Fair Employment Practices Committee

By: Kate Tuttle

Source:

 Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience, Second Edition

Fair Employment Practices Committee

Short-lived United States federal agency charged with investigating and correcting discrimination in defense and other industries, established in 1941 in response to A. Philip Randolph's March on Washington Movement.

Since the United States entered World War I in 1917, African Americans had protested both the segregation of the U.S. military and the rampant job discrimination in the war-powered defense industries. Black workers, often the last hired and first fired, had been disproportionately affected by the Great Depression of the 1930s, and for most work remained an important issue. A number of black leaders saw such inequities as symptomatic of the dismal economic situation most African Americans faced. Among these leaders was A. Philip Randolph, president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP), the first African American labor union. As the country prepared to enter World War II (1939–1945), Randolph spearheaded a movement that sought economic justice for African Americans.

Along with Walter White, secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and T. Arnold Hill, of the National Urban League, Randolph asked President Franklin D. Roosevelt to end segregation in the armed forces and open wartime jobs to black workers. After a disappointing first meeting with Roosevelt in September 1940, Randolph began to plan what became known as the March on Washington Movement, issuing a call for a “March on Washington for jobs in national defense and equal integration in the fighting forces of the United States.” Randolph wrote that the demonstration would “shake up official Washington, gain respect for the Negro people, [and build] self-respect among Negroes.” With the help of 10,000 BSCP members, Randolph sought to mobilize at least that many to march on July 1, 1941.

To avoid the embarrassing attention such a large demonstration would attract, Roosevelt met again with Randolph and White on June 18. This time, with the threat of the march—its size now predicted at 100,000 by White—hanging over him, the president capitulated. On June 25 Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802, which outlawed discrimination in “the employment of workers in defense industries or government” and provided for the creation of a Fair Employment Practices Committee (originally called the President's Committee on Fair Employment Practices). It did not, however, affect the position of blacks in the military, which was not desegregated until 1948.

The FEPC was responsible for enforcing the antidiscrimination law by conducting investigations, gathering evidence, and reporting abuses. However, exactly how effective the FEPC proved in curtailing government job discrimination is not clear, although the number of African Americans working for the federal government grew rapidly in the 1940s. Originally comprised of four members, two black and two white, as the FEPC grew larger only white members were added. Milton Webster, vice president of the BSCP, and NAACP activists Clarence M. Mitchell, Jr., and Charles H. Houston were among the African Americans who filled the perpetual two black slots on the FEPC.

The FEPC lost power throughout its brief existence, twice facing reorganization, and was disbanded in 1946. Despite its failure to become permanent—bills to establish a permanent FEPC failed to pass the U.S. Senate in 1946, 1950, and 1952—the FEPC inspired a host of state agencies. The March on Washington Movement that was directly responsible for its creation continued and found new expression in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, mostly notably in the landmark March on Washington of 1963.

See also Labor Leaders; March on Washington, 1941; March on Washington, 1963; Military, Blacks in the American; World War II and African Americans.

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