A. Philip Randolph: “Call to Negro America to March on Washington”

Impact

Randolph’s “Call to Negro America to March on Washington for Jobs and Equal Participation in National Defense,” in combination with the creation of March on Washington Movement committees formed in various cities to organize the proposed march, had a significant impact. President Roosevelt, with his wife, Eleanor Roosevelt, was troubled by the prospect of large numbers of protesters descending on the capital, and they tried to persuade black leaders to cancel the event. Randolph, however, remained firm, so the president decided to meet with him.

The meeting took place on June 18, 1941, with the proposed march scheduled for July 1. Roosevelt was unable to persuade Randolph to back down and realized that the only way he could forestall the march was to issue an order that Randolph and the black leadership would find acceptable. Roosevelt had resisted such civil rights initiatives, including backing any bill against lynching, because he did not want to alienate southern Democrats, who formed a significant part of his political base. Motivated, perhaps, by a combination of the justice of the cause, the need for labor as the country prepared for war, and the fact that, having just been elected to a third term, he did not have to be concerned about appeasing his political base, Roosevelt acceded. On June 25, 1941, he issued Executive Order 8802, which stated: “As a prerequisite to the successful conduct of our national defense production effort, I do hereby reaffirm the policy of the United States that there shall be no discrimination in the employment of workers in defense industries or government because of race, creed, color, or national origin.” To implement the order, Roosevelt created the Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC).

In response to Roosevelt’s pledge to issue the order, Randolph and his associates did, in fact, cancel the march. Randolph was the target of considerable criticism for doing so, for the executive order failed to desegregate the military, so some black activists accused Randolph of selling out. Nonetheless, Randolph recognized that Roosevelt had taken a significant step, at potentially great political cost to himself, in civil rights. Accordingly, he saved the issue of desegregating the military for another day.

Still, the FEPC lacked teeth. Both the staff and the agency’s annual budget were small, and the agency did not have the authority to subpoena, fine, or jail those who ignored its directives. Further, it could not regulate the hiring procedures of private employers or the membership practices of labor unions. To remedy these weaknesses, Roosevelt announced on July 30, 1942, that the War Manpower Commission would take over the administration of the FEPC. This move, however, made matters worse, for the commission’s head, the former Indiana governor Paul V. McNutt, had little sympathy for the FEPC, cut its budget, and generally impeded its efforts. After the resignation of three key members of the FEPC’s staff, the agency’s future looked grim, prompting Randolph to revive the March on Washington Movement. President Roosevelt once again bowed to pressure and on May 27, 1943, issued Executive Order 9346, strengthening and reorganizing the FEPC and placing it under the direction of Monsignor Francis J. Hass, a Catholic priest. Within months, the agency had set up nine regional offices and three satellite offices.

Scholars continue to debate the question of whether the FEPC was effective. Some argue that whatever gains black workers made would have occurred without the FEPC, for the pressure of war created a manpower shortage in industry that would have provided jobs for African Americans. Others argue that were it not for the FEPC, gains would not have been made in such industries as utilities, shipbuilding, steel mills, and public transportation. The facts, though, are indisputable. Between 1941 and 1945, 1.5 million minority workers gained employment in the defense industries; after 1942 the share of African Americans who held jobs in the defense industries more than tripled and by 1944 had risen from 2.5 percent to 8.3 percent. Additionally, another two hundred thousand to three hundred thousand minorities were employed by the federal government.

The final item on Randolph’s agenda was desegregation of the military. In 1947 Randolph founded the Committee against Jim Crow in Military Service and Training. He and other black American leaders threatened to urge black workers to go on strike, which would have exacerbated the economic disruptions caused by the nation’s conversion to a peacetime economy. Moreover, the widespread destruction of World War II, with the denial of human rights by Nazi Germany and the expansionist Japanese empire, focused attention on human rights throughout the world. African American soldiers who continued to serve in Europe in the years after the war found greater acceptance there, and they demanded this same acceptance from white American society. In this climate, Roosevelt’s successor, President Harry Truman, created the President’s Commission on Civil Rights. In 1947 the commission issued its final report, To Secure These Rights, recommending specific ways to protect the civil rights of African Americans and other minority groups. Truman faced resistance, particularly from southern senators, so he took the issue of civil rights into his own hands. On July 26, 1948, he issued Executive Order 9981, which desegregated the U.S. military. Although the military services initially resisted his order (believing they were already in compliance with earlier directives), eventually they complied, and in 1954 the U.S. Department of Defense was able to announce that the last racially segregated armed forces unit had been abolished. The second major goal of Randolph’s “Call to Negro America” was finally realized.