Monthly Report, November 3, 1950

MONTHLY REPORT OF WASHINGTON BUREAU

November 3, 1950

 

Proposed Emergency FEPC

As manpower needs increase because of the present emergency [the Korean War], the need for strict enforcement of non-discrimination provisions in government contracts becomes more acute. It appears that President Truman will issue an executive order establishing a program of policing defense contracts.1

The Director of the Washington Bureau met with Mr. Millard Cass, Special Assistant to the Under-Secretary of the Department of Labor, to discuss the proposed order since the Department of Labor is preparing the text. The following are our suggestions:

    The proposed executive order on fair employment should specifically indicate the jurisdiction of the body set up to administer it. This would avoid future conflicts on whether or not parties charged are subject to the committee’s jurisdiction.

    The order should apply to all recipients of government aid related to the defense program (including loans, accelerated amortization, etc.)

    A provision should be made for enforcement of fair employment directives by way of the injunctive process. Therefore, the order should include language which will give the committee the clear authority to call upon the Department of Justice to seek injunctions against contractors who violate the non-discrimination clauses of their contracts.

    We discussed matters pertaining to the Employment Service set forth in Mr. Walter White’s letter to Secretary Maurice Tobin.2

    We had some discussion on the question of whether government employees should be covered by the new executive order. On behalf of the Association, I suggested that agencies and employees should be covered and some means should be used to expedite the handling of complaints.

    We briefly discussed the structure of the committee and I recommended that it should have independent status.

    We discussed the application of the Russell Amendment to the present situation.3 I stated that the NAACP believes that the amendment would not prohibit the issuance of an executive order. I mentioned that the same problem had arisen when Executive Order 9980 was under consideration. The amendment did not prevent the issuance of 9980.

Point 4 of the discussion with Mr. Cass mentions the Executive Secretary’s letter of October 27, 1950, to Secretary Maurice Tobin of the Department of Labor. In this connection, the Executive Secretary requested:

    Appointment of qualified colored members on the Management-Labor Advisory Committee and the Women’s Advisory Committee on Defense Manpower established by General Order No. 48 of the Department of Labor.4

    Instructions to local offices of the Employment Service that they refuse to accept discriminatory orders from defense plants.

    Elimination of racial designations on job application forms used by the Employment Service.

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It appears that the Department of Agriculture has finally sawed off a limb on which Senator Ellender of Louisiana was hanging. The Senator made a radio speech in New Orleans stating that he had forced the Department of Agriculture to eliminate non-discrimination clauses in certain cotton contracts. We have had conferences and correspondence with the Department of Agriculture on this matter.

On October 24, Mr. Wesley McCune, Executive Assistant to the Secretary, stated that, “The Senator is, of course, free to place any interpretation he wishes on his representations to the Department about this subject, but the fact remains that the issue became academic when officials of this Department found that a different system of handling the program would result in considerable savings.” Mr. McCune’s letter also states that it is the policy of the Department to include a non-discrimination clause in all formal contracts.

Lt. Leon Gilbert

The Director of the Bureau and Mr. Frank Reeves, Washington Legal Representative, joined with lawyers from York, Pennsylvania, to represent Lt. Leon Gilbert who was sentenced to death by court-martial in Korea for alleged misconduct in the face of the enemy. The lawyers from York were Mr. Judson Ruch and Mr. William Wogan. The hearing was held before the Judicial Council of the Judge Advocate General’s Office. Mr. Ruch and Mr. Wogan argued that Lt. Gilbert had not had a fair trial in Korea. In addition, it was contended that () the original court-martial had committed a technical error, and () that by the Army’s own definitions Lt. Gilbert was not responsible for any misconduct.

Mr. Reeves reminded the Council the record did not include available evidence favorable to Lt. Gilbert and this suggested the need for further investigation. Racial discrimination in the Army, the NAACP also pointed out to the Council, makes the case of grave importance.

During our negotiations with the Secretary of the Army’s office and the office of the Judge Advocate General on this matter, we raised the question of whether other officers were charged with similar offences and sentenced to death during World War II. We have been advised by the Office of the Judge Advocate General as follows:

“During the period from 1942 to 1948, ninety-three officers were charged with misbehavior before the enemy in violation of Article of War 75. In that same period, of all cases in which the accused were convicted and sentences to death adjudged, there was none in which the sentence to death was executed.”5

Federal Aid to Education

There is a great deal of debate in important organizations on whether the NAACP’s position on Federal Aid to Education should be supported. The Association, of course, takes the position that any bill which does not contain safeguards against segregation should be opposed. We have asked Jim Carey, Secretary-Treasurer, CIO, to work for the passage of a similar resolution at the forthcoming CIO Convention. It appears that this matter will have very serious consideration when the CIO meets.6

We have, also, been invited to attend an important meeting called by the National Education Association of the United States on November 13, 1950. We have advised the NEA that the Association will oppose any legislation that does not contain provisions against segregation.7

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For sometime, we have been hearing rumors about plans to change the present policy of exclusion of colored students at George Washington University. This month, we asked Mr. Cloyd H. Marvin, President of the University, to discuss this matter with us. Mr. Marvin’s reply follows:

“The University understands the concern of your Association because it has established its service on concern. Further, it follows the policies of other institutions most closely. The George Washington University has a definite policy in regard to the social problem in which you find an interest, and is closely following it. While I should be glad to talk with you, I do not see that there would be anything to be gained in our talking about this matter at this particular time.”

The Director of the Bureau intends to seek an appointment with Mr. Marvin anyway.

Army Intelligence

The Director has discussed with the Department of the Army a report that certain investigators connected with Army Intelligence said that the NAACP was on the Attorney General’s list. We have followed this up with a formal request for correction and appropriate action against the individual involved. Mr. John Connell, Personnel Manager of the Secretary of the Army, to whom we talked assured the Director of the Bureau that any Intelligence official who made such a statement about the NAACP was acting in an improper manner.

Press Relations

Mr. Arthur Riordan, Publicity Director of the International Union of Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers, CIO, has been giving Mr. Earle Fisher, Washington Bureau Research Assistant, valuable assistance in making contacts with newspaper reporters. The first test of effectiveness of the contacts came at a press conference on the Gilbert case. At that time, approximately 25 reporters and photographers from various newspapers overflowed the Bureau conference room.

Mr. Riordan advised Mr. Fisher to send out a brief announcement on the Bureau’s functions. Mr. Riordan furnished us with a list of newspaper and radio people who are in Washington, and, who in his opinion, would be interested in getting the announcement.

Government Guards

Mr. Fisher has been working very effectively on a problem presented by colored guards employed in the Federal Government. These men charge that they are denied promotions on the basis of ability. As a result of conversations with the General Services Administration, one colored sergeant is to be promoted to the rank of lieutenant. General Services advises that promotions to the rank of sergeant are being held up pending a careful study of qualifications to make certain that there is no discrimination.

Charges of Discrimination in Alaska

Mr. Fisher is also handling complaints received from Alaska. In this connection, we have received a very interesting letter from Governor Ernest Gruening of Alaska. As an indication of his desire to be fair on racial matters, Governor Gruening cites a quotation which he says appeared in the Crisis some years ago about editorial policies he instituted while serving as a Boston newspaper official. It does not appear that any of the complaints received are due to a failure on the part of the Governor to perform his duties properly.

Kelley Air Force Base

Mr. Fisher is handling a complaint from San Antonio, Texas. In this case, several hundred colored janitors employed at the Kelley Air Force Base were reclassified to a lower status by air force officials at the base. Air Force officials were overruled by the 14th Regional Civil Service Board. However, the Air Force representatives appealed the case. The Washington Bureau is making representations on this matter in behalf of the colored employees before the Civil Service Commission.8

Other Government Cases

Mr. Fisher is handling complaints involving the Birmingham, Alabama, Post Office; the Employee Utilization Section of the Department of the Army, the Federal Works Agency, the Bethesda Naval Hospital, as well as numerous other complaints that have come into the office.

Social Security Pamphlet

The pamphlet on the new Social Security Act mentioned in last month’s report is now ready and we are distributing it. We have had a number of requests for this information.

Statements on Voting Records

Several statements on the voting records of congressmen have been prepared by Mr. Fisher on the states of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland, and Virginia.9

Meetings

The Director of the Bureau was present at a meeting of key organizations called by the State Department for the purpose of providing information on present policies of the United States in foreign affairs. He also attended the Civil Liberties Clearing House Meeting; the monthly meeting of the Advisory Committee of the Federal Housing Agency on Cooperative Housing; and the Advisory Rent Control Committee meeting.

The Director spoke at meetings sponsored by NAACP branches in Norristown and Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania; Akron, Ohio; Montclair, New Jersey; and Washington, D. C.

Mr. Fisher attended the Fourth General Assembly of the United World Federalists, Incorporated, at the Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C.

MS: NAACP II A-656, DLC.

[1] Mitchell’s combined July and August report did not mention White’s continuing effort to employ the wartime strategy to get Truman to create a war manpower resources board or a new FEPC- type agency because he was about to be named director of the Washington bureau, effective August 1; this was a day after Leslie Perry, the bureau’s administrative assistant, had submitted his resignation, which White accepted that same day “with regret.” But as earlier texts show, Mitchell was intimately involved in developing and implementing this strategy as part of the NAACP’s multifaceted struggle for a permanent FEPC.

On August 4, 1950, Mitchell wrote Maurice J. Tobin, secretary of the Department of Labor, asking that during the defense mobilization, the department “take cognizance of the non-discrimination clause in government contracts.” He also asked Tobin to advise local USES that they must not accept discriminatory orders from government contractors because such orders would violate the contract.

On August 11, 1950, Mitchell wrote to Oscar Chapman, secretary of the Department of Interior, reassuring him that nothing they had discussed together in their meeting on August 9 conflicted with the discussion the WB director and Walter White had with Tobin and Symington on August 10, 1950. Mitchell letter to Tobin, 8/4/50; Mitchell to Chapman, 8/1/50, NAACP II: A-666, DLC.

The 9/11/50 Report of the Executive Secretary to the Board on the topic of the War Manpower Resources Board complements 12/20/50 in appendix 1, vol. IV, where the Report of the Executive Secretary, 11/13/50, on General Order No. 48, issued by Tobin, is used. The 9/11/50 report said:

On July 20th the Secretary wired W. Stuart Symington [chair] of the National Security Board requesting that he grant an interview to a delegation of persons who represented various minority groups for discussing “methods by which minorities can make maximum contributions to mobilization” [for the Korean War]. As a result, a conference was held with Mr. Symington on August 10th participated in by Arnold Aronson, Secretary of the National Emergency Civil Rights Mobilization; Violet M. Gunther, ADA; Elmer W. Henderson, American Council on Human Rights; Lewis G. Hines, AFL; George K. Hunton, Catholic Interracial Council; John H. Ives, Federal Council of Churches of Christ; Will Maslow, National Community Relations Advisory Committee; A. Philip Randolph, Co-chairman, National Council for a Permanent FEPC; George L. P. Weaver, CIO; Clarence Mitchell, Roy Wilkins and the Secretary.

The following recommendations were made in a letter to Mr. Symington dated August 10th:

“1. We recommend the creation by Executive Order of the President of a man-power resources board, charged with the responsibility and armed with the authority to subpoena records, require the testimony of witnesses, and to take such other steps as may be necessary to implement the non-discrimination clauses which are required by Executive Order 9346, to be included in all contracts or subcontracts negotiated or re-negotiated by all agencies of the government of the United States.

“2. Our second area of concern is the functioning of the United States Employment Service and our urgent desire that means be found to cause it to function without discrimination.

“3. We are particularly concerned about training and re-training courses, in order that all available manpower be utilized at its highest skills as rapidly as possible. The dispersal of plant facilities away from the east and the west coasts makes even more imperative equality of training opportunities for all workers.

“4. Dispersal of plants, local customs, and other factors have made the problem of housing for workers acute. We ask that careful consideration be given to insure equality of housing for all workers in recognition of the overall manpower needs.

“5. We recommend the appointment of a special assistant to the Chairman of the National Security Resources Board, who shall particularly concern himself with the needs and problems of minority groups. Such a person should be a participant in all planning and making of policy.”

It was agreed between the conferees that no publicity be given on the conference to the press or anyone else except the statement drafted and released by the group as a unit. However, the Baltimore Afro-American of August 26th carried the full text of the memorandum to Mr. Symington in Louis Lautier’s column. Mr. Lautier also stated that the committee discussed with Mr. Symington as a “race relations advisor” some seven or eight persons for the post. This was not the case since no person was mentioned in the formal conversation with Mr. Symington and the memorandum itself shows that a special assistant to the chairman of the NSRB was recommended and that such a person “should be a participant in all planning and making of policy.”

On August 17th, the Secretary received a letter from Mr. Symington expressing thanks for the recommendations made and stating that he was going to talk them over with Secretary of Labor Tobin and write the Secretary further. He also asked whether the Secretary had anyone in mind with regard to his point 5. To this the Secretary replied that he had been informed by Mr. George Weaver that Mr. Symington had offered him the post and assumed, therefore, that the selection had been made. Speaking only for the NAACP, the Secretary wrote that “Mr. Weaver seems an admirable one (for the position) in view of his wide experience” in the field. (Minutes, 11/13/50, EC)

Mitchell reported the following:

In the case of an executive order, our chief problem has been that there are some people within the official family of the President who are trying to escape setting up an executive order by using the 1945 [Richard] Russell Amendment [that killed the original FEPC by denying funding to executive agencies not authorized by Congress–text cited below]. At a meeting held last week with Under Secretary of Labor Galvin, at which there was an abundance of legal opinion on our side, we asked the Department of Labor solicitors why they felt the Russell Amendment would prevent issuance of the order and they could not give the reason. Mr. Mitchell expressed the belief that we would get an executive order. He said he had asked on behalf of the Association and other groups that the agency set up be as independent as possible. (Report of the Executive Secretary, 9/11/50, EC. See also materials in NAACP II: A-272, DLC)


[2] This was White’s letter of October 27, 1950, to Tobin in which White said the NAACP was “greatly disturbed by certain omissions in General Order No. 48,” which the DOL issued on September 29, 1950. White recalled that in his meeting of August 10, 1950, with Mitchell, for the NAACP, and Tobin and Stuart Symington, he outlined the “importance of giving consideration to problems of minority groups in the defense employment picture.” General Order No. 48, he said, omitted any reference to this problem.

Tobin responded that the DOL was moving as rapidly as circumstances would permit “in reviewing, analyzing, revising, and adapting all present policies and operations of the Department of Labor in relation to the current defense programs.” Letter of 10/23/50 from Mitchell to White accompanying his draft letter to Tobin, which White edited and sent on 10/27/50; text of General Order No. 48; and Tobin’s response of 11/27/50 to White, all in NAACP II: A-666, DLC. See note 4 below for other features of General Order No. 48.


[3] The amendment, offered by Sen. Richard Russell of Georgia, killed the wartime FEPC. It was contained in the Independent Offices Appropriation Act (PL 358, 78th Congress, approved June 27, 1944). It read:

SEC. 213. After January 1, 1945, no part of any appropriation or fund made available by this
or any other Act shall be allotted or made available to, or used to pay the expenses of, any agency or instrumentality including those established by Executive order after such agency or instrumentality has been in existence for more than one year, if the Congress has not appropriated any money specifically for such agency or instrumentality or specifically authorized the expenditure of funds by it. For the purposes of this section, any agency or instrumentality including those established by Executive order shall be deemed to have been in existence during the existence of any other agency or instrumentality, established by a prior Executive order, if the principal functions of both such agencies or instrumentalities are substantially the same or similar. When any agency or instrumentality is or has been prevented from using appropriations by reason of this section, no part of any appropriation or fund made available
by this or any other Act shall be used to pay the expenses of the performance by any other agency or instrumentality of functions which are substantially the same as or similar to the principal functions of the agency or instrumentality so prevented from using appropriations, unless the Congress has specifically authorized the expenditure of funds for performing such functions.

This copy of the law was sent by Arnold Aronson, of the National Community Relations Advisory Council, to White; A. Philip Randolph, chair, NCPFEPC; Elmer Henderson, ACHR; Lewis Hines, AFL; Paul Sifton, UAW-CIO; and Violet Gunther, ADA, for discussion during their meeting with Department of Labor officials on October 27, 1950. Aronson memorandum, 11/3/50, NAACP II: A-272, DLC. See also 12/4/50, where Mitchell’s report to the board on the use of this amendment by foes of the FEPC amendment is used.


[4] For White’s letter to Tobin on General Order No. 48 and his response, see note 2 above and, in appendix 1, vol. IV, 12/20/50.


[5] For a much broader picture of this problem represented by the Lieutenant Gilbert case, see Thurgood Marshall, “Summary Justice—The Negro GI in Korea,” Crisis 38 (May 1951): 297–305, 350–51. See also 12/4 and 12/21/50.


[7] Mitchell was aware that the CIO’s interest in the NAACP’s position went back to at least 1946. See related note at 11/30/46; Leslie Perry, 4/28/47, Hearings 341–45.


[7] See also 12/4 and 12/21/50.


[8] See 2/6 and 12/3/52 for resolution of this case.


[9] For Mitchell’s earlier decision to prepare these reports, see 10/2/50.

Additional Details

Object Type:

Report

Volume:

Volume 3 (1946-1954)

Volume Page Number:

188-195

Source:

Library of Congress

Source Variation:

NAACP II: A-656, DLC.