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FEDERAL FAIR EMPLOYMENT PRACTICE ACT

THURSDAY, MAY 19, 1949

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

SPECIAL SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE
COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND LABOR,

Washington, D. C.

The subcommittee met, pursuant to adjournment, at 10 a. m., Hon. Adam C. Powell, Jr. (chairman), presiding.

Mr. POWELL. The committee will come to order.

Our first witness of the morning is Mr. Clarence Mitchell, labor secretary for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

TESTIMONY

OF CLARENCE MITCHELL, MITCHELL, LABOR SECRETARY, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE

Mr. MITCHELL. Mr. Chairman, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People appears at this hearing for the purpose of reaffirming the all-out support its membership gives to Federal fair employment legislation. As the association's representative, I wish to thank the chairman for this opportunity to present our views. We urge that the committee give speedy consideration to H. R. 4453 and report it favorably.

I would just like to say for the record that it is a good thing that this bill, if passed, will bear the name of the chairman.

On April 11, 1949, the association's board of directors voted to make the passage of an FEPC law the No. 1 objective in our legislative program. This was not an easy choice because all civil-rights bills are of great importance. Through the years, we have been fighting for a Federal antilynching bill, the abolition of Jim Crow, and segregation in all forms, and the end of unfair restrictions on the use of the ballot.

However, we recognize that when the Senate revised its rules on March 11, 1949, there was created an opportunity for great deception. The sponsors of the new rules have been telling the public that the change would put an end to filibusters. We believe that the rules as revised make most difficult the passage of constructive legislation in the civil-rights field. Since there are some who say that the revision is not designed to destroy the civil-rights proposals, we believe that a test of the effectiveness of the rule should be made on the bill which will have the most far-reaching effect, if it succeeds.

As an illustration of the virulence of job discrimination, we offer Salt Lake City, Utah. No lynchings have taken place in the State of

Utah in recent years. There is no restriction on the right of the colored people to vote. There is no segregation in public transportation. In the job field, however, the story is quite different. The Salt Lake City Council on Civic Unity recently made a study of limitations affecting minority groups. On the employment question, the council had this to say:

Sixty-one of one hundred and sixty-seven employers who responded to a questionnaire excluded colored citizens from certain types of employment. Forty-seven out of one hundred and sixty-two employers said they were unwilling to give colored citizens the same seniority rights as other citizens. Twentyseven out of one hundred and seventy-eight employers were unwilling to pay the same wages to colored people, even though the colored employees have equal skills with whites.

If this sample is fair, it means that somewhere between one-third and one-half of the State's employers freely confess that they are not willing to extend equal pay for equal work or equal rights of seniority to colored people.

The Fair Employment Practice Act will strike at job discrimination in in the North and the South. We are certain that if it passes, other legislation in the civil-rights field will also have an excellent chance. for passage. Public sentiment strongly favors the principles which this legislation supports. The need for it is so clear that we do not think it necessary to make an extensive documentation of the problem at this time.

If any Member of Congress wishes to get a practical illustration of how badly an FEPC law is needed, he has only to board a streetcar or bus operated by the Capital Transit Co. in the District of Columbia. Since Pearl Harbor, this company has brazenly advertised for platform workers, but insists that these workers must be white. It is unlikely that there will be a change in the hiring practices of the Capital Transit Co. without fair-employment legislation.

As a further opportunity to make a first-hand check, we offer the telephone company of this city. A young colored girl who was an experienced telephone operator came to Washington from Atlantic City. The telephone company began hiring colored operators in New Jersey when the State FEPC law was passed. When she sought employment with the Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co. as an operator, she was given every assurance that she could be used. Then, as now, the company was daily advertising for help.

With your permission I would like to insert in the record an ad, which came from the Washington Post of today, by the telephone company asking for help.

Mr. POWELL. Without objection, it is so ordered.

Mr. MITCHELL. Thank you.

(The ad referred to is as follows:)

GIRLS

THE TELEPHONE CO. HAS OPENINGS NOW

APPLY EMPLOYMENT OFFICE, 918 G ST., N. W.

OPEN 8:30 A. M. TO 5 P. M. MONDAY THROUGH FRIDAY
THE CHESAPEAKE & POTOMAC TELEPHONE CO.

Mr. MITCHELL. However, when she reported and it was found that she was not white she was offered a job in the cafeteria. Later in conference with NAACP representatives, the company officials said that they would offer her a position in a segregated set-up on a job which was not comparable to that which she sought.

This policy of the telephone company in Washington has the full approval of the national office of the American Telephone & Telegraph Co. Although A. T. & T. has made progress in some of its subsidiaries, it has chiefly moved only in areas where fair employment practice legislation was planned or was actually in effect. In a few cases, management has acted on its own initiative, but, in the main, it has required legal persuasion to get this company to offer jobs on a democratic basis. The telephone company still flagrantly discriminates against colored applicants in most of the States of the Union.

We wish also to cite as an illustration of poor employment practices the Sears, Roebuck Co. of Chicago. Reports from our branches in Chicago, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia show that the company discriminates against colored persons who seek jobs as clerks. İn Santa Monica, Calif., the president of our branch joined with other citizens in seeking to have colored persons employed at a new Sears store which was being opened in that city.

The local management advised that the question of employing colored persons was a policy matter which had to be determined by the national headquarters. The national headquarters advised the NAACP that the question had to be determined locally. This is typical of the buck-passing which occurs in many large companies on the issue of fair-employment practices.

Even during the war when manpower shortages were most acute, colored persons were concentrated more heavily in unskilled categories than in other types of work. While they were 12 percent of the_unskilled nonfarm labor force in 1940, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, they were 28 percent of the unskilled nonfarm labor force in 1944 and 1947. The Bureau also states that employment of colored persons as skilled craftsmen and foremen has declined since the war, although there have been significant increases in the proportion of craftsmen and foremen among white persons.

The hard fact is that most of the occupational changes that took place for colored people during the war were in those munitions industries which experienced the most severe cut-backs after the war. Also the principal job-training barriers which were relaxed during the period of armed conflict were in those forms of instruction which were short cuts in preparing men and women for war work. There has not been a substantial change in the discriminatory patterns which affect apprentice training. As you gentlemen of the committee know, such training is the basic preparation for skilled jobs.

The NAACP recently requested a few of its branches, in widely separated areas, to give a brief report on the employment practices of some of the large companies in the country. We received replies from 21 cities. The branches were asked to report on two important points: (1) We wanted to know whether the companies employed colored persons on skilled jobs.

(2) Where the companies offered apprentice training, we wanted to know whether colored people were admitted.

We received usable reports on 51 firms in 18 States. These firms. employ a total of 114,329 persons. Only 11 of these companies employ colored people on skilled jobs. Of all of the firms reporting, 29 have apprentice-training programs, but only 5 will admit colored persons to such training.

90748-49-20

We present to this committee some of the comments sent in by those who reported.

(1) Mr. Nicholas Topping, chairman of the NAACP's labor and industry committee in Milwaukee, Wis., reports the following:

The Allen Bradley Co, employs 2,200 persons but no colored individuals. Colored persons have applied in the last 6 months, some with skills and ability, only to be denied jobs because of the company's discriminatory policy. The United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers, CIO, local 1111, has tried to get the company to remove restrictions each time a new contract has been drawn up but has met with no success.

The Schlitz Brewing Co., which hires 8,000 persons, does not have a single colored person on its pay roll. The same is true of the Blatz, Pabst, and Miller brewing companies.

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Now, Mr. Chairman, I know you are a minister and I don't suppose you drink beer, but I presume there are some men who do. I would just like to make this suggestion, that every time a member drinks bottle of Schlitz, or Pabst, Blatz, or Miller beer it will serve as a reminded of two things: First, it will indicate that there is discrimination, because these companies don't employ colored people, and, second, it will show the futility of a fair-employment-practice law without teeth, because in Wisconsin there is a fair-employment-practice law, but it has no enforcement power, and all it does is educate, and it can't even educate the brewers.

(2) Dr. J. M. Tinsley, president of the Richmond, Va., NAACP, sent in the following on his city:

In the du Pont factory here colored persons are limited to certain jobs. On some of the jobs colored and white persons do the same kind of work, but the white persons are paid a difference of 28 to 48 cents more than colored. In the Liggett & Meyers tobacco plants colored people hold skilled jobs, but such positions are called "key jobs" to keep from paying colored employees wages at the skilled rates. The colored workers are not allowed to operate machines, and the maximum paid the white workers is 15 cents more than the maximum paid colored workers.

(3) Mr. C. L. Harper, president of the Atlanta, Ga., NAACP, made this statement:

The General Motors Co. in this city employs 3,000 persons, but only 200 are colored. About 200 colored veterans with skills have applied for work but have been refused jobs because of their race. All positions on the assembly lines are manned entirely by white persons. The Ford Motor Co., with 2,300 employees. hires approximately 30 colored people. None are used on skilled jobs. This company has also refused to employ colored veterans who have skills.

The Southern Bell Telephone Co., which has about 4,000 employees, refuses to use colored veterans who have served as linemen in the Army. There are about 150 colored persons working for this company.

(4) Mrs. Lulu White, executive secretary of the Houston, Tex.. NAACP, said:

In the Hughes Tool plant 4,000 persons are employed. Although there are 900 colored people working on 75 different types of work, there are 200 jobs from which colored persons are excluded by "tradition, social custom, and practice." On the other hand, in the Houston Meat Packing Co., colored and white persons have worked together for many years. Our attention was directed to a white man who has been with the company since 1897. He works side by side with Negroes and other white individuals. All of them receive the same pay for the same work. Many of them are skilled. There are 15 or 20 colored persons who have worked for this company for 35 years.

Mr. Chairman, I would like to pass over to members of the committee, to look at, a contract which was drawn up in 1939 by the Hughes

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