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Bulletin from the Associated Industries of Florida regarding Executive Order 8802 and its effects, 1942
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THE ASSOCIATED INDUSTRIES OF FLORIDA
724-725 Graham Building JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA
W.W. SIMMONS, President
JOHN P. INGLE, Secretary
August 5, 1942
SUPREME COURT APPROVES LEGALITY OF ATTORNEY GENERAL WATSON'S SUIT
Tallahassee, Aug. 4 (AP) - The Florida Supreme Court declined today to stop a suit by Attorney General Tom Watson seeking to invalidate closed shop contracts between the Tampa Shipbuilding Company and 19 labor unions affiliated with the American Federation of Labor. Watson's suit is pending before Circuit Judge L.L. Parks at Tampa.
"I am delighted that the technical barrier of threatened prohibition has been surmounted. That gets us started so that we do not appear to be barking up a leafless tree," the red-haired Attorney General said.
The State's highest court divided 4 to 3 in holding that "prohibition against Judge Parks' continuing with the suit is not applicable under the showing made."
Chief Justice Brown and Justices Terrell, Whitfield and Thomas made up the majority. Justices Buford, Chapman and Adams dissented.
PRESIDENTIAL ORDER PROHIBITING DISCRIMINATION AGAINST NEGROES
The State of Florida, as well as the other Southern States, is faced with what bids fair to become a most difficult problem.
The Social Security Board feels that, particularly in the South, negroes are not being employed in defense industries in the same proportion to the population, and under the same conditions as the white workers. This condition prompted the President to issue on July 25, 1941, Executive Order No. 8802, requiring all holders of defense contracts not to discriminate against any workers because of race or color.
As a result of this Order, a Federal committee on "Fair Employment Practice" was created and this Committee has held hearings on discrimination in a number of cities, several being in Southern Cities. This committee has issued "directives" to a number of companies to abandon discriminatory restrictions against negroes. The United States Employment Service is directly concerned with carrying out
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THE ASSOCIATED INDUSTRIES OF FLORIDA
724-725 Graham Building JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA
W.W. SIMMONS, President
JOHN P. INGLE, Secretary
August 5, 1942
SUPREME COURT APPROVES LEGALITY OF ATTORNEY GENERAL WATSON'S SUIT
Tallahassee, Aug. 4 (AP) - The Florida Supreme Court declined today to stop a suit by Attorney General Tom Watson seeking to invalidate closed shop contracts between the Tampa Shipbuilding Company and 19 labor unions affiliated with the American Federation of Labor. Watson's suit is pending before Circuit Judge L.L. Parks at Tampa.
"I am delighted that the technical barrier of threatened prohibition has been surmounted. That gets us started so that we do not appear to be barking up a leafless tree," the red-haired Attorney General said.
The State's highest court divided 4 to 3 in holding that "prohibition against Judge Parks' continuing with the suit is not applicable under the showing made."
Chief Justice Brown and Justices Terrell, Whitfield and Thomas made up the majority. Justices Buford, Chapman and Adams dissented.
PRESIDENTIAL ORDER PROHIBITING DISCRIMINATION AGAINST NEGROES
The State of Florida, as well as the other Southern States, is faced with what bids fair to become a most difficult problem.
The Social Security Board feels that, particularly in the South, negroes are not being employed in defense industries in the same proportion to the population, and under the same conditions as the white workers. This condition prompted the President to issue on July 25, 1941, Executive Order No. 8802, requiring all holders of defense contracts not to discriminate against any workers because of race or color.
As a result of this Order, a Federal committee on "Fair Employment Practice" was created and this Committee has held hearings on discrimination in a number of cities, several being in Southern Cities. This committee has issued "directives" to a number of companies to abandon discriminatory restrictions against negroes. The United States Employment Service is directly concerned with carrying out
The clear intimation is that unless the Southern people voluntarily change their way of living and abandon the principle of segregation, they will be forced to do so by the Federal Government.
Governor Dixon of the State of Alabama has refused to accept a contract in a State Institution which contained the so-called "Discrimination by Seller" clause. Governor Dixon stated,. in this connection, that "the present emergency should not be used as a pretext to bring about the abolition of the color line in the South." Governor Dixon further stated: "Based on past experience, should we sign the contract with this clause included, we can expect the Fair Employment Practice Committee immediately to descend upon the State with the demand that Negroes be put into positions of responsibility in approximately the same proportions that the negro race bears to the white race in Alabama. I will not permit the State of Alabama to be subject to the whims of any Federal Committee, and I will not permit the employees of the State to be placed in a position where they must abandon the principle of segregation or lose their job."
The issue is, therefore, definitely drawn for the people of Florida and the South. Will we maintain the principle of segregation under which the white and negro races have lived in peace together in the South for all the years since Reconstruction, or shall we acceed to Executive Order No. 8802 requiring all holders of defense contracts not to discriminate against any worker because of race or color?
Hearings tending to bring out this discrimination have recently been held in Birmingham, Alabama. We may expect them in Florida at any time. We fully understand this problem and we know the answer.
Yours very sincerely,
J.P. Ingle, Secretary
W.W. Simmons, President
Chicago Manual of Style
Associated Industries of Florida (Jacksonville, Fla.). Bulletin from the Associated Industries of Florida regarding Executive Order 8802 and its effects, 1942. 1942-08-05. State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory. <https://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/343118>, accessed 4 July 2022.
MLA
Associated Industries of Florida (Jacksonville, Fla.). Bulletin from the Associated Industries of Florida regarding Executive Order 8802 and its effects, 1942. 1942-08-05. State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory. Accessed 4 Jul. 2022.<https://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/343118>
AP Style Photo Citation
(State Archives of Florida/Associated Industries of Florida (Jacksonville)
