From Lyndon B. Johnson
Author: Johnson, Lyndon B. (Lyndon Baines)
Date: April 13, 1962
Location: Washington, D.C.
Genre: Letter
Details
As head of the newly established President’s Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity, the vice president informs King of an upcoming meeting regarding federal employment in Atlanta.1 Johnson, who had received criticism for the committee’s lack of enforcement, promises King that “some very searching questions are going to be asked” if progress had not been made.2
Doctor Martin Luther King
413 Auburn Avenue
Atlanta, Georgia
Dear Doctor King:
I have carefully looked into the situation involving Federal employment in Atlanta.3 Last July 20th, members of the Committee staff and a Civil Service Commission representative met in Atlanta with the top people of twelve agencies involving about 20,000 people in that area.
In that meeting, the determination of the President and the Committee to improve the employment situation was stressed heavily. The Committee staff and the Civil Service Commission also offered their full cooperation in carrying out the President’s order.
Another meeting is planned in Atlanta for May 14, 15, and 16. At this meeting, members of the staff and the Civil Service Commission will meet separately with each of the agencies that were contacted last July. In advance of this meeting, the agencies have been asked to submit statistics on employment distribution so that we will have a picture of the situation before we actually enter Atlanta.4 We will know how far each agency has gone and what should be done. We will discuss the problems and make whatever suggestions are deemed advisable. The meetings as such will not be opened to the public because it is desired that the discussions be as frank as possible. But I will certainly keep you advised with the progress that is being made, step by step, and if progress has not been made since the July 20th meeting, some very searching questions are going to be asked.
I enjoyed meeting with you and I hope you will keep in touch with me.5 I value your advice and your counsel and this office is always open to you.6
Sincerely yours,
[signed]
Lyndon B. Johnson
1. On 6 March 1961 President Kennedy signed executive order 10925, which established the President’s Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity to ensure equality, regardless of race, creed, color, or national origin, for qualified employees seeking to work in the federal government and under government contracts. In addition, the committee had the authority to cancel any government contract if a business working for the government was found discriminating against its employees. For nearly two hours on 9 April, King had met with Johnson to discuss equal employment opportunities for African Americans (SCLC, Press release, “Vice-President promises Dr. King compliance with job opportunity mandate,” 11 April 1962).
2. In Spring 1961, after two African American workers complained of discrimination at the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation plant in Marietta, Georgia, the committee threatened to cancel the company’s billion-dollar contract with the federal government unless it pledged to desegregate facilities and provide African American employees with more opportunities for advancement (Peter Braestrup, “Kennedy to Fight Curbs on Negroes in Federal Work,” New York Times, 8 April 1961). On 5 April 1962, NAACP labor secretary Herbert Hill criticized the administration’s program, noting that it had “resulted in more publicity than progress” and was “simply a euphemism for what a previous Administration called voluntary compliance” (Peter Braestrup, “N.A.A.C.P. Accuses Kennedy on Jobs,” New York Times, 6 April 1962). Lockheed president Courtlandt Gross and Vice President Johnson signed an anti-discrimination plan on 25 May 1961 (Peter Braestrup, “Lockheed Signs Equal-Jobs Pact,” New York Times, 26 May 1961).
3. On behalf of twenty-five workers, the NAACP filed a complaint against the Atlantic Steel Company in Atlanta charging it with hiring African American workers specifically for menial jobs, barring them from enrollment in training programs, and collusion with the local branch of the United Steel Workers of America in negotiating separate racial seniority lines (“NAACP Files Bias Charges against Industry, Unions,” Atlanta Daily World, 7 December 1961). The National Labor Relations Board’s regional director in Atlanta dismissed the complaint and his ruling was upheld by the Board’s general counsel (“Board Rules Atlanta Firm Was Not Biased,” Atlanta Daily World, 10 April 1963).
4. By 15 January 1962, fifty-two companies participating in “Plans for Progress” submitted base plans calling for specific commitments to improve their employment practices (“The First Nine Months: Report of the President’s Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity,” 15 January 1962). Of these fifty-two companies, twenty-four had facilities in the Atlanta area. The “Plans for Progress” subcommittee became a source of contention between committee members who preferred compulsory compliance versus voluntary compliance. As such only seven of the twenty-four Atlanta-based companies participating in “Plans for Progress” produced any evidence of compliance with their pledges. Only three firms, Lockheed Aircraft, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, and Western Electric, demonstrated “a vigorous desire to create job opportunities” (SRC, Special report, “Plans for Progress: Atlanta Survey,” January 1963).
5. King declined Johnson’s invitation to attend a 19 May conference sponsored by the President’s Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity (Johnson to King, 27 April 1962; Johnson to King, 15 June 1962).
6. In June 1963 King sent Johnson a telegram informing him that he had filed a discrimination complaint with the committee against the Atlantic Steel Plant (King to Johnson, Hobart Taylor, and Frank W. McCulloch, 4 June 1963). Committee vice chairman Hobart Taylor replied on behalf of the vice president promising an immediate investigation (Taylor to King, 4 June 1963).
Source: MCMLK-RWWL, Morehouse College Martin Luther King, Jr. Collection, Atlanta University Center, Robert W. Woodruff Library Archives and Special Collections, Atlanta, Ga.