How effective was Executive Order 8802 and the FEPC?

In 1941, A Philip Randolph, leader of the African-American-led union the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, told President Roosevelt that he intended to organise a march on Washington to protest racial discrimination in the war industries.  To prevent such a national humiliation in wartime, Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802, which outlawed racial discrimination in defence industry hiring (extended in 1943 to all federal agencies, when all government contracts were required to include a non-discrimination clause) and set up the Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC) to enforce it. 

EO8802 was designed to open up employment opportunities for African Americans in defence industries, enabling them to secure better-paying jobs.  It helped them enter industries, firms, and occupations previously closed to them.  Judge William Bryant, interviewed in 1995, remembered how:

"A lot of employers opened the doors and let Black people come in and go to their personnel offices, and just literally counted them.  Then when they got to a certain number which equaled the ten percent that they were supposed to hire, they hired them.  They did that in the Pentagon."

By 1950, African Americans who had gained jobs in defence industries earned 14% more than those in non-defence sectors.  The number of African Americans increased especially in shipbuilding, aircraft and automobile plants and, by the war’s end, the number of Black Americans who worked for the federal government had tripled. 

But there is a big difference between SAYING that something SHOULD happen … and actually making it happen.  EO8802 and the FEPC only applied to the defence industries and – with no legislative powers to impose sanctions on non-compliant employers – lacked enforcement power beyond ‘education’ and ‘recommendations’.  The FEPC’s initial budget of $80,000 and a small staff of just 11 wrecked its effectiveness; even though it was expanded later, the FEPC had fewer resources than comparable agencies. 

Employers evaded the Order by filing lawsuits, using bureaucratic delays, and manipulating hiring practices – eg they would write job specifications in such a way as to exclude minority applicants.  They would also justify discrimination under the guise of maintaining ‘efficiency’ or supposed ‘security risks’.  Resistance was particularly strong in the South, where Jim Crow laws, disenfranchisement and hate crimes limited progress – when the FEPC tried in 1944 to address admissions discrimination at a welding school New Iberia, Louisiana, the local police chased the FEPC agents and NAACP out of town.  Even in the North there were hate strikes by white workers against Black employees. 

There was also opposition in Congress, where the FEPC met attempts, including filibusters and budgetary restrictions, to thwart its operations.  Opponents questioned its constitutionality and accused it of communism.  Immediately the war ended, Congress terminated it funding, and an attempt by President Truman to pass a permanent FEPC bill failed in Congress in 1950 due to a Southern filibuster. 

Thus EO8802 left a record of failure. 

It failed to eliminate workplace discrimination, even in the defence industries during the war.  African Americans were often segregated within their factories, paid less than white workers doing the same job, and prevented from joining a Union.  And although the number of Black Americans who worked for the federal government tripled during the war, this must be measured against the fact that the number of people employed in the defence industry had more than doubled; by 1945 African Americans still only accounted for 8% of the defence industry workforce

Moreover, EO8802 did not end workforce segregation in the defence industries – that had to wait until President Truman’s Executive Order 9981 of 1948, and the US Armed Forces remained segregated until the Korean War (1950-53). 

Perhaps worst of all, the FEPC turned a blind eye towards discrimination against Mexican Americans, cancelling hearings on cases involving Mexican Americans, even in the government’s own Bracero Program … because the government did not want to admit to discrimination in front of the Mexican government, leaving the workers’ grievances unaddressed. 

Historians, however, set, against this short term failure, a much more positive long-term legacy. 

EO8802 was an historic milestone of federal commitment – the first federal action since the period of Reconstruction (1865-77) explicitly to protect the rights of African Americans and address anti-Black discrimination.  And it inspired more progressive states such as New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts to pass and enforce their own FEPC laws.  As such, it set a precedent for later civil rights advancements … particularly Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibited workplace discrimination (though long gap since the end of the FEPC in 1945 emphasises EO8802’s limited impact at the time). 

It can also be argued that EO8802 raised national awareness of racial discrimination in employment and prompted discussions on broader social inequities, stimulating efforts by activists to address discrimination.  Randolph's role in securing EO 8802 can be represented as a launching point for the Civil Rights Movement, particularly the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.