To Nathan Paul Feinsinger
Author: King, Martin Luther, Jr.
Date: February 6, 1961
Location: Atlanta, Ga.?
Genre: Letter
Topic: Labor Movement
Details
In 1958 Anthony Stephens, a former vice president of the United Packinghouse Workers of America (UPWA), charged that the union had fallen under communist influence. The following year, King joined the Public Review Advisory Committee created by the union to investigate the charges.1 In this letter to the chairman of the commission, King approves a draft report of the investigation.2 “There were probably some Communist influences in UPWA in the 40’s and maybe in the early 50’s,” King wrote, however, the union is now “following a road of honest Democratic trade unionism.” Feinsinger attached the letter below to his final report.3
Professor Nathan P. Feinsinger
University of Wisconsin
Madison, Wisconsin
Dear Professor Feinsinger:
First, let me apologize for being somewhat tardy in writing you concerning my reaction to the draft of the report of the Public Review Advisory Commission. A series of long standing speaking commitments, plus the excitement accompanying the birth of our third child a few days ago, kept me out of the office well nigh ten days.4 This accounts for the delay.
I have read the report very scrutinizingly and I think it is so well done and so thoroughly states the issues involved that there is very little, if anything, that I can suggest in terms of expansion or deletion.
I was very impressed with the sincerity and good faith of the Sub-committee. Their honest and forthright answers to our questions convinced me that they went about their job with a maximum of good faith and intelligence. Therefore, I think we are on solid ground in accepting the Sub-committee’s report.
I have tried to study this whole issue with as much objectivity as humanly possible. As I have read the various documents and thought through the various facets of the problem, I have reached two conclusions. First, I feel that there were probably some Communist influences in UPWA in the 40’s and maybe in the early 50’s. I feel, as you do, that the union should have taken a more vigorous and forthright stand against Communism after it was accused of such influences. This would have made it palpably clear that their endorsement of the AFL-CIO Codes of Ethical Practices was more than a perfunctory gesture. On the other hand, I am convinced that the UPWA has gone a long, long way in solving this internal problem and that it is now following a road of honest Democratic trade unionism. While you have rightly stated that we are not trying the accuser, I cannot help but feel that Mr. Stevens’ actions were consciously or unconsciously motivated by something much deeper than a desire to expose alleged Communism to the union.5
I say all of this to say that I am in complete agreement with the report you have drafted for the Commission. I can only hope that our acceptance of the Sub-committee’s report and the accompanying constructive criticism will serve to help a union that has had its problems and growing pains realize its great potential and continue to move in line with the noble principles of trade unionism.
Very sincerely yours,
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Km
1. Ralph Helstein to King, 8 July 1959. The commission included a church, labor, and academic leaders (UPWA, “Report of Public Review Advisory Commission of United Packinghouse, Food, and Allied Workers of America, AFL-CIO,” 15 February 1961).
2. The UPWA Executive Board appointed a subcommittee of UPWA officials to investigate the charges of Communist membership in the union (Russell R. Lasley, Frank Schultz, Glenn Chinander, George Thomas, and Dave Hart, “Report of the subcommittee of the international executive board,” 6 May 1960). After investigating twenty-four members of the union, the subcommittee found no basis for Stephens’s claims of communist infiltration and declared the UPWA in full compliance with the requirements of the AFL-CIO’s Ethical Practices Code. Nathan Paul Feinsinger (1902–1983) was born in Brooklyn, New York, received a J.D. in 1928 from the University of Michigan, and had a forty-four year career as a professor of law at the University of Wisconsin. While at the university, Feinsinger founded the Center for Teaching and Research in Dispute Settlement. He served on the War Labor Relations Board (1942–1945) and the Wage Stabilization Board (1951–1952).
3. UPWA, “Report of Public Review Advisory Commission of United Packinghouse, Food, and Allied Workers of America, AFL-CIO.”
4. On 30 January, Coretta Scott King gave birth to the couple’s third child, Dexter Scott.
5. After trying to usurp control of the UPWA from president Ralph Helstein, Stephens was fired from the union and later accused the union of being overrun by communists (Leslie F. Orear, Interview by Cyril Robinson, 31 March 1995).
Source: MLKP-MBU, Martin Luther King, Jr., Papers, 1954–1968, Boston University, Boston, Mass.