Inasmuch as the the New Deal believed that the integration of the armed forces was far too risky a proposition during wartime, it did take an important step to insure that fair hiring practices were observed by all industries that held defense contracts with the Federal government; during the summer of 1941 a law was passed making such discrimination a crime.
The attached editorial from Collier's Magazine applauded the President for doing the right thing:
"For our money, the President's finest single act in the national emergency to date is his loud-voiced demand for an end to all racial discrimination in hiring workers for the defense industries." "Any loyal inhabitant of this country, says the President, is entitled to a chance at any of these jobs, whether he be of German, Italian, colored, Jewish or any other descent. We don't know of anything more timely that could be said just now."
Click here to read about FDR and the press.
Was FDR second vice president, Henry Wallace, a dirty Red?
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