A NATIONAL POLICY IS NEEDED

Even if all of the State and municipal fair employment practice laws were adequately drafted and enforced, the need for Federal action would be real. There are, I believe, 28 States, including all of the Southern States, which are not covered. Three-fifths of our Negro citizens live in the Southern and Border States, only two of which have any kind of fair employment practice law whatsoever.

The inadequacy of fair employment practice laws on a State or local rather than a national basis is compounded by the typical mode of corporate organization. "In contrast to the partial and northern-oriented coverage of State and municipal fair employment practice laws, American private enterprise in most lines is organized predominantly on a National rather than a State or local basis. Most of the major enterprises in manufacturing, transportation, public utilities, and mining, and important sectors of construction, trade, finance, and services are national and multiregional in scope, and many have establishments in all sections of the country. This organizational feature of industry and business has an important bearing on the problem of effective administration of fair employment practice laws. Since major policy decisions in these enterprises are nearly always made at the headquarters level, the effectuation of changes in employment practices through fair employment practice agency intervention can be achieved most effectively if the agency negotiates with top management in terms of all plants-or all noncomplying plants-in a particular company or industry. The desirability of utilizing this approach is evident if one considers the difficult problem of shifting from a longstanding discriminatory (and usually segregated), employment setup to a nondiscriminatory, integrated operation in a southern plant."

The President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity has achieved some promising results, especially in the field of Government employment, but we have not been given, by the Committee, the data which would make possible an intelligent appraisal of its effectiveness in combating racial inequities in the employment practices of Federal contractors.

Nor can there be much hope that employers will voluntarily change discriminatory patterns. With some employers, no doubt, refusal to hire or upgrade Negroes on an equal basis is the result of genuine racial prejudice. Such employers will endeavor to maintain racist practices even in the face of market realities which permit or encourage merit employment, and will not alter policies unless required to do so by enforcible law. But these men are rare. Most employers are eager to hire and promote the workmen and executives who perform most capably; indeed, many are willing to take some risk in order to provide equal opportunities for Negroes. Employers may understandably, however, shy from offending too greatly the sensibilities of their customers and employees. They feel bound by the unwritten laws which make it unheard of for Negroes to hold white-collar positions, or to hold certain jobs alongside whites or in preference to whites, and which make it improper for a Negro to have supervisory authority over whites. Such employers need the support of an unambiguous directive from public authorities to enable them to use Negro manpower in a rational fashion, and the experience of many State fair employment practice commissions is that businessmen are often grateful for this support.

And as Mr. George Meany said before this subcommittee on July 25, trade unions "need the power of the Federal Government to do what we are not fully able to do."

13

APPROACH TO A NATIONAL POLICY

Mr. Chairman, I am not here to support or to criticize any one of the employment bills which have been introduced at this Congress. I would, however, like to conclude my testimony by indicating certain features which a national policy, formed and founded on the basis of study and experience, should, I believe, include.

12 Paul H. Norgren, “Governmental Fair Employment Agencies: An Appraisal of Federal State and Municipal Efforts To End Job Discrimination," a paper read before the Columbia University Seminar on Labor, Jan. 24, 1962, pp. 19-20. 13 New York Times, July 26, 1963.

First, policies should be focused on the issues of individual growth and manpower resources, not on the racial question. We need to move rapidly toward a national goal of full employment of fully productive people.

Second, the question of racial discrimination should be confronted and dealt with as a part of the larger issue.

STATEMENT OF LESLIE DUNBAR, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, SOUTHERN REGIONAL COUNCIL, ATLANTA, GA.

Mr. DUNBAR. Mr. Chairman, you have my testimony and you have a very tight time schedule. If it would suit the committee, I can summarize this very briefly.

Senator CLARK. I wish you would and perhaps we can ask you some questions.

Mr. DUNBAR. I might say before I did that, though, Mr. Chairman, that the Secretary of Labor this morning and the subcommittee referred to an earlier report of the council, if the committee would like to go into this further I would be glad to do so.

President Kennedy in his message to Congress of June 19 combined in one discussion the goals of "fair" and "full" employment. I agree with the Secretary of Labor's remarks earlier this morning that this is the right approach, and the only one on which sound national policy can be built.

In his manpower report of March 1963, the President made the startling statement that, "There are 32 million Americans who are still on the fringes of poverty and worse."

I do not think there is any need before this committee for me to elaborate on this. I think the kind of plea which the National Urban League has addressed to the people of the United States from its convention this week is fully justified.

Senator CLARK. I think you can assume that all the relevant statistics are already in the record although I think it is very wise that you brought them together.

Mr. DUNBAR. I wanted to say I think it is the part of wisdom for Congress to approach this employment question both from the standpoint of developing our manpower and from the standpoint of hiring. These are inseparable problems. I think the Area Redevelopment Act of 1961, and the Manpower Development and Training Act of 1962, and the recommendations the President has made this year are excellent steps

Senator CLARK. This is the commercial, how about the accelerated Public Works Act, did that not help, too?

Mr. DUNBAR. Yes, sir.

But, Mr. Chairman, I think there is bountiful evidence that racial discrimination bars Negroes from economic productivity which no amount of job training and professional education will insure.

I think one of the most sobering statistics, if I may use just one, which has come out in recent years was the estimate made last year by the President's Council of Economic Advisers where they indicated their conclusion that the gross national product is down about $17

billion on account of educational and employment discrimination. But if you look at that figure closely it is extremely interesting.

They said that if Negroes on their present educational attainments were hired fairly and without discrimination, the gross national product would be increased by an estimated $13 billion. If educational discrimination ended another $4 billion would be added to the gross national product.

I think we need to ponder, that in their estimate over two-thirds of the lack in gross national product is occasioned by discrimination against Negroes on the basis of their present training and education. Senator CLARK. From which the conclusion drawn discloses, does it not, that the upgrading educationally of the labor force is certainly one of the most important needs we are going to get, not only full employment but also fair employment?

Mr. DUNBAR. Yes; I think so, Mr. Chairman. I think the President was right in his message of June 19 that if you eliminated discrimination in employment completely you would not put to work a single unemployed Negro who did not have skills to market. But I think on the other hand that you have to add that unless discrimination can be brought under control the imparting of skills to Negroes is not going to insure their employment.

Senator CLARK. I am glad you emphasized it. I underlined it in your statement, I think it is worth while to stress it.

Mr. DUNBAR. I would like to emphasize for the committee, as I tried to detail in my statement, that we must not suppose that the Negro economic situation is improving in this country.

Senator CLARK. Yes; I would like you to elaborate on the statements in your prepared statement, first that Negroes made their greatest income gains between 1940 and 1954 and since 1954 have not progressed in income as well, and further, that most of the gains registered by Negro employees during this period were in unskilled and semiskilled jobs or in routine clerical positions, the very ones which are being outmoded by our changing economy.

Do your comments have reference to the community as a whole or to the South?

Mr. DUNBAR. They have reference to the country as a whole. The situation in the South is a little worse in degree. We have had a leveling off of the progress of Negro income in relation to white income during the last 10 years.

I would like, if the committee would accept it, to introduce in your record the page proofs of a pamphlet, which we are publishing, by Prof. Vivian W. Henderson on the economic status of Negroes in the Nation and in the South.

Senator CLARK. Without objection, that will be printed in the record.

(The exhibit referred to follows:)

THE ECONOMIC STATUS OF NEGROES: IN THE NATION AND IN THE SOUTH (By Vivian W. Henderson 1)

CONTENTS

I. Introduction: The state of optimism.
II. Structural reorganization of the South.
The South loses its people.

Negroes move to the central cities.
Employment and sources of income.

III. Negro gain has been slight.

Income: Negroes running fast to stand still.

Southern Negroes at the bottom of economic ladder.
Employment, occupations, and manpower utilization.

IV. What price discrimination?

Education.

Table 1.-Nonwhite population for 11 Southern States, 1950-60.

Table 2.-Population change and total net migration, 1950-60, and net migration of nonwhites, 1940-60 for 11 Southern States.

Table 3.-Distribution of population between urban and rural for 11 States, by color, 1950-60.

Table 4.-Population of selected urbanized areas, by color, 1950-60.

Table 5.-Income and population of the South as a percent of the United States, 1930–61. Table 6.-Per capita personal income for 11 Southern States, 1940-62.

Table 7-Estimated purchasing power of Negroes in 10 selected standard metropolitan statistical areas, 1961.

Table 8.-Percent distribution of income of families, by color, for United States, 1945-61. Table 9.-Median wage and salary income of persons 14 years and over, with wage and salary income by color and sex, for selected years 1939-60.

Table 10.-Median wage or salary income of primary families and unrelated individuals, with wage and salary income by color, 1940-61.

Table 11. Median income of persons 14 years and over, with income by region and color, 1950-60.

Table 12.-Median income of families, with income by region and color, 1960.

Table 13. Median income of white and nonwhite families for 11 Southern States, 1950–60. Table 14. -Median income of white and nonwhite persons 14 years and over for 11 States, South and United States, 1950-60.

Table 15.--Median income of white and nonwhite male workers for 11 Southern States,

1950-60.

Table 16.-Nonwhite employment as percent of total employment in each major occupation group, by sex, April 1940 and April 1960.

Table 17-Distribution of employed persons in the South, by color and sex and major occupation groups, 1950-60.

Table 18.-Nonwhites as a percent of total persons employed by industry, 1950-60, United States, South and non-South.

Table 19.-Occupational distribution of nonwhites, and nonwhites as a percent of total employed by occupation, South and non-South, 1960.

Table 20.- Annual average income of males 25 years and over, by years of school completed, 1939-58.

Table 21.-Percent distribution of income of families, United States and South, by color, 1954-61.

Table 22.-Distribution of income of families, United States and 11 Southern States, by color, 1960.

Table 23.-Distribution of income of families of selected cities, by color, 1960.

Table 24.-Distribution of income of persons 14 years and over, with income for United States and 11 Southern States, by color, 1950–60.

I. INTRODUCTION: THE STATE OF OPTIMISM

By most measurements, Negroes in the United States appeared to be moving from perennial proverty to relative prosperity at the beginning of the postwar era. Forces at work promised to liberate them from the imbalance that had historically characterized their position in the economy. National economic expansion, technology, and southern economic reorganization had generated new opportunities and higher incomes. There was, in fact, cause for high expectations of basic and accelerated change.

1 Vivian W. Henderson is professor and chairman of the department of economics and business administration at Fisk University. He is currently serving as a visiting professor at North Carolina State College of the University of North Carolina at Raleigh. NOTE. The author is indebted to T. S. Currier, senior professor at Fisk University and chairman of the department of history and government, for his help in preparing this paper. Also appreciation is extended to Martin Mutisya and Boniface Tibagambirwa for help in compiling parts of the data.

Likewise, the South 2 had cause to be optimistic. Historically, it had lagged behind the rest of the Nation and was generally looked upon as the "Nation's No. 1 economic problem," dependent for development upon slow-growth industries and agriculture. The region, since 1940, had been shedding itself of its relative homogeneity of economic structure; it had been moving away from economic backwardness and, as a result of national expansion and reallocation of resources, had been moving toward parity with the rest of the Nation. These developments-southern economic reorganization and improvement in the economic status of Negroes-are two of the principal results of national economic expansion since World War II.

Yet, despite the gains made, both the South and the Negro remain the most depressed segments of the economy and the population. There is some cause for continued optimism about southern economic growth and progress in general. But there is, in reality, little cause for optimism regarding rapid change in the status of Negroes in the near future. Unless unforseeable, "revolutionary," changes take place in Negro manpower utilization and development, the Negro citizen will remain the "forgotten man" in America's affluent society.

The situation of southern Negroes is less favorable than that of Negroes in the rest of the Nation because the South had failed to extend the benefits of economic progress to them at a rate comparable to those extended to Negroes in other sections of the country. Personal per capita income in the South has quadrupled since 1940, but it is still less than three-fourths that of the rest of the Nation. The income of Negro families and individuals nationally has grown over five times since 1940, but it is still little more than one-half that of white families and individuals; and in the South Negro families have an income of less than one-half (46 percent) that of white families and only one-half the income of their nonsouthern counterparts.

Gains have been made in employment, but unemployment is twice as extensive among Negro members of the labor force as among whites. Negroes are still concentrated in jobs of the lowest categories, with limited mobility and a high vulnerability to cyclical fluctuations and adverse consequences of technological changes.

Racial discrimination in employment is still as widespread as segregation and discrimination in education. This latter practice, particularly in vocational and technical training, helps to perpetuate a relatively poor job distribution of Negroes.

Thus, while it cannot be denied that important change has occurred in the economic status of Negroes during the past 20 years, critical questions must be considered regarding the rapidity of this change. Basically, the question facing the Nation, the South, and Negroes today is whether Negroes are narrowing the gaps in their economic status. The issue is not whether Negroes have been making progress, but whether it has been rapid enough to enable them to adjust to an economy whose rate of change is cumulative and intense. The issue is whether the momentum of change is great enough, and deep enough, to generate an economic base among Negroes which will guarantee their continued movement up the economic ladder.

Traditional patterns of race relations have never worked in the best interest of the economy of the South or of the Nation. Indeed, poor race relations have helped to depress growth. Thus, the manner and extent to which Negroes are absorbed into the economy will strongly determine the pace with which the South reaches parity of income and economic well-being with the Nation. Economic progress of the region is increasingly influenced by its urban and racial climate. And, we may add, pressure for change in southern race relations is increasingly generated by forces imbedded in the region's industrial-urban development.

Even this brief examination of southern economic change and the economic status of Negroes will, therefore, show also why Negroes have stepped up their efforts to speed school desegregation, which, in large part, derives from efforts to secure a better break economically in the Nation and in the region. Hopefully. this study may also bring into focus certain aspects of the challenge to the South, if it is to continue its progress.

Unless otherwise indicated, throughout this report the "South" means the States of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. Since Negroes make up about 97 percent the nonwhites in the country, census and other data on nonwhites will be considered as applicable to Negroes.

See William Nicholls, "Southern Tradition and Regional Progress," Chapel Hill, 1960