Fair Employment Practice
Committee: Under pres-
sure from A. Philip
Randolph, president
Franklin D. Roosevelt
established this tempo-
rary federal agency in
1942 to prevent hiring
discrimination by war
industries.
Fellowship of Reconcilia-
tion: Christian pacifist
organization that backed
racial integration.
Farmer, James(1920–
99): CORE co-founder
who pioneered the sit-in
technique, organized the
Freedom Ride, and push-
ed voter registration.
Gandhi, Mohandas
(1887–1940): Nonviolent
philosopher from India
who inspired American
civil rights leaders,
especially Martin Luther
King, Jr.
Nonviolent Resistance:
The major civil rights stra-
tegy of achieving social
change, mainly by employ-
ing boycotts, sit-ins, and
civil disobedience.
Congress of Racial Equa-
lity: An interracial civil
rights group founded by
James Farmer in 1942.
which established the Fair Employment Practice Committeeto prevent job
discrimination in war mobilization. It was the most beneficial presidential
directive for blacks since the Emancipation Proclamation. Two million black
workers found jobs in munitions factories, giving them greater economic
independence and the opportunity to organize politically. A million more
served in the military, though it remained segregated. Randolph’s approach –
the all-black March on Washington Movement – showed that pressuring the
president with a dramatic event could pay big dividends.
At the same time, a small group of young people living in Chicago was
determined to confront racism directly but peacefully. As members of the
Fellowship of Reconciliation, an interracial Christian pacifist group, James
Farmer, George Houser, Homer Jack, and Bernice Fisher took inspiration
from Indian nationalist leader Mohandas Gandhi, a Hindu who battled
British colonial rule with nonviolent resistance(satyagraha), and from
unions that launched sit-down strikes to win company concessions. Farmer,
a black graduate of Howard University, asked FOR to endorse a relentless
campaign of civil disobedience against racism, but its white officers demurred,
leading the students to found the Congress of Racial Equalityin 1942.
With the South still too dangerous to reform, CORE employed the sit-in
tactic in segregated restaurants and movie theaters in major northern cities.
In the midst of all-out war, few noticed this new organization.
As World War II deepened, most blacks subscribed to the ‘Double V’ cam-
paign, which stood for victory over fascism abroad and discrimination at
home. In his influential 1944 book, An American Dilemma, Swedish econo-
mist Gunnar Myrdal underscored the idea that racism ran against the values
that the nation was defending with its blood. Gains at home came uneasily.
As blacks broke through the job ghetto, white strikers shut down factories
and shipyards. When blacks moved into white neighborhoods, racial viol-
ence broke out in 47 cities in one year alone. Such racism did not deter
black veterans, who returned to the South with a new spirit. A former army
corporal from Alabama declared, ‘I spent four years in the army to free a
bunch of Dutchmen and Frenchmen, and I’m hanged if I’m going to let the
Alabama version of the Germans kick me around when I get home. No
sirree-bob! I went into the Army a nigger; I’m comin’ out a man.’
Some white southern reformers, writers, and judges took courageous
stands for civil rights. After race riots erupted following World War I, Will
Alexander, a Methodist minister, founded the Commission on Interracial
Cooperation, the South’s first biracial reform group. Although Alexander did
not challenge Jim Crow directly, he supported black voting rights, fair hous-
ing, and equal job opportunity. A CIC branch called the Association of
Southern Women for the Prevention of Lynchinglaunched petition drives,
letter-writing campaigns, and conferences against racial murder. In 1944,18 THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT
Sit-ins: This tactic, bor-
rowed from the labor
movement, was designed
to compel change by
blocking business as
usual.