the Legal Department certain basic guides which will be useful in establishing a policy on these matters under the new labor legislation.2

The Labor Secretary was invited to Bridgeport by the local branch to aid in a strike against the Canfield Rubber Company. This company employs a considerable number of Negroes, and, during the strike which was called by the United Construction Workers of District 50, United Mine Workers, it was alleged that many colored persons were crossing the picket line. The company was advertising for unskilled workers and apparently making a considerable effort to pull in additional colored workers.

On arriving in Bridgeport, a conference was arranged with the mayor and the President of the Branch, Mr. John Lancaster. It was recommended that the mayor appoint a citizen’s committee which would aid him in bringing the company and the union together in a settlement. This recommendation was finally accepted by the mayor and a citizen’s committee, made up of employers, clergymen, and minority group representatives, was formed to seek ways of settling the strike.

The Labor Secretary was in the city on three occasions for meetings on this matter. At the time of this report, we have no word on the final outcome of this matter.

In Boston, officers of the branch aided in picketing the yards of the Bethlehem Steel Shipbuilding Company.3

In Baltimore, special efforts of the management of the Bethlehem Steel Yards have resulted in a considerable number of colored persons crossing the picket line. Top management officials are visiting the homes of colored employees and making personal appeal to them to return because of their “importance” to the company.

The President of the Baltimore Branch signed a public statement along with other citizens urging colored persons not to return until the strike is settled.

The union involved in Baltimore and Boston is the IUMSWA, CIO.

Migratory Labor

As stated in previous reports, the Labor Department has been cooperating with other groups on problems affecting migratory agricultural workers. The Labor Secretary was part of a sponsoring group which called a conference on this problem in Washington on October 22 and 23.4

As a result of this conference, there was formed a national organization to take both immediate and long range action on the problems of workers in this group. The Labor Secretary was one of twenty-five persons appointed to the National Board of Directors.

At the conference, an announcement was made that the hospital for migratory workers at Belle Glade, Florida, was being released by the Federal Government and would be operated by local officials in Florida. It was also announced that colored people who were formerly admitted to the institution would be denied admission in the future.5

We have taken this matter up with Secretary Clinton P. Anderson of the Department of Agriculture and Miss Katharine Lenroot of the Children’s Bureau. We have asked Mr. Anderson to include a stipulation in the agreement turning the institution over to the Florida authorities which will prevent discrimination because of race. Miss Lenroot’s agency is spending sixty thousand dollars on the location for maternal and child care. We are asking her to see that this is spent in a non-discriminatory manner.

Special Agency to Combat Government Discrimination

It will be recalled that the NAACP’s Labor Department initiated the current request for a special agency of the government to work against discrimination within Federal agencies.6

This recommendation was transmitted to the President directly by Mr. White and also mentioned in his testimony before the President’s Committee on Civil Rights. The proposal has since been pushed by a number of persons interested in government employment. The report of the Civil Rights Committee recommends that, in addition to regular fair employment practice legislation, there also be this type of agency within government.7

We have prepared a statement on some of the outstanding illustrations on discrimination in the Federal Government which a friend of the Association has agreed to pass on to the White House in hope of getting action.8

Fair Employment Practice Laws

After visits to New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and up-state New York, it appears that very few persons are making use of the fair employment practice laws which have been enacted in these states.9

We are initiating a program for branches in these states. It is hoped that this action will lead to the filing of a greater number of valid complaints and greater familiarity with the workings of the law. In this, we are cooperating with the Branch Department.

CIO Convention

The Labor Secretary was invited to attend the CIO Convention in Boston from October 13 through the 18th.10

While on this trip, I also filled speaking engagements and other commitments for branches in New Haven, Bridgeport, and Springfield.

MS: NAACP II: A-341, DLC.

[1] See, among others, 12/2 and 12/23/47.


[2] For the wave of postwar strikes, see “Peace on Earth!” and “In the Second Year,” Businessweek 905 (January 11, 1947): 86, 88. See also 6/2/47.


[3] See 12/2/47.


[4] See materials in David H. Stowe Files, available at http://www.trumanlibrary.org/hstpaper/ stowehst.htm.


[5] Mitchell noted to Clinton P. Anderson, secretary, Department of Agriculture, that since the federal government had built the hospital for migratory workers and it would “greatly assist the local community by leasing it or giving it to authorities in” the Belle Glade, Florida, area, the NAACP was requesting that the department “require as one of the terms of operation that there be no discrimination because of race in the use of its facilities.” E. J. Overby, assistant to the secretary, responded that while disposition of the property as required by Congress must be consistent with the requirements of PL , Mitchell should be assured that the department was sympathetic to the NAACP’s views on future operation of the hospital. Mitchell’s letter to Anderson, 10/29/47, and Overby’s response, 11/29/47, both in NAACP IX: 161, DLC.

Pressing this issue, Mitchell later asked Thurgood Marshall, special counsel, for the NAACP Legal Department’s help. Addressing the possibility of including a nondiscrimination clause in the lease agreement between the Department of Agriculture and the West Palm Beach County Public Hospital District Board, Marian Perry, assistant counsel, said the process “would be quite simple.” Within the historical context of the “separate but equal” doctrine, she said, difficulty would arise only if the hospital was a small one not suitable for division into segregated facilities. In such a case, it was unlikely the contract would be carried out. That practical consideration, she said, did not limit “our fight for the inclusion of such a clause,” but she suspected that Mitchell could be presented with such an agreement by the department. The suggested language would be: “This lease is conditioned upon the furnishing of services in the facility to all migratory workers without discrimination as to race, religion, color or national origin.” Mitchell’s memorandum to Marshall, 10/29/47; Perry to Mitchell, 11/24/47, NAACP IX: 161, DLC.


[6] Mitchell discussed the proposed agency with Evelyn Cooper, a former attorney at the wartime FEPC who was now at the Department of Interior. She told him that the Bureau of the Budget, where he wanted the new agency placed, would oppose such an attempt. However, she felt that the bureau would cooperate with any agency established in the Civil Service Commission for such a purpose. But because of the commission’s poor record on supporting efforts to end discrimination in such agencies as the Post Office Department, Mitchell opposed having it placed there. Cooper promised to rewrite the NAACP’s draft order and clear it with the solicitor at the Department of Interior. Mitchell said he agreed that his proposals “on use of outside personnel, enforcement powers, and broad programs for obtaining full use of minorities in the Federal Government were important parts of any order and should be kept.” If the present schedule was adhered to, he said, it was possible that the order would be issued “within the coming month.” That did not happen, of course, but President Truman did make a commitment in his State of the Union message on January 8, 1948, to issue such an order. Mitchell memorandum to the files, 11/14/47, MP. See 3/1 and 10/31/47, as well as 2/5/48, where he reported (see note ) on his meeting on January 14, 1948, with Secretary of Labor Lewis B. Schwellenbach, which involved discussions on the proposed order. For related activities in this period involving Schwellenbach, see Watson, Lion in the Lobby 156.


[7] The landmark 173-page Report of the President’s Committee on Civil Rights, To Secure These Rights was headed by Charles E. Wilson, president of the General Electric Company, whom Mitchell had admired for his support of the wartime FEPC activities. See 3/1 and 12/23/47 but especially Mitchell’s mention of the “President’s Message to Congress on Civil Rights” at 2/48.


[8] See 1/31 and 12/23/47; in appendix 1, vol. IV, 11/7/47.


[9] See the headnote on the Struggle for a Permanent FEPC.


[10] Mitchell also attended the CIO’s annual convention in Atlantic City a year earlier. See 11/30/46, where he mentioned his report to Walter White on the convention.