1 Jan 1941 Jahr - A. Philip Randolp Announces March on Washignton->FDR issues Executive Order 8802

Beschreibung:

exec order 8802: An order signed by President Roosevelt in 1941 that prohibited “discrimination in the employment of workers in defense industries or government because of race, creed, color, or national origin” and established the Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC).


Even as the United States fought World War II “to make the world safe for democracy,” it had long denied equality to its own black citizens. Black workers faced discrimination in wartime employment, and the more than 1 million black troops who served in World War II fought in segregated units commanded solely by whites. The war highlighted the jarring disconnect between ideas and reality, and “immeasurably magnified the Negro’s awareness of the disparity between the American profession and practice of democracy,” in the words of NAACP president Walter White.

In early 1941, A. Philip Randolph, whose Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters was the most prominent black trade union, announced a march on Washington. Randolph planned to bring 100,000 protesters to the nation’s capital to demand equal opportunity for black workers in war jobs — then just beginning to expand with President Franklin Roosevelt’s pledge to supply the Allies with materiel. To avoid a divisive protest, FDR issued Executive Order 8802 in June of that year, prohibiting racial discrimination in defense industries, and Randolph agreed to cancel the march. The resulting Fair Employment Practice Committee (FEPC) had few enforcement powers but set an important precedent for federal action. Randolph’s efforts also showed that white leaders and institutions could be swayed by concerted African American pressure.

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