One of them is, where employees in a given field are not thought to be receptive to the employment of persons, irrespective of their color or religion, to commence, No. 1, an educational program among all the employers in the field; and secondly, an educational program among the employees, and then I would say-and this is very important—the employment of colored persons or Jewish persons in the field for the first time who are not only the best qualified but who have the proper temperament to go into these industrial organizations and keep their chins high and not bridle at insults, if they should come, but always to keep in mind the objective. Their very employment in a job that they are going to do is going to break down the resistance not only of the employer but also the employee.

As a matter of fact, we had a number of cases where, after a successful conciliation was accomplished, the person or persons who filed the complaints originally were afraid to go in and work in the company because, they said, "Now the employer is not going to like me because I brought the complaint," or "the employees will not get along with me because I forced my way in."

I don't think that any section of this country-particularly the South-ought to fear that its customs and mores and habits are going to be changed overnight; that the men are going to be forced against their will to do something with which they have no sympathy. I say that for this reason: In Massachusetts, since the FEPC, there has been so much opportunity provided for persons of our so-called minority groups that today I can frankly say there are more jobs open for them in fields from which they had been previously barred than there are qualified persons to take those jobs. One of the big problems that is going to arise after the first hump is over is to get qualified persons of minority groups to go in and work. It is going to take time, not to educate the employers particularly, but to educate the new employees, and to get them trained in the first place, to get them in a position where they can qualify and be accepted for employment in competition with other persons who have had advantages for a much longer time.

I think that it will be a slow process at best in fully achieving a recognition by employers all over the United States that they have to comply with the Federal law, because before they can comply they have got to be given the opportunity, and before they can have the opportunity, these persons who have not had the chance of education, or the chance to get the experience, have to go through that stage first. It is not going to happen if you pass a Federal law, in a year or 2 or 3 years; it is going to take some time to remove all fears that this section or that section of the country is going to be faced with a terrific problem right away. I think the act will be accepted all over the United States, and public opinion has shown that the dire results which are predicted today never come true.

We ought not to fear so much the colored man, or the matter of religious preference in the United States. I think we will do away with this question when equality of opportunity in education and employment is given to all people.

When these steps have been accomplished by legislation, by education, all of us will seem less different to each other, less strange, and we ought to live in harmony. Let me paraphrase the words of our

late President, when this happens "we shall have nothing to fear but fear itself."

Mr. POWELL. I thank you for a very fine piece of observation. I have one question. You have the right to initiate complaints, while New York State does not have it.

Mr. MCKENNEY. That is right.

Mr. POWELL. Have you used that right?

Mr. McKENNEY. Yes; we have used that right. We have used it approximately 140 times.

Mr. POWELL. It is interesting to know that in New York State the commission cannot initiate a proceeding unless someone makes a complaint to the commission, while in Massachusetts you can, and out of 300 cases

Mr. MCKENNEY. Out of over 500 cases.

Mr. POWELL. Out of 500 cases almost one-third of the cases you initiated yourself.

Mr. MCKENNEY. That is right. Of course we are very careful to see that the evidence exists primarily for the initiation of the complaint.

Mr. POWELL. Mr. Burke.

Mr. BURKE. I have no questions, but I would like to join with the chairman, Mr. Powell, and with Mr. Nixon in congratulating the witness for the fine presentation he made.

Mr. POWELL. Mr. Eugene Calhoun. This is a delegation of miners from Bessemer, Ala., who appear here today just for these hearings. Mr. Calhoun will speak for the group.

TESTIMONY OF EUGENE CALHOUN, OF BESSEMER, ALA., REPRESENTING THE MINE, MILL, AND SMELTER WORKERS OF THE BESSEMER DISTRICT, ACCOMPANIED BY FRANK ALLEN, J. P. MOONEY, E. H. COLEMAN, AND ROBERT WILSON

I

Mr. CALHOUN. I am Eugene Calhoun, from Birmingham, Ala. am speaking for the mine, mill, and smelter workers of the Bessemer I work for the Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad Co.

area.

One reason why I want to support the fair employment practices is because these people down there are being denied the rights and privileges to have a job and to earn a decent living, because of their color. This particular company, in the last 2 years almost completely quit hiring Negroes. They hire whites about 100 to 1. Of course that is not because of their inefficiency, but because they can use them to bust the labor unions.

I think the fair-employment-practice law should not only be run to protect workers against the company from discriminating against them, but also protect the workers in the labor unions. We find in the South the companies are being able to hire one race against the other, and they are able to bust the labor union, so the labor union is not able to protect the minority workers, or the Negro workers in the area. We feel if we had such a law it would protect those people in the It also would protect, in a lot of cases, the people from starvation, because, as it is in the big department stores down there, some pressure groups come along where Negro workers are hired, who have been working there for years, and they come along and tell them,

area.

"You must displace this person and give that job to some white worker," simply because they feel there is a white worker out of a job. If there was a law passed then this employer would not fear these people and put the colored people wandering on the streets.

A lot of times the employer wants to keep the help that he has, but due to the fact that he has got these pressure groups to press him, he lets his best help go.

We feel if this law was passed it not only would increase production and quality of the people, but it would help the employers, the public, and everybody concerned.

The company that I work for has, in a large degree, tried at times to promote the Negro workers, but they had no law to back them up and pressure groups kept them from promoting the Negroes. There probably was a time when I myself would have gone up higher had it not been for such influence.

You know some people go along and say, "We will take care of this on a voluntary basis. We don't need any law."

I would like to bring out a point, that before the abolition of slavery the people said, "We will take care of it," but it went along through the years and nothing was done. It is necessary that we have a law that will take care of the people, because that is what the laws are written for.

In this area, where these different people are using race against race where, if they had a fair-employment-practices bill they could not do it, they are not only destroying the worker's right to organize but are destroying his rights to an education, and to have the other necessities of life.

So, coming out of the South and knowing the conditions there, it floors a man to know how much the law would help, because there are not just a few things that ought to be done, but there are thousands of them.

Another place where this law would help is where terror is being spread. If this law were passed that would not come about, because it would be a law and they would have no reason to go around and try to make a man violate the law. There being no law, they have no alternative but to make them go along with the oppression.

For the last 16 years we have had a labor oraginzation there, and we had to fight to keep the rights of some of the people in that area. Even after gaining certain rights for some other people in that area, but not having a law, these companies went to the white workers and were able to bribe them, that is, to stop the promotion of Negroes or the promotion of any other minority groups.

That is why I would like to see the law not just cover the employer but also the labor unions.

Recently we entered into a collective-bargaining election where terror exists, and where probably this election would not have been held had there been this Fair Employment Practice Act. Some people might use the argument that you would divide the people, but I think it would bring them together. The only way to divide them is to not have it, and they will continually be divided, but if this law was passed naturally the American citizens would all be willing to obey the law. It has always pinched the people down there, because not only are not equal wages paid them for the same kind of work, but they set up the jobs there for the colored and for the white, and the

colored do not have a chance to be promoted, with all their qualifications. There is no reason why the majority of colored people in the South should not feel that FEPC would really start them on the way to a better living.

Mr. POWELL. May I ask you a couple of questions? You work as an iron-ore miner?

Mr. CALHOUN. I do.

Mr. POWELL. How long have you worked as a miner?

Mr. CALHOUN. Twenty-nine years.

Mr. POWELL. How long have you had a union down there?

Mr. CALHOUN. About 16 years.

Mr. POWELL. Do Negro and white people work together, or how is it set up?

Mr. CALHOUN. They do not work together now.

Mr. POWELL. They used to work together?

Mr. CALHOUN. They used to work together.
Mr. POWELL. Side by side?

Mr. CALHOUN. That is right.

Mr. POWELL. Until how long ago?

Mr. CALHOUN. Sixteen years ago. I might relate this story to you: Sixteen years ago I was what they called a head miner, or a section foreman, and under me worked white men. That was before the union. After the union came they divided the white men and the colored men, put the white men in one group and the colored men in another.

If they hire a white miner and I am a foreman, they tell me I will have to leave this job or he will have to leave, because he can't work there with me.

Mr. POWELL. Of course, you see, under the FEPC, under the law they can still work white and Negro separately, but they cannot discriminate in hiring. You claim now Negroes do not get a chance to be hired as they used to?

Mr. CALHOUN. That is right.

Mr. POWELL. The ratio now you say is about 100 to 1?

Mr. CALHOUN. 100 to 1.

Mr. POWELL. What did it used to be?

Mr. CALHOUN. Our ratio used to be about 78 Negroes to about 22 whites.

Mr. POWELL. Is the United Mine Workers in your area also?
Mr. CALHOUN. They are a good way from there.

Mr. POWELL. How do they work? Do they work together pretty well?

Mr. CALHOUN. Yes; they work together pretty good.

Mr. POWELL. They are not meeting any discrimination?
Mr. CALHOUN. I don't know much about their organization.

Mr. POWELL. Mr. Burke, do you have any questions?

Mr. BURKE. I don't quite understand what you say. You say for 16 years you have been organized. Prior to that time you operated as a foreman, but since the organization you have been deprived of your opportunity of acting as a foreman.

Mr. CALHOUN. Sixteen years ago I was a foreman and I had white men work under me. That was before the union. Since that time they have divided up and we don't work together under each other.

Mr. BURKE. Who has divided them?

Mr. CALHOUN. The company has.

Mr. POWELL. How long ago did they do that?

Mr. CALHOUN. Sixteen years ago.

Mr. POWELL. What did the union do?

Mr. CALHOUN. When the union first started organizing there they divided them up.

Mr. BURKE. Did the division come prior to the organization of the union or after the organization of the union?

Mr. CALHOUN. After the organization of the union. That was during the process of it.

Mr. POWELL. You mean the company divided you as a means of trying to get even with the union?

Mr. CALHOUN. That is right.

Mr. POWELL. The union won the election?

Mr. CALHOUN. At that time, yes; the union won the election.

Mr. POWELL. And then the company divided the Negro from the white and tried to play one group against the other; is that right? Mr. CALHOUN. That is right.

Mr. BURKE. According to this written statement you have just gone through a collective-bargaining election. What were the circumstances there?

Mr. CALHOUN. This is an election between the unions in that area down there.

Mr. ALLEN. I would like to answer that.

Mr. POWELL. You are one of the miners down there?

Mr. ALLEN. Yes, sir. During the election, or sometime before the election was held, about a period of a year, the company frankly refused to hire any Negroes at all. They hired all white workers in order to get a majority of their employees white, in order to defeat this election that is mentioned here, and they did it by playing race against race.

Mr. BURKE. What you are saying, then, is that the union was set up purely for the purpose of promoting racial discrimination?

Mr. ALLEN. No, no; not that the union was set up for the purpose of racial discrimination.

Mr. BURKE. Is it a union of national affiliation?

Mr. ALLEN. Certainly.

Mr. BURKE. Then it was not set up for that purpose?

Mr. ALLEN. No; not the way we look at it.

Mr. BURKE. That is a pretty serious charge.

Mr. ALLEN. Absolutely, and we realize that.

Mr. BURKE. That the election was held, you might say, purely for the purpose of racial discrimination.

Mr. ALLEN. What other way could you determine it when the companies refused to hire Negroes until they got the whites in a substantial majority, and then refused to bargain until the elections were held?

Mr. BURKE. Mr. Chairman, if that kind of allegation is made here, I think the representatives of the other unions involved in this election. should be given an opportunity to be heard.

Mr. POWELL. Do you suggest that?

Mr. BURKE. Yes.

Mr. POWELL. All right.