MEDFORD MAIL TRIBUNE. MEDFORD. OREGON
THURSDAY. DECEMBER 12, 1963
D . 5
The Revolution of 1963 ---Part IV
Negro Continues To Seek Jobs on Lower Rung of ladder
EDITOR'S NOTE: The Ne.
gro in America wants many
things but his list almost al
ways is dominated by the
word jobs. The following dis
patch, fourth of five, is an as
sessment of how far he has
come, where he wants to go
and what his problems are.
By AL KUETTNER
United Press International
The Negro's poeketbook was
very close to his freedom cry
of 1963.
His reasoning went like this:
Give him a better job and he
would get a better house, have
a better car, be a better citi
zen. Without higher wages, the
Negro said in thousands of
voices across the land, he sim
ply was being prepared to take
a hamburger purse into a plank
steak restaurant.
Despite the advances made
by the American Negro in the
past ten years, he still scram
bles for jobs on the lower rung
of the economic ladder. His
pay is oneialf that of white
workers. He finds it difficult to
advance, once he finds employ
ment. And, once on the job, he
is often aggressive and super
sensitive, according to his own
people.
In street demonstrations, con
gressional lobbies and in the
August "March on Washing
ton," the Negro during 1963 de
manded as never before that
the barriers against job oppor
tunities be removed.
Not Informed
"The Negro is out of the
mainstream of job gossip and
this keeps him even from
knowing about jobs the way
white people do," says the Na
tional Urban League in Mon
tana. Mrs. Novella Boyd, a Negro
in High Point, N.C., puts it an
other way: "I pay the same as
you for groceries, but I don't
make the same amount of
money."
In a nationwide examination
of the job situation. United
Press International reporters in
50 states spent days interview
ing Negroes, business and in
dustry executives and govern
ment experts.
The consensus was over
whelming that:
Negroes, except for a slim
minority, are not in position to
compete for the bulk of the job
openings today.
Trade schools and union
apprenticeship programs still
are inadequate to provide train
ing for Negroes who have the
incentive to improve their
chances.
Most of the jobs held by
Negroes are menial, lower
class blue collar or in fields in
which they serve the Negro
populace.
THE NATION'S MEDIAN ANNUAL INCOME
BY SEX AND RACE
1952 1958 1962
NON-WMIT-MALE
$5000
4500
4000
3500
3000
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
7777X WM'TS HSSS3 NON-WHIT-
VA KS53 "male
V '
1952 158 1?62
SOURCE' V S
1952 1958 1962
oim. Of COMSRCE
are appearing as clerks, check
ers and office employes of de
partment, grocery and other
business firms. One of the most
popular clerks in the Sears
Roebuck toy department in At
lanta is a Negro.
In Delaware, the Dupont
Company hires Negro girls for
four hours a day, paying full
salaries provided they attend
secretarial school the other
four hours. They get office jobs
at the end of the course.
When Appalachian Power
Company at Roanoke, Va au
tomated elevators, the Negro
operators were given clerical
jobs.
Passive interest in the Negro
job problem turned into active
work toward aleviating It in
California where many employ
ers now advertise for Negro
workers. Two of the three San
Francisco newspapers have Ne
gro staff members. It is becom
ing a sort of status symbol to
have Negroes in sight in jobs
in California.
Breaking Into TV
From Madison Avenue to Hol
lywood, Negroes are breaking
into slick paper advertisements
and high budget television.
Marion L. Sellers, a spokes
man at Lockheed Aircraft Com
pany in California, said "we
would like to hire more Ne
groes but not enough who are
qualified show up at the em
ployment window, u s disap
pointing." After demonstrations and ne
gotiations, Cambridge, Md.,
agreed to hire a Negro in the
state employment office: jacK
son, Miss., added five Negroes
to the police force; Greensboro,
N.C., added a number of Ne
groes to downtown department
stores: the larees department
store in Dayton,. Ohio, agreed
JNITfB Pt$ inTMNATiqnaw.INC. AU RiKTt Mtatvg&. . .
INCOMES COMPARED This n e w s c a h r t
from the Department of Commerce shows
U.S. median annual income by race and sex
for 1952, 1958 and 1962. In 1962, the figure
for while males was $4,660; for white femaios
$1,415: for Negro males $2,291; and Negro
females $930. (UPI)
The Negro has done best in
federal government civil serv
ice jobs and in plants that hold
federal contracts containing
non-discriminatory hiring pro
visions. National Problem
Job discrimination is more
of a national problem than just
about any phase of the racial
conflict.
"I don't like the way people
react in the South but it's not
as different here as I thought
it would be," said Prince Myles
Jr., a Negro who migrated to
Omaha, Neb., from Mississippi.
"The jobs available to Negroes
Migratory Fowl
On Coast Flyway
To Be Conserved
are the jobs the whites wouldn't
take."
Warren Cochrane, an Atlanta
Negro who has worked on job
placement for 30 years, speaks
candidly of the problem:
"The Negro does not exist in
this country as an industrial
worker., Negroes cannot com
pete with white job applicants.
We have said to employers,
business must have people who
produce. Negroes do produce
but it takes time and effort to
train them."
Negroes, representing 1 out
of 10 of the 190 million inhabi-
to hire Negroes for Christmas
work and to offer some perma
nent employment, and in Phila
delphia the city decided to let
out no more municipal con
tracts wherein discrimination is
practiced.
So-called "equal opportunity"
firms report that more than
2,000 of the 31,000 job openings
have gone to Negroes in recent
months. But so far it's a drop
in the bucket. For the nation,
fewer than 5 out of every 100
persons in the non-white labor
force have professional or tech
nical jobs.
"Afraid To Be First"
Some of the reasons why pro
vide a look at the major prob
lems for leaders who are at
tempting to get the Negro into
the mainstream of American
life.
Some firms are "afraid lo be
Ihe first" lo hire Negroes, says
Floyd E. Lubert, personnel di
rector of Western Electric at
Kansas City, Mo., and a mem
ber of the Chamber of Com
merce Equal Employment
Commitlce.
Marion Woods, Negro consul
tant to the state Department of
Employment in California, con
tends there are more Negro
PHDs than plumbers in that
state.
His statement pointed up an
other big complaint by Ne
groes: That they are blocked
out of union appreniicosnip pro
era ins.
"You can get a PHD if you
stay in school long enough but
you need to get approval as an
apprentice to be a plumber and
we can't get that," Woods said.
Negroes Losing Out
Some of the best job openings
for Negroes are turning up in
the South, but Negroes by the
hundreds are losing out be
cause of inability to pass intel
ligence and character tests.
others, once hired, fail to stick the Urban League, wants a de
al the job. One employer said mcstic "Marshall Plan" that
ers" in America, a number of. Technical and trade schools
plans are in the works. I are viewed as another mainr
Employers report that manyl Whitney Young, president of i step. So are bi-racial commit.
tecs, but Ihcy need to bo
status.
"Many communities have
made them ineffectual by giv
ing them no power and in some
instances not even the power of
suggestion," said a white ad
vertising executive in Ashe
ville, N.C.
several Negroes quit shortly
after being hired, explaining
they had merely been "testing"
their chances to get. into the
firm.
To bridge the gap facing
what an Illinois report terms
"the most disadvantaged work-
would finance the training of
large numbers of Negroes and
compensate industry for in-job
training during the time they
are less than fully productive.
The league also is opening
clearing houses to find more
jobs for Negroes.
&r" i
" w
'V si k
3 VT?.
MARIJUANA BURNED Customs inspectors
arc shown as they burned $500,000 worth of
marijuana seized during the past few months
at Hie international border near San Diego,
Calif. (UPI)
WASHINGTON (UPI) - The
House Interior Committee today
approved legislation to help con
serve migratory waterfowl using
the Pacific Coast Flyway.
The committee cleared Senate
passed legislation to give con
servation priority over agricul
ture in the Tulelake, Lower Kla
math, Upper Klamath and Clear
Lake national wildlife refuges in
Oregon and California.
The measure, designed to end
a lona disDUte between sports
men and farmors, would protect
existina aerici"'.iiral use of land
In the refuges but would bar its
extension.
The measure, designed to end
a long dispute between sports
men and farmers, would protect
existing agricultural use of land
in the refuges but would bar its
extension.
The measure would dedicate
some 133.000 acres of land in
Ihe area for the major purpose
of waterfowl management. How
ever, it would permit farming
in continue so far as it does not
hurt use of the land as a wild
fowl refuge.
The legislation would permit
inosinn nf lands to private farm
ers who would be required to
plant a large portion of the land
in grants to help provide feed
for migratory birds.
Under the legislation, revenue
mm lpasins would be shared
bv the government and the lo
cal counties after deduction of
r.,.miti duo the Tulelake Ir
rigation District and the Kla
math Drainage District for con
struction of irrigation facilities.
The Upper Klamath basin is
a stopover area for more than
7 million ducks and geese in
their annual migrations along
Daifir FlvWflV.
Fears have been expressed
that if the refuges were nor
available to provide feed and
rest for the birds they would not
only decrease in numbers but
destroy rice and other crops m
the central valleys of California.
Amendments by the House
committee included a provision
for review by the California
and Oregon State Legislatures.
The legislation would be tempor
arily in effect for three yearj,
after which it would become fi
nal unless the states decided it
did not provide for "best use
of the land."
Bonneville To Let
Construction Pacts
PORTLAND (UPI) -Bonne
ville Power Administration said
today it would let construction
contracts totaling $5,744,000 in
Oregon and Washington next
year.
The construction contracts arc
part of an overall BPA 1964
construction budget of about $:i0 1
million, administrator thanes
Luce reported. The exact sum
awaits final congressional deter-,
initiation.
Most of the money will go for
purchases of heavy electrical
equipment ana materials.
tanls of the United States, are
far from battering down the " " "fa-
barriers leading to good jobs. Sale Ends Dec 21 i
But progress is being made. , . ll
Fort Motor Company aNcgro LOWCSt PWCCS EVCV Oil HclpflU GlftS fOT tJlC HOJUe
holds a key job at the end of x n
the assembly line, putting the It
engine on the chassis. J
The chief U. S. marshal in m j
chief in Cheyenne, Wyo., the VBSHBSP11 J5AVI$!"i I Jta-jdj5"""1
attorney general of Massachu- ' 'r" I TV I '" fifo, Ughled Sh.n( Mfrror If
sells and a growing number of 1 I HhlTT , , , , j , II n I I
federal and slate officials and 1 J K Wlr P ' "'f T II fiT I 1
elective officers are Negroes. ft V) 1 J ffCpV 6 in s-de magn,fles on l(,o other. II I fg
In the Deep South, Negroes V ' iftL YA ITCA Bulllln sha"r oullelv II I I I
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HL'TTI'ltl'LV Pliltt'M Glenn Vanderlaan, Kalamazoo, Mich., TV f tare Scrubs Pi3Sfl ( . A t & it
looks down his nose at a butterfly he captured when he spotted liYSUsnV h, ..h,.' .. t lli IF II
it flying along a city street. Western Michigan University ffliakF-KJ I Vh'Znni ffT" Hmdles common jobs easily. Bulll.ln j LJI 11
biologists suggest it may have hatched from a cocoon and li&fST 111 i? V th level for straight, true holes. Shock- jf Vt : J
escaped from one of the laboratories, hut noted the small- lujl Wlh! ' "V prool plastic handle. yf : .1', I
winged creature could not survive the sold weather unprotected. Heny Dutr Paint Sprayer j HW ii Fe,.l6.95 1097 T!,U
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CHILD RECOVERING Harold Adams. 8,
of Madison, Ohio, is apparently recovering
from a normally falal wound a rifle bullet
through the heart. Authorities believe the
boy may have been shot by a hunter near
his home. Doctors said he ws saved (rom
certain death because of an unusually large
pericardium, a sack-like tissue that encloses
the heart. The bullet, shown by an arrow in
the X-ray, pierced the pericardium, the right
chamber of the heart, and went through the
right lung, Jodging in the spine. (UPI)
-9
East 4th Street
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