Average percent of uncertificated teachers, 11 white schools:

12

Average percent of uncertificated teachers. 9 integrated schools: 23

12.0

14.0

15. 0

29.0

55.5

26. 0

4. 0

18.5

22.0

196. O

1 Directory, Illinois Schools, 1961-62.

Information supplied by office of superintendent of schools.

52-579 O 6521

STATEMENT SUBMITTED BY WILLOUGHBY ABNER, NATIONAL VICE PRESIDENT, NEGRO AMERICAN LABOR COUNCIL AND SECRETARY-TREASURER OF ITS CHICAGO AREA CHAPTER BEFORE THE SPECIAL SUBCOMMITTEE ON LABOR OF THE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND LABOR, U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES IN SUPPORT OF FEDERAL FAIR EMPLOYMENT PRACTICES LEGISLATION, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1961

Mr. Chairman and members of the special Subcommittee on Labor, on this occasion I am privileged to represent the Chicago area chapter of the Negro American Labor Council. I wish to state at the outset that I am a confirmed and dedicated trade unionist, fully cognizant of the great historic and pungent contemporary contributions the American labor movement has made to the toiling masses, to the social and economic progress of our society, to our Nation as a whole and to the world community. As an Illinoisan, as a Chicagoan, and without interruption as an American Negro, I have not merely observed the discriminatory and exclusion practices of our socioeconomic complex, but have been victimized by it. It is impossible to fully communicate except to those who have been initiated the humiliation, the frustration, the bitterness, the hurt, the confusion, the deep sense of futility and tragically, too often the spiritual erosion suffered by the victims of job exclusion and economic discrimination.

I leave to others the recitation of past instances of progress in the area of employment opportunities. The tortuous road ahead to full equality of job opportunities for all Americans is too long and winding for me to seek solace gazing in the rearview mirror. Now that we have the official world from the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights as contained in its report on employment, we should move full speed ahead.

Not government, not business, not labor can escape the powerful indictment returned against each of them in the Commission's report. As a trade union leader, I cannot in good conscience point the finger at business and government and ignore or minimize the discriminatory practices of my colleagues and brothers in the house of labor. Discrimination does exist within the labor movement and the snaillike pace in removing these barriers caused the conception and birth of the Negro American Labor Council.

This subcommittee should not be deterred from including legislative provisions which will effectively deal with trade union practices that deny equality of job opportunity at any level.

I know this subcommittee has been burdened with charts, statistics, figures, and surveys relating to job discrimination. With your permission, I would like to add one more survey. However, before I do permit an observation. National statistics on job discrimination and Negro unemployment, generally, understate the problem in Chicago. For example: when unemployment this year showed that 7 percent of white workers were unemployed nationwide, as you know, 14 percent or twice the percentage of nonwhite workers were unemployed; however, here in Chicago the percentage of nonwhite unemployed was three times that of white workers.

Conservative national statistics show 13 out of every 100 white workers engaged in a professional or technical occupation while only 5 of every 100 Negro workers are so employed. National figures reveal that 13 out of every 100 white workers have a skilled trade but only 51⁄2 out of every 100 Negro workers have managed the breakthrough. As shocking as these figures may be they understate the problem in Chicago.

The survey and study which I am about to refer to help explain in part this situation. During the spring of this year the Chicago area chapter of the Negro American Labor Council initiated a survey of the only true trade school in Chicago-Washburne located at 31st Street and Kedzie Avenue. It is a part of the Chicago school system and benefits from our public funds. Only union apprentices may attend the Washburne shop classes. Our survey showed that the estimated number of Negro apprentices in May 1961, in 12 trades of Chicago's publicly supported Washburne Trade School made up only 1 percent of those trades' 1960 enrollment of over 2,600. In 7 of the 12 trades studied there were no Negro apprentices at all. The breakdown as of May 1961 is as follows:

Apprentices enter Washburne Trade School as a rule through the joint ap prenticeship committees of the union and the industry, although they may also come directly to the school from the employer. The school assumes no responsibility for the selection of apprentices.

On Monday of last week, like many other citizens of Chicago, I availed myself of the opportunity to publicly testify before the Chicago Board of Education. After presenting these statistics on Washburne Trade School and after admitting the responsibility of the craft unions and the industry, I then asked the superintendent of the Chicago Public Schools did he not believe that the board of education also had some responsibility in combating discrimination in the apprenticeship training program at Washburne, particularly in view of its direct involvement and the use of public funds. After a moment's hesitation, his answer to my query was: "No comment."

A little over a week ago the Illinois State AFL-CIO concluded its annual convention. The only major and extended debate centered around an amended resolution dealing with apprenticeship training programs. In the debate which was hot and heavy, I observed then as I observe now that anyone who claims there is no racial discrimination in apprenticeship training programs is either a fool or a hypocrite. I don't have to tell this committee that the main opposition came from some craft union, but we won that battle. A majority of 2,000 delegates representing a million workers in Illinois adopted that resolution. And what did it provide that caused the fireworks? Permit me to read the one sentence resolve: "That this convention go on record to appoint or elect at large, a racially integrated committee to study, discuss, and adopt means by which they can establish an effective, racially integrated apprenticeship program."

The repeated theme of the opposition was that "No one is going to tell us how to run our apprenticeship training programs."

Do we need Federal legislation in this area? The Negro American Labor Council answers with an emphatic "Yes"! We implore this subcommittee when the inevitable legislative whittling-down process takes place to resist all efforts which would assign to the legislative junk heap the following provisions:

(1) That which prohibits the Secretary of Labor in assisting the establishment of a training program which considers the race, creed, or color of the potential apprentice.

(2) That which forbids the Secretary of Labor to grant a certification under the wage-hour law for apprentices enrolled in discriminatory training programs (3) That which prohibits the Secretary of Labor from granting a variation under the Walsh-Healy Act where the apprenticeship program limits applicants on the basis of race, creed, or color.

We wholeheartedly agree with the chairman of the Committee on Education and Labor when he stated that "The Federal Government cannot be a party to or confer any benefits upon an apprenticeship training program which discrim inates against qualified applicants on the basis of race, color, or creed.

Yes, one need only look around the Chicago community to see the desperate need for training Negro youth in skilled trades. Everywhere you see buildings going up with bricklayers, carpenters, plumbers, tile men and cement finishers with a token number of Negro skilled tradesmen on the job. When questioned about this, there is always someone to say "there are a lot of Negroes on these jobs," but no one to point out that these Negro workers are in the main common laborers and even their tribe is diminishing.