A copy of the memorandum in full is attached marked "Exhibit 18." At that time the manual and the posters were drawn to the attention of Local No. 314 of International Union of Operating Engineers AFL-CIO, bargaining agent for our employees, and we received no comment of any sort from them indicating any lack of sympathy with or opposition to the program thereby outlined. On February 19, 1959, we were furnished with a copy of "Compliance Guide" issued by the President's Committee on Government Contracts. This was made available to pertinent personnel by my memorandum of February 26, 1959, wherein I stated in part "As in the past we will continue our nondiscriminatory employment policy. Those concerned with purchasing, preparing contracts, and employment of people should study this booklet very carefully." A copy of the memorandum is attached marked "Exhibit 19." Our basic contract with the Atomic Energy Commission prohibits discrimination and all other contracts or subcontracts relating to our station or its operation carry nondiscrimination clauses, a copy of that clause is attached marked "Exhibit 20." All our purchase orders carry a nondiscrimination provision as shown in copy thereof attached and marked "Exhibit 21." Our forms for application for employment in no way indicate race of the applicant as shown by copy attached marked "Exhibit 22." Our union contract carries provision that it is subject to all applicable Federal and State laws and regulations having the effect of laws. We intend in every respect to continue to the fullest our practice of nondiscrimination which was commenced with the organization of the company. Shortly after assuming the presidency of the company, on August 9, 1961, I issued a memorandum, a copy of which is attached marked "Exhibit 23," to insure a thorough understanding by all personnel of my attitude on this question and as a directive as to company policy. In this memorandum I stated: "The company, from the very beginning has taken steps to see that we have complied with section 7.13, "Antidiscrimination," of contract No. AT-(40-1)1312 between Electric Energy, Inc., and the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. Our employment practices have been reviewed from time to time in order to ascertain if we were complying with various Presidential orders governing nondiscrmination on Government contracts. Since that time, we have kept you informed of President Kennedy's Executive order as well as the recent FEPC statute passed by the Illinois Legislature and enacted into law by signature of the Governor. "We must continue reviewing our employment practices in order to be certain we have not become careless or permitted any oversight that will place us in jeopardy of violating our contract with the Atomic Energy Commission, the recent Executive order signed by President Kennedy or violating the State FEPO law. "Each of you are requested to make a personal review of our employment practices and, in the very near future, a staff meeting will be held to discuss any recommendation as to changes that should be made in order to assure ourselves that we are complying fully with all regulations pertaining to nondiscrimination. "Although we have taken every means to assure ourselves applications for employment in no way indicates race, creed or color, we must be certain our security officers and other employees do not notify us, in advance of the color or race of an applicant being admitted to the premises for a personal interview. All applicants must be considered on their qualifications for the particular job or position for which they are applying." This is my attitude on this subject and will be the policy of the company during my tenure as president. No applicant has been and no applicant will be given special consideration due to race, color, or creed, and by the same token no applicant has been and no applicant will be denied employment by reason of race, color, or creed. Your letter states that Dr. Holman "testified" that our firm engaged in discriminatory employment practices and offered us the opportunity to file with the subcommittee a "written reply to the allegations." From your letter it is not clear that Dr. Holman did or did not make his statement under oath and it is not suggested that if so we reply in kind. However, please be assured that both Mr. White and I are prepared to attest to the accuracy of all statements herein and exhibits attached hereto if such procedure be appropriate or in order. Your indulgence and cooperation in making this letter with exhibits a part of the record of the subcommittee will be appreciated. Respectfully yours, J. G. KOOPMAN, President. EXHIBIT 1 NOVEMBER 27, 1956. To: Turner White, Jr. From: J. G. Koopman. Subject: Discrimination complaint, Julian Strickland. This is in reference to the discrimination complaint filed with the President's Committee on Government Contracts by Julian Strickland against Combustion Engineering Co., and Electric Energy, Inc. I will first comment upon EEI's employment procedures, and I am attaching as a separate report Combustion Engineering Co.'s statement regarding their employment policies and their discussion with Mr. Strickland. In the early part of 1952 a group of Negroes called upon me with reference to securing employment as janitors. At that time, we were not employing janitors and this group was so informed. Further, if they would make an application it would be given equal consideration with other applicants. This seemed to satisfy the group. At that time, our janitorial services were furnished by construction. During the construction period, our people were approached by both colored and white for employment with our company, and they were referred to Mr. Frank Grammer who gave to each an application for employment. The majority of these applications were never returned. Our application for employment forms were prepared so as to eliminate discrimination as the form does not include any reference to race, creed, or color. We received so many applications for common labor type of work that these applications were kept in our active file for only a period of 30 days. As it was very difficult during this early period to secure skilled help such as electricians, machinists, operators, etc., this type of application was filed under the occupational classification and kept active for a longer period of time so as to be used for future reference. At no time, did we ever receive a verbal application for a skilled classification from a Negro. We advertised for skilled and professional classifications in many newspapers and trade magazines. The text of these advertisements made no reference as to race, creed, or color. A typical ad is attached covering an advertisement for experienced mechanics (exhibit A). As the construction forces were reduced in the Paducah and Metropolis area, we were being flooded with applicants. We closed our gates to walk-in applicants and placed a supply of applicationfor-employment forms in the security office. These forms were handed out to any person requesting one without any discrimination as to color. These forms were forwarded daily to our employment office and filed according to job classification. Those for unskilled positions were kept only a short period of time in our active file of not more than 60 days and then placed in what we call our inactive file. Whenever we had need for a certain job classification, the application-for-employment forms were reviewed and selection was made from these forms. We then contacted the party selected and granted a personal interview. If, from this interview, the applicant appeared to be favorable, reference checks were mailed and a request for security check was made to the retail credit bureau. None of our selections ever included a Negro. However, there was no discrimination made in this selection as we had no way of knowing as to whether or not the party selected was white, Negro, or otherwise. This policy has been followed without exception and is still in effect. I have had many applicants call at my home, but at no time, has a Negro ever asked me for employment. Those calling at my home were told to fill out an application for employment form and they would be given consideration along with others. If a Negro had called at my home, he would have been told the same and the initial selection for an interview would have been made from his application for employment. Then again, our employment supervisor would have had no knowledge as to whether or not the applicant was Negro or white. Now with reference to the discrimination complaint made by Julian Strickland (exhibit B). He wrote to us on July 2, 1951, enclosing a stamped envelope requesting an application for employment. You will note from the photostatic copy of this letter, he made no reference as to his race. An application for employment was mailed to him which he completed on August 20, 1951, and was received in our office on August 21, 1951. In our letter of July 24, 1951, we suggested that Mr. Strickland call at our office for an interview. None of us can recall as to whether or not Mr. Strickland made a personal contact with any of our people as we did not have an employment office established at that time. On April 22, 1952, Mr. Strickland wrote a letter checking on the status of his application. A reply to this letter was made April 29, 1952, and signed by Mr. E. M. Marselli. At that time, Mr. Marselli reviewed his application and did not know as to whether Mr. Strickland was colored or white. As stated previously Mr. Strickland's application was placed in our inactive file. He again checked on his application May 15, 1955. Following receipt of this letter, our Mr. Grammer checked through our inactive file and found Mr. Strickland's application. It was then placed in the active file and he was so informed. Again stating, Mr. Grammer had no knowledge as to Mr. Strickland's race, creed, or color. On November 10, 1955, we received an undated letter from Mr. Strickland complaining about the fact that he was not given a job with our company, and requesting information as to what chance he had of securing employment. This letter of Mr. Strickland's was our first indication that he was a Negro. I personally reviewed Mr. Strickland's application and found that he gave color of eyes grey, color of hair: sandy; and as we have no restricted residential district in Metropolis, certainly our people would have considered Mr. Strickland's color as being white. Following receipt of Mr. Strickland's letter, I wrote to him on November 17, 1955, explaining this to him, and suggested that he complete another application for employment form. This request was made due to the fact we had revised our application forms to include any police record which is in keeping with our security checks. On the revised form, Mr. Strickland indicated a police record that, by our employment standards, automatically eliminated him as a suitable applicant as it has not been our practice to employ any of our permanent personnel with a police record such as he indicated on his revised application report. From Mr. Strickland's letter dated July 8, 1956, to Mr. Joseph Houchin of the Government Contractors Compliance Committee, Washington, D.C., a copy of which was furnished me by Mr. Stiller of AEC, we learned that several other Negroes had their applications with us. This we did not know as, again repeating from our application forms, we have no way of knowing as to their race, creed, or color. However, we checked through our files and could find only one of the applications mentioned by Mr. Strickland in this letter. This application was dated January 23, 1955, and mailed to us and received January 25, 1955, and by Ethelbert Hester of Joppa, Ill. Again, from this application, our employment people had no knowledge as to his race, creed, or color, as the color of eyes was given as brown and color of hair was given as black. A copy of this application is attached (exhibit C). As you know, we have been employing but a very small number of permanent people the last 2 years, and our labor turnover is approximately 1 percent. As we have hundreds of applications in our files for unskilled positions, our people scrutinize the applications very closely and secure for interviews those which they believe to be best qualified. It may seem strange that no Negroes have been selected, but this is only coincidental as I assure you when writing for interviews, our people have no knowledge as to whether the applicant is white or colored. Again, in our recent search for temporary skilled mechanics and electricians, for which advertisements were placed in local and southern Illinois papers and also in the Paducah Sun-Democrat, not one applicant to our knowledge was a Negro, as we requested a personal interview from all replies indicating that they had experience in the skills which we required. In Mr. Strickland's letter to Mr. Houchin, he states, "I feel safe in saying that there are around 800 or 1,000 Negroes that are of working age, and are qualified to hold jobs on powerplant operations." I sincerely question this statement as there are very few Negro families in Massac County, and I have been informed that none of these are skilled. Further, we have certain counties in Illinois wherein no Negroes reside. We have attempted to hold our manpower requirements to the very minimum as evidenced in comparing our manpower per megawatt with that of other similar sized power stations in this vicinity. In order to do this, we have established high qualifications for our employees, and they have been selected upon that basis, and if any Negroes had met these qualifications, they would have been given equal consideration. If we were to employ a Negro upon any other basis except qualification just to prevent criticism, then we would certainly be discriminating against those with higher qualifications. J. G. KOOPMAN. EXHIBIT 2 U.S. ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION, Subject: Discrimination complaint-Julian Strickland. ELECTRIC ENERGY, INC., (Attention: Mr. Turner White, President). GENTLEMEN: Enclosed is a copy of a discrimination complaint filed with the President's Committee on Government Contracts by Julian Strickland against your company. This complaint has been referred to the Atomic Energy Commission for the purpose of making an investigatory report of the matter. In order that such a report may be supplied, it is requested that you provide us with a written explanation of the many facets of Mr. Strickland's allegations, including the following: 1. That EEI and Combustion Engineering Co. have discriminatory employment policies; 2. That EEI has refused to employ Negroes and that there are no members of that race among the employees of the company; 3. That the superintendent of Combustion Engineering Co. has informed Mr. Strickland that the company does not want to work Negroes. We trust you recognize that the nondiscrimination provision contained in your contract with this Commission is an integral part of that contract. Your explanation of the allegations will be subject to review by the highest levels of the AEC and the Federal Government. We shall appreciate receiving your explanation of the allegations, as well as any pertinent comments which you may care to provide concerning the employment policies and procedures of the EEI and the Combustion Engineering Co. Very truly yours, K. C. BROOKS, Manager, Paducah Area. EXHIBIT 3 (Received by the President's Committee on Government Contracts, July 11, 1956.) Mr. JOSEPH HOUCHIN, METROPOLIS, ILL., July 8, 1956. Government Contracts Compliance Committee, Washington, D.C. I suppose I'm nailing the lid on my coffin, as the old saying goes, by appealing to your Committee. They have a way of frowning on one around here, if he should speak out against discrimination on employment. As the situation now exists, we are losing most of the colored people due to economic distress-no work. There is a powerplant here, built by two or more public utilities, to furnish power to the Atomic Energy Plant at Kevil, Ky. It is Electric Energy, Inc. I say that they could help relieve this distress. Out of thousands of applications filed with them, there are around 300 employed now by them, and within that number, not a single Negro has been hired. This, in my opinion, is no mere coincidence. Across the Ohio River, the TVA operates a similar plant, and there are a number of colored working as janitors, laborers, coal handlers, etc. The Atomic Energy plant itself has quite a few employed. Out of this southern Illinois area, in the vicinity of this plant, I feel safe in saying that there are around 800 or 1,000 Negroes that are of working age, and are qualified to hold jobs on powerplant operations. We have lost most of our people on account of the economic situation here. Many Negroes have had to disrupt their homes, placed hardships on their families, by having to leave here to find work. I can name a few that in my opinion, well for that matter any body could judge, are qualified to hold such jobs as janitors, laborers-well, just menial work. They are as follows: (1) Louis C. Quonn, a former school principal, Metropolis, Ill. (2) Harlan Caldwell, former school teacher, Joppa, Ill. (3) Ethelbert Hester, Joppa, Ill., a laborer who worked on the construction of this plant for 3 years. (4) Melbert Renfro, Metropolis, Ill., now employed as school teacher, future job is uncertain. (5) Richard Clark, Metropolis, Ill., a veteran of World War II, worked on construction of this plant. (6) Cecil Cofield, Carrier's Mills, Ill., veteran Korean war. struction work on the building of the plant also. Done con It is difficult to contact every one that did file applications with EEI due to the fact they had to leave here. The above schoolteachers I named lost their jobs due to the combining of the Negro schools with the white, therefore they placed applications with EEI for future security. Some, I've been informed were told that they had to have a high school education to be considered. That excuse won't hold water. I know of two white men that are janitors there now. They are above the age limit, and they couldn't have over a 6th or 7th grade education. Now, not only does EEI lack in this respect on hiring Negroes, but a concern doing repair work on the plant boilers for them, practice the same act. It is Combustion Engineering of New York city. Their superintendent, Mr. Wyman Lowery, just as good as told me that they didn't want to work Negroes, and he didn't have anything for them to do. He then made the excuse that the men he had working for him on the job had worked for him before. I know that is untrue, because I know the man that asked him to put on the men he wanted put on. I filed an application with Electric Energy in 1951. After failing to get any consideration, I wrote to the personnel manager. He informed me that my name was still on file, and when ever they could use a man of my qualifications, I would be given all due consideration. Later I wrote another letter to a Mr. Koopman, vice president of EEI. He states that they selected over the applications and had drawn all the applicants that were qualified from the file and discarded it, and he states he didn't know I was a Negro, until I stated so, and that by reason I didn't have janitor work as my first choice, I wasn't considered. I am sending you the copy of the letter. Yon can see as well as me that it is just flimsy way of trying evade the fact. They don't want any Negro employees. Perhaps I have got any evidence to support my claim. I am not claiming I have, but I, as well as the other colored people here are aware of the fact, they haven't made any effort to work none of us on this job, and as long as they can get out of it they won't. If they can work them in Kentucky on the Government jobs, they can here on the powerplant. Three or We do hope that some of us can obtain employment with them. four will save that many from having to leave home. Please understand Mr. Houchin, I am not seeking self gain. Its immaterial to me whether I'm considered or not if for my people to prevent hardship on their families, to get them off the public relief rolls, and to keep some of our population here at home. Yours very respectfully, JULIAN STRICKLAND. EXHIBIT 4 ELECTRIC ENERGY, INC., Subject: Discrimination complaint-Julian Strickland. Manager, Paducah Area, U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, DEAR MR. BROOKS: I have your letter of November 20 with the enclosed letter from Julian Strickland to Mr. Joseph Houchin, of the Government Contracts Compliance Committee, in which Mr. Strickland sets out his claim. In this |