NARA: Federal Court Records - 2

An overview of records located at NARA San Bruno - Part 2

By Martha Wallace

1)     Original Jurisdiction of the Courts – what kinds of cases did they hear?

a)  Original Jurisdiction of Circuit Court

Federal circuit courts were established to serve as trial courts for federal criminal cases, patent & copyright cases, revenue causes, suits between citizens of different states, between citizens and aliens, and civil suits initiated by the US. They had appellate jurisdiction over large admiralty cases and appeals from the district courts.

b)  Original Jurisdiction of District Courts

District courts were established as trial courts for issues arising in the district involving admiralty and maritime cases, minor civil and criminal cases, and cases at common law. A clerk, a district attorney, and a marshal were appointed to assist the judge.

2)     What you will find in the files?

a)   Soot – In a time when the best indoor lighting was provided by gaslights, the soot from the burning gas covered everything. You will find it in the nooks, crannies and folds of the documents. Wash your hands often! Handwritten documents – the handwriting of the clerks, the defendants, the lawyers, and the judge is a delight to read – or decipher! If you can’t figure something out, look at other documents in the file to find the same letters, words, or names, and hope that will help you make a determination.  

b)  Case files containing bonds, information, libel of information, complaints, costs (of clerks, witnesses, informants, marshals, more), notice of trial, affidavits, petitions, orders, claims, monitions, reports of appraisers, answers of claimants/defendants, praecipe, dismissal, subpoenas, venire, demurrers, customs officers, tax collectors (Collector of Internal Revenue), informants, decrees, venditioni exponas, complaints, stipulations, notes of testimony (written by Judge Ogden Hoffman), condemnation & forfeitures, sureties, duties (See http://thelawdictionary.org for more).

c)   Docket book – This large book has entries for each case showing the dates that actions were taken, a summary of proceedings, including a brief abstract of motions and orders, a record of the fees collected, and a statement of the disposition of the case. This can be cross-checked with the case files to learn more about the chronology of the case.

d)   What’s in the index/spread sheet/database columns 

Box number – the files are stored in numbered acid-free document boxes.

Docket Book – the number of the docket book; the page in the docket book if available.

Case # - the cases were numbered sequentially.

Plaintiffs – who filed the suit, usually the United States.

Defendants – who or what was being taken to court – in many cases it’s a list of items confiscated by Internal Revenue or Customs.

Witnesses and other parties – names mentioned in the case files such as witnesses, claimants, bondsmen, investigators.

Date of Offense

Date Filed

Location – cities and counties in northern California, with occasional southern California and other west coast locations.

Subject – Type of case (information, libel, complaint) and nature of the offense.

Attorneys – the US District Attorney and defendant’s attorney (if noted).

Disposition – who won – or was the case dismissed?

3)   What you will not find

a)  Transcripts – Word for word transcripts were not a part of court documents at this time. The best document to learn the reason for the case is the complaint/information of the original filing. If there are judge’s notes or notes of testimony, you will learn a little more. If the case was reported in the newspapers, you will find more specific details there.

b)  Not found – In some instances the document file was not found in the box, but there is an entry in the docket book. The information entered in the database is what could be gleaned from the docket entries.

4)   How to request the files   If you find that an ancestor was involved in one of the cases, contact NARA to visit and see the whole file.  NARA Contact Page

NARA: Federal Court Records - 1

An overview of records located at NARA San Bruno - Part 1

By Martha Wallace

Federal circuit courts were established to serve as trial courts for federal criminal cases, suits between 
citizens of different states, and civil suits initiated by the US. They had appellate jurisdiction over large admiralty cases and appeals from the district courts.

1.   California Federal Courts through the Years  . 

Judge Ogden Hoffman Jr.
San Francisco Call
19 December 1893
Wikipedia

a.   California became a state in 1850 and the first federal court opened in May 1851: the United States District Court for the Northern District of California with Judge Ogden Hoffman appointed by Congress. 

Judge Hoffman served from 1851 to 1891. In 1852, the judge of the Southern District died and the Northern District judge also served that post until 1854. 

Merchant Exchange 1856
Bancroft Library

The first courthouse opened in 1855 in the Merchant’s Exchange Building on Battery Street. This court considered cases involving admiralty, land disputes, and public order. In 1866, California became one judicial district and in 1886 it was divided again into Northern and Southern districts.

Matthew Hall McCallister
City Hall, San Francisco
Wikipedia

b. In 1850 there were nine circuit courts, originally created for the nine justices of the Supreme Court to “ride circuit.” From 1851 to 1855 there was no circuit court for California. The district courts in California held jurisdiction of both district and circuit courts. At that time, California was too far away from Washington, DC, for an assignment to a Supreme Court justice.

c.   In 1855, the US Circuit Court for the Districts of California was established without a Supreme Court Justice to preside. This court had the same jurisdiction as other federal circuit courts. It met once a year in San Francisco, with special sessions as necessary. Matthew McAllister served as the judge until 1863; his salary was $4500.

d.  In 1863, the California circuit court was abolished and Congress created the Tenth Circuit and appointed a Supreme Court justice to serve that circuit. The first justice to hold that position was Stephen J. Field. Jurisdiction included California and Oregon. In 1865 Nevada was added. The Tenth Circuit was abolished in 1866 and California, Nevada, and Oregon were assigned to the Ninth Circuit, with Lorenzo Sawyer as the first judge. California remained in the Ninth Circuit, with further states added in succeeding years.

Stephen Johnson Field 1875
Library of Congress

Lorenzo Sawyer
Wikipedia

History of the Federal Judiciary

NARA Databases: Fair Employment Practices Committee

WWII War Industry Workers Discrimination Files

By Martha Wallace

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

Complaints could be lodged against a busi­ness, union, or gov­ernment agency and fell into the categories of race, relig­ion, na­tional origin, and citi­zenship. Complaints devel­oped from four gen­eral types of griev­ances:

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.

2. Company policies and practices did not al­low the hiring of certain groups. Often the excuse was that the whites, or whites from the South, would not tolerate working with the minorities. This trans­lated into a need for separate facilities (changing rooms, more offices, etc.) leading to greater cost and space problems.

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.

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 

Betty Reid Soskin 3376
NPS Photo

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