Monthly Report of Labor Secretary, September 30, 1949

MONTHLY REPORT OF LABOR SECRETARY

September 30, 1949

 

Unemployment Among Colored Wage Earners

From the latest figures available, 8.7 per cent of the non-white labor force in the country is unemployed while only 6.2 per cent of the white labor force is without work. Unemployment among colored males was 9 per cent and among colored female wage earners it was 7.2 per cent. Corresponding figures for whites are 5.5 per cent for males and 6.2 per cent for females.

Merchant Marine Officers

We have been working with a group of unemployed colored officers who served in the Merchant Marine during the war. These men have had from 6 to 22 years of sea experience, 3 to 7 years of experience as officers and have been without jobs from 3 months to 2 years.

Action in their behalf has involved the Maritime Commission, the Economic Cooperation Administration, the Department of Agriculture (which furnishes cargo for Europe), two committees of Congress, and private ship owners.1 A few of the men have gone to sea, but the basic problem is as yet unsolved.

One company, States Marine, has agreed to operate a vessel with a colored captain and an interracial crew, if the U.S. Government will furnish a ship and guarantee cargo for a year. The men feel that this would give them a new start in the industry.

The Maritime Commission is willing to furnish the vessel, but the question of cargo is entangled with considerable red tape. However, we are still at work on it.

Construction Employment

Passage of the housing legislation by Congress again puts emphasis on construction employment.2 We are taking specific action on behalf of skilled craftsmen in Arkansas, Colorado, Tennessee, South Carolina, and Maryland. Action to include the entire country will be taken after clearance from the Legal Department on certain policy matters.3

Contribution from NAPE

At the Convention of the National Alliance of Postal Employees in Kansas City, Missouri, the Labor Secretary met a number of postal employees from southern cities who cited numerous new jobs and improvements resulting from the Association’s activity in their behalf. President Ashby Carter has sent $541.50 which is the first of a series of contributions from the Alliance for the Association’s 40th Anniversary.4

On the Segregation Front

Segregation in working arrangements received a blow in Washington, D.C., and a shot in the arm in Kansas City, Missouri. The NAACP Labor Department’s efforts to end segregation in the cafeteria of the Government Printing Office were successful in Washington. Colored employees are no longer required to sit in a special area.5

In Kansas City, a Minnesota citizen who heads a treasury unit has instituted strict segregation in working arrangements. After seeing this set-up with President Carl Johnson of the Kansas City Branch, the Labor Secretary discussed it with Treasury Officials in Washington. They promised to take corrective action, but so far their only visible effort has been to arouse a flurry of telephone calls to see whether the NAACP “will lay off.”6

The Record on State FEPC Action

At the suggestion of Mr. Alfred Baker Lewis, the Labor Department assembled material on the fate of state FEPC legislation. The returns from branches show that Republican opposition killed bills in five key states. A detailed statement is available.7

Louisiana to the Rescue

Because a white man from Louisiana believed in fair play, Mr. Lawrence R. Shipp, a graduate of the engineering school at A. and T. College in North Carolina, is today working as an engineer in the U. S. Public Health Service in Bethesda, Maryland. Mr. Shipp came to us when he felt that he was being denied employment because of his race. We received considerable inside information from the individual from Louisiana, who is employed at the establishment. With this and because of Mr. Shipp’s fine record, we were able to win.

Loyalty Investigations

Charges of disloyalty against a Baltimore veteran who is employed in the post office were dropped following NAACP intervention on his behalf. He was represented at a hearing by Frank Reeves and Franklyn Bourne, acting as counsel for the Association. During the past two weeks, four other hearings have been held involving complainants from Cleveland, Ohio. No decision has been given on these.8

Meetings and Speaking Engagements

The Labor Secretary spoke at a meeting sponsored by the New Jersey State CIO Camp at Jamesburg, New Jersey.

The Midwest Labor Digest requested the Labor Secretary to submit an article which was published in its Labor Day Edition.9

The Labor Secretary attended a meeting of the President’s Committee on National Employ the Physically Handicapped. The President greeted committee members at the White House.10

MS: NAACP II: A-341, DLC.

[1] Mitchell had been well aware of the history of the Merchant Marine since the FEPC period (volumes I and II). For background, see “Overview of the History of the National Maritime Union,” available at http://ciscohouston.com/essays/nmu.shtml.


[2] In the postwar period, Mitchell was made aware of the continuing problems of discrimination in the civilian shipping industry, this time involving the Marine Engineers Beneficial Association, whose members aboard the freighter Robert R. McBurney refused to eat with a black wireless operator. The man had to be transferred to the SS Booker T. Washington. Mitchell’s letter to E. W. Edwards, commissioner, New York SCAD, 8/19/47, NAACP WB-183, DLC. See also 4/30/48 and 12/21/49.

Mitchell’s efforts were related to the NAACP’s main program of seeking provisions in the housing legislation for construction of  million units of public housing. This companion struggle is detailed in Perry’s WB report, 1/2 and 4–5/49, and related materials in NAACP II: A-656, DLC. See also Perry, 2/15/49, Hearings 735–44; Perry’s reports are summarized in the preface to this volume.


[3] On July 8, 1949, the House and Senate completed action on the compromise long-range low-rent public housing and slum clearance bill and sent it to Truman, who signed it on July 15. The measure provided for the building of 810,000 public housing units and was intended to encourage the building of at least 50,000 private homes. New York Times 7/9/49, 1, and 7/16/49, 1.


[4] In a report to Wilkins on his visit to the NAPE convention on August 17, 1949, Mitchell said the men “had a great deal to say about the work of the Association.” Furthermore, “it was pleasing to see the number of them who were now working in southern post offices” because of the NAACP’s work in their behalf. At the convention, the delegates collected $200 toward the NAPE’s contribution to the NAACP. Mitchell memorandum to Wilkins, 8/19/49, NAACP WB-155, DLC.


[5] See also 12/21/49.


[6] Ibid.


[7] See ibid. for what evidently was an updated version of the statement. See also, most recently, 1/31, 3/4, 4/1, 5/2, 5/31, and 9/30/49, as well as the headnote on the Struggle for a Permanent FEPC.

This struggle was reinforced by a resolution on the FEPC adopted by the NAACP Fortieth Annual Convention in June 1949, which urged Congress to “pass H.R. 4453 immediately” because a federal fair employment law was “absolutely essential [for avoiding] industrial strife based on racial antagonisms in many sections of the country.” The resolution commended legislatures in Washington, Oregon, Rhode Island, and New Mexico for passing fair employment practice laws that year. NAAACP II: A-38, DLC.


[8] Frank Reeves, a lawyer who formerly worked with the FEPC, informed Mitchell that the case, no. 147, against Frank Dobson Boston of Baltimore had been settled satisfactorily. The Loyalty Review Board cleared him of the charges leveled against him. Reeves was also preparing four other appeals on behalf of postal employees in Cleveland, Ohio. Mitchell memorandum to Thurgood Marshall, 9/20/49, NAACP WB-146, DLC. For initial developments on the Cleveland cases, see 11/1 and 12/20/48; for the disposition of them, see 3/3/50. See also materials in NAACP WB-126, DLC, as well as the headnote on National Origin, Alienage, and Loyalty in volume I.


[9] See, in appendix 1, vol. IV, 10/31/48.


[10] For remarks of President Truman to the President’s Committee on National Employ the Physically Handicapped Week, see http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=13577.