Speaker 1: Right now. It signed for the way Black History Fact
Speaker 1: in today's way Black History Fact is sponsored by Major
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Speaker 1: we're going to talk about when discrimination became illegal in
Speaker 1: the military. All right, This is from history dot Com.
Speaker 1: One June twenty fifth, nineteen forty one. With World War
Speaker 1: Two heating up in Europe, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed
Speaker 1: an Executive Order eighty eight oh two prohibiting ethnic and
Speaker 1: racial discrimination in the country's growing defense industry. The order,
Speaker 1: issued after adamant protests by African American leaders, marked the
Speaker 1: US government's first move to ban employment discrimination and promote
Speaker 1: equal opportunity, and its first presidential directive on race since
Speaker 1: the period of reconstruction after the Civil War. Three years
Speaker 1: into the war in Europe, US factories making military aircraft, munitions, uniforms,
Speaker 1: and other supplies for the Allied powers were starting to
Speaker 1: lift the country out of the Great Depression. In this time,
Speaker 1: segregation and harsh gym crow laws. Many of these factories
Speaker 1: and defense contractors refused to hire African Americans, many of
Speaker 1: whom had left the Southern States during the Great Migration
Speaker 1: and headed north looking for work. Longtime civil rights activist A.
Speaker 1: Philip Randolph, head of the country's largest black union, the
Speaker 1: Brotherhood of Sleeping car Porters, formed a march on Washington
Speaker 1: to bring thousands of African Americans to the Lincoln Memorial
Speaker 1: to protest discrimination. Other African American organizations joined the effort
Speaker 1: and planned to bring one hundred thousand people to the
Speaker 1: march set for July first, nineteen forty one. In tense
Speaker 1: efforts by the Roosevelt administration to get the leaders to
Speaker 1: call off the march failed, as Randolph and other early
Speaker 1: civil rights leaders stood firm in their demands that Roosevelt
Speaker 1: issued an executive order to end employment discrimination in the
Speaker 1: defense industry and in government. Roosevelt ultimately acquiesced and signed
Speaker 1: the order a week before the march was to take place.
Speaker 1: It was just five months before Japanese warplans attack Pearl
Speaker 1: Harbor and the US officially entered the war. Making the
Speaker 1: case to indiscrimination. The order's preamble states that, quote the
Speaker 1: democrat way of life within the nation can be defended
Speaker 1: successfully only with the help and support of all groups
Speaker 1: within his borders unquote. The order established the fair employment
Speaker 1: Practice Committee to educate the industry on anti discrimination requirements
Speaker 1: and investigate the alleged violations. But Randolph and other critics
Speaker 1: said its small size and budget left it in a
Speaker 1: proverbial left it a proverbial sorry, left it a proverbial
Speaker 1: David fighting the goliath of the massive defense contracting bureaucracy.
Speaker 1: He threatened again to march on Washington to fix this.
Speaker 1: In May nineteen forty three, Roosevelt strengthened the FEPC in
Speaker 1: Executive Order ninety three forty six by making it more independent,
Speaker 1: authorizing twelve regional offices and staff, expanding its jurisdiction to
Speaker 1: all federal government departments and agencies, and requiring that all
Speaker 1: government contracts have a mandatory non discrimination clause. Hundreds of
Speaker 1: discrimination complaints were filed with the newly expanded agency and
Speaker 1: defense industry hubs like Chicago, Philadelphia, New York, and San Francisco.
Speaker 1: The FEPC. He did not end racial discrimination and employment
Speaker 1: during World War Two, but it opened more doors for
Speaker 1: African Americans to enter occupations and industries previously close to them.
Speaker 1: So I'm promising better paying jobs. After the war, it
Speaker 1: doubled the number of workers in the defensive industry from
Speaker 1: three to eight percent, and tripled the number of black
Speaker 1: workers in the federal workforce. Despite efforts by President Harry
Speaker 1: Truman and others to establish a permanent FEPC, Congress cut
Speaker 1: off its funding in July nineteen forty five. The agency
Speaker 1: formally dissolved in nineteen forty six. Truman ended segregation in
Speaker 1: the armed forces with Executive Order ninety nine eighty one
Speaker 1: in nineteen forty eight. The government would move to prohibit
Speaker 1: employment discrimination again years later, with the creation of the
Speaker 1: Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to enforce Title seven of the
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty four Civil Rights Act. Go mob to brother
Speaker 1: a Philip Randolph. I like when you talk like that,
Speaker 1: I just got to shout my brothers out every time.
Speaker 1: And yeah, still up here, where here, we