WWII War Industry Workers Discrimination Files
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Courtesy NARA at SF |
Did someone in your
family work in an essential war industry in Northern California, Washington,
Oregon or Nevada during World War II? Was this person a racial or religious minority,
or from another country?
The Fair Employment
Practices Committee was created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt by Executive
Order 8802 on June 25, 1941. The order banned discrimination in any defense
industry receiving federal contracts by declaring …
"there shall be no discrimination in the employment of workers in
defense industries or government because of race, creed, color, or national
origin." The order also empowered
the FEPC to investigate complaints and take action regarding employment discrimination.
Only those cases that involved essential
wartime industries were investigated.
It was created by
President Roosevelt after A. Phillip Randolph, head of the Brotherhood of
Sleeping Car Porters, threatened a march on Washington unless something was
done to correct the great injustices in employment discrimination that were
occurring, not only among African Americans, but also because of religion
and nationality. FDR agreed to have the
FEPC prohibit discrimination in defense plants, but he refused to address
the issue of segregation in the military, which had been Randolph's original
concern.
For the first two years, the Committee existed only in Washington, D.
C., with little funding and power. In May 1943, the committee expanded to 13
regional and 5 sub-regional offices with power (and funding) to investigate
claims, conduct hearings, and take steps to eliminate discrimination. The regional
FEPC office in San Francisco handled all cases on the west coast, including
Washington, Nevada, and Oregon, with a sub-office in Los Angeles.
Hiring by wartime
industries was done in two general ways:
• Requests sent by a company or a government service (for example, Alameda Naval Air Station) to the USES (United States Employment Service).
• Requests sent to the union by a company with a union contract.
The
records contain stories of brave men and
women who filed complaints with the
FEPC
1. Supervisors often gave preference in types of jobs and
promotions to whites, giving the African Americans and other minorities more menial
jobs and not advancing them to positions which had better conditions and
higher pay, although in many cases the complainant had
received government training for the better position, and often had moved to the
Bay Area from the Midwest or the South to take advantage of the job opportunities.
Often minority workers doing the same job as white workers received less pay.
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Report from Richmond Shipyards, Electricians Union B-302. Courtesy NARA at SF |
3.
The other workers wouldn’t tolerate
working with minorities. As explained above, companies said they tried to deal
with this at great cost and inconvenience. The FEPC often sent a pamphlet “How
Management Can Integrate Negroes in War Industries,” or would offer help to the
company to deal with the issue.
4. Unions had written into their charters that African
Americans and/or women were not allowed to join. The companies, especially the
shipbuilding companies, had contracts with the unions and would not hire anyone
who did not have a “ticket” from the union.
Once this was challenged, the unions created auxiliaries for African
Americans. Although they paid full membership, they did not receive full membership
benefits, including insurance, the right to vote, and the right to certain
types of jobs – usually the better jobs in terms of conditions and pay.
A California Supreme Court Case, James vs. Marinship and the
International Brotherhood of Boilermakers (February 1944) dealt with union discrimination. The
decision held that auxiliaries were illegal and that unions could not exclude
African Americans when there was a closed shop in the industry. It effectively vacated the union’s practice
of requiring auxiliary membership for African Americans who worked in the
shipyards and ordered the union to grant them equal membership with other
shipyard workers.
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Letter to President Roosevelt from Lila James, Thanksgiving Day, 1942. Courtesy NARA st SF |
The records contain stories of brave men and women who filed complaints with the FEPC. When the situations are described, the discrimination is often so blatant and the opportunities so obvious for retaliation against a complainant, that it is clear that it took amazing courage to come forth with the complaint.
The records produced in the San Francisco office of the FEPC for northern California, Portland, and Seattle had been stored away and rarely investigated until the recent creation of a database by Helen Crisman and Martha Wallace. The database is which is available at the National Archives, Pacific Region and on the SMCGS website.
These files are a
valuable resource for those who are researching family history, wartime industry,
the labor movement, and civil rights.
Check the FEPC Index (link below) If you find a file of interest fill in the research form and contact NARA to set up a time to view the files, which need to be brought from the stacks. The
thrill of reading the whole story and perhaps finding a letter with your ancestor’s signature is not to be missed!
- FEPC Database (SMCGS.com). This file includes a longer description of the FEPC files.
- The NARA Databases - Overview and tips for Accessing Records
- Contact NARA, Pacific Region, San Francisco
- Results Form - FEPC Database
During
World War II Betty Reid Soskin worked as a clerk for Boilermakers Union A-36,
an African-American auxiliary. Today she is a park ranger at the Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front
National Historical Park in Richmond, which explores and honors the role of
women and African-Americans in war industries
The National Archives, Pacific Region, San Francisco
1000 Commodore Drive, San Bruno, CA 94066-2350
(650) 238-3501 sanbruno.archives@nara.gov