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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - Footnotes - Chapter 39
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1408 An American Dilemma
never announced a plan to solve all of the labor problems of the Negro. ... It has
never announced that its programs is to organize Negro labor. It has sense enough to
knotv that it could not be successful in this if it tried any more so than any other group,
outside of the workers themselves.” (Letter, August 8, 1940.)
And: “Such a program [of securing employment for Negroes] demands not only
that Negroes be induced to prepare formally for jobs which the League helps to open for
them, but also that labor unions be induced to welcome Negroes to membership and
Negroes be educated to the value of collective bargaining as a necessary development in
progressive society, ... I think that any student of social problems must confess that
the real job of workers’ education belongs to the workers themselves and is a part of the
program of most well organized labor movements.” (Memorandum, June 17, 1941.)
The League also points to its Workers’ Councils which have been organized during
recent years to educate the Negro workers in the principles of collective bargaining.
“The work of these Councils was not simply theoretical education. They actually organ-
ized Negroes and got them into unions where union membership was a requisite for
obtaining jobs. ... It was estimated that at least 1,000 Negro workers moved into union
ranks within a space of two years as a result of the Workers’ Councils’ leadership.”
(Lester B. Granger, letter of August 7, 1942.)
Concerning the effect of the War on the activity of the Urban League, Lester B.
Granger informs that it “has been to intensify and emphasize some of its activities
rather than to change its program ;
for instance, in the employment field, attention has
been put on war jobs for Negroes on the semi-skilled and skilled levels. Employers have
been approached with a new argument—that of the need for all-out 100% use of
every available labor resource. As the public employment service became more and more
important in filling war job orders, more attention has been given by the League to
correcting unsound practices and inadequate policies of state employment services. This
concern was increased when first the President federalized all state employment servicer
and merged them into the United States Employment Service, and when the War
Manpower Commission, using the U.S.E.S. facilities, was given full authority in register-
ing, classifying, assigning, and possibly drafting labor for war uses. In this situation,
the professional placement experience of the Urban League has proven to be invaluable
as an aid to educating and otherwise influencing public employment officials.
“The League has given a good deal of attention to war housing of Negroes in such
key cities as Buffalo, Detroit, Baltimore, Kansas City, New Orleans, and Atlanta. Work
with local housing authorities has been accompanied by work with the National Housing
Agency to insure a fair proportion of war housing for Negro workers. Local Urban
Leagues have been active in the Civilian Defense program, recruiting and helping to train
volunteer workers, assisting in the sale of defense and war bonds, disseminating informa-
tion for consumers, and carrying on similar activities.” (Letter of August 7, 1942.)
Emily H. Clay observes on this point:
“For the past couple of years the Southern Region of the Y.M.C.A., which occupies
space on the same floor with us, has had in its office a Negro Student Secretary. Also,
for about two years (1924-1926) Mr. David O. Jones served as our General Field
Secretary, resigning in 1926 to become president of Bennett College. During that period
he spent part time in an office provided for him at our headquarters and part time, for
convenience, in an office provided on one of the local campuses [in a Negro university].
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