User:Suehinie/Executive Order 8802

Discrimination in Defense Industry
Even though the Selective Service Act, signed by Roosevelt on Sep 14, 1940, passed with anti-discrimination amendments, the hopefully ending military segregation, lived on by major loopholes in the final version. not many enlisted, bc literary tests. Discrimination was rampant in the military – 1942, only 0.35% of blacks in the Army were officers. after selective service act, navy said Black men can only become messmen....

randolph knows will be left out of defense industry boom. "While we are in complete sympathy with the Negro, it is agaisnt company policy to employ them as aircraft workers or mechanics... regardless of their training" (president of North American Aviation). "There will be some jobs as janitors for Negroes... We have never had a Negro worker in twenty-five years and we don't intend to start now." (Kansas City's Standard Steel).

competent black workers, technicians, artisans turned away despite labor shortages

the US employment service (USES) asked some defense industries if they'd want to hire black workers, >1/2 said no

april - october 1940 : unemployment rate 18-->13 white (more stability after depression!), stay at 22 for Black

A. philip randolf begins MOWM in Pittsburg Courier, newspaper that would later start the Double v campaign... "We loyal negro-american citizens demand the right to work and fight for our country. in Jaunary 1941

A major factor motivating civil rights leaders to advocate for the executive order was t

Civil Rights Activists' Negotiations with the Roosevelt Administration
The executive order was issued in response to pressure from civil rights activists A. Philip Randolph, Walter White, and others involved in the March on Washington Movement who had planned a march on Washington, D.C. on July 1, 1941 to protest racial discrimination in industry and the military. With the march date approaching, President Roosevelt enlisted New Dealer Aubrey Williams and labor expert Anna M. Rosenberg to work with Randolph and White to create an Executive Order that would satisfy both sides. A series of meetings in New York and Washington with Williams, Rosenberg, New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, Randolph and White resulted in the draft order. The March on Washington was suspended after Executive Order 8802 was issued on June 25, 1941.