Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC)
The Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC) was established in 1941 in response to growing pressure from African American leaders for the elimination of racial discrimination in defense industries during World War II. Following A. Philip Randolph's threat to organize a massive march on Washington, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802, which prohibited discrimination based on race, creed, color, or national origin in defense work. The FEPC was tasked with investigating complaints and addressing grievances related to this order. Initially, the committee faced challenges due to limited authority, funding, and staffing, which restricted its ability to enforce compliance effectively.
Despite these limitations, the FEPC saw some success, particularly as it gained more authority in 1943 amidst labor shortages. However, it ultimately resolved less than half of the complaints it received, and many of its directives were often ignored by employers and unions. Even though African American employment in war industries increased during this time, many attributed this change to wartime demands rather than the FEPC's influence. The committee's efforts to become a permanent agency post-war were thwarted by legislative opposition, particularly from southern Democrats. Ultimately, it was not until the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that a federal agency was established with a similar mission to combat employment discrimination.
Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC)
In the spring of 1941, as the United States prepared to enter World War II, African American leaders pressured the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt to eliminate segregation in the armed forces and discriminatory hiring practices in the booming war industries. A. Philip Randolph, president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the largest black labor union, threatened a massive march on Washington, DC, by a hundred thousand demonstrators under the banner Democracy Not Hypocrisy—Jobs Not Alms. Roosevelt, hoping to avoid an embarrassing racial protest that might divide the Democratic Party and his administration at a time when he needed unity for his war-preparedness program, moved to head off the March on Washington movement by meeting with Randolph and Walter White, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). On June 25, 1941, a week before the planned march, Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802. It prohibited discrimination by employers, unions, and government agencies involved in defense work on the basis of race, creed, color, or national origin but made no mention of desegregating the armed forces. Roosevelt established the Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC) to investigate complaints and redress grievances stemming from the order. Randolph and White accepted the compromise arrangement and called off the march.
Although African Americans hailed the FEPC as the greatest step forward in race relations since the Civil War, Roosevelt initially gave the agency little authority. Underfunded and understaffed, the FEPC at first could do little more than conduct investigations into complaints received and make recommendations, relying on the powers of publicity and persuasion to achieve change. In mid-1943, however, amid mounting concern that manpower shortages were hurting the war effort, Roosevelt beefed up the agency by giving it the authority to conduct hearings, make findings, issue directives to war industries, and make recommendations to the War Manpower Commission to curb discrimination.
The FEPC had a mixed record of accomplishment in eliminating racial discrimination in the war industries and government agencies. It resolved less than half of the eight thousand complaints received, and employers and unions often ignored its compliance orders with impunity. Although African American employment in the war industries increased from 3 percent in 1942 to 8 percent in 1945 and the federal government more than tripled its number of black employees, such changes had more to do with wartime labor shortages than FEPC actions. Nevertheless, the FEPC scored some significant successes. In 1944, federal troops broke up a strike by white Philadelphia transit workers and enforced an FEPC directive that blacks be upgraded to positions as streetcar operators. At war’s end, despite the FEPC’s shortcomings, African American leaders and white liberals hoped to transform the committee into a permanent agency. In 1946, however, southern Democrats in the Senate filibustered a bill to extend the FEPC and killed the agency. Although several northern states passed their own Fair Employment Practices acts, the Senate again blocked bills to create a permanent FEPC in 1950 and 1952. Not until the Civil Rights Act of 1964 did the federal government establish another agency devoted to eliminating racial discrimination in employment practices.
Bibliography
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