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1302 An American Dilemma
products, electrical machinery, machinery, and textile-mill products industries.” (Federal
Security Agency, Social Security Board, Bureau of Employment Security, The Labor
Market [September, 1942], p. 13.)
2 At the close of the First World War about 39,000 Negroes were employed in plants
under the jurisdiction of the United States Shipping Board. (George E. Haynes, The
Negro at Work During the World War and During Reconstruction [1921] p. 58.
Quoted by Robert C. Weaver in “Racial Employment Trends in National Defense,”
Part I, Phylon [Fourth Quarter, 1941], p. 342.)
®The Federal Security Agency, as late as June, 1942, made the following signifi-
cant statements:
“In April, 1 940, Negroes constituted 9.8 per cent of the population, 10.7 per cent
of the Nation’s labor force, and 12.5 per cent of the unemployed. Since 1 940 Negroes
have constituted an increasing proportion of the unemployed—during the past year
from 15 to 20 per cent—^because industry has recruited its war workers almost exclu-
sively from among the white labor force.” {The Labor Market [June, 1942], p. 10.)
And:
“Over 500,000 Negroes who should be utilized for war production are now idle
because of the discriminatory hiring practices of war industries. In addition, several
million other Negroes engaged in unskilled occupations are prevented from making a
greater contribution to the war effort because employers, with few exceptions, are
unwilling to train and promote them to jobs of higher skills. Persistent discrimination
is accentuating the shortage of labor in areas where acute problems already exist. Dis-
criminatory hiring practices in these areas result in the recruitment of white in-migrants
while Negroes remain unemployed. With the influx of outside workers into these cities
housing, transportation, health, educational and sanitation facilities in many localities
have become inadequate and local problems have increased.” {lbid,y p. 9.)
^Lester B, Granger of the National Urban League (interview, August 10, 1942)
emphasized particularly the reasons given under (i), (2) and (4). Paul H. Norgren
of the War Production Board, Labor Division, stressed especially the declining need
for unskilled labor (interview, August 3, 1942).
®
“During the depression of the 1930’s employers could set almost any combination
of job specifications and still be assured an ample supply of applicants. As a result, ‘native,
Protestant, white,’ came to be a fairly widespread personal qualification for employ-
ment, Maintenance of such qualifications not only contradicts democratic principles
but in the present situation also greatly intensifies disruptive recruiting practices and
encourages unnecessary migration of unskilled as well as skilled workers. Discrimina-
tion by one company has resulted in over 40 per cent of its 34,000 workers coming from
outside the State while there yet remains a large number of unemployed Negroes in
the local community who could have been trained and hired.” {The Labor Market
[May, 1942], p. 6.)
® For a report of alleged Ku Klux Klan activity in the U.A,W, in Detroit, see PM
(February 13, 1942), p. 14.
^
Again we may quote the Federal Security Agency:
“Moreover, the bulk of placements of Negroes was concentrated in service and
unskilled occupational groups. In the first quarter of 1941 only 51 per cent of all white
placements, as against 90 per cent of all Negro placements were made in service and
unskilled occupations. In the Erst quarter of 1942 the corresponding proportions were
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