On This Day in History ... The National Emergency Civil Rights Conference in Washington, DC |
| Published: January 14, 2008, 12:00 am |
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On this day in history... January 15-17, 1950, over 4000 attend the National Emergency Civil Rights Conference in Washington, DC. In the 1940s activists in the civil rights movement focused on the issue of fair employment practices, especially within the federal government. Their efforts culminated in the establishment of the Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC). As J. J. Goldberg writes: "Their undertaking was a powerful show of force, and it created new momentum for civil rights in Washington and nationwide." (Goldberg, 128) Coming just years before the monumental Supreme Court ruling in Brown vs. the Board of Education, the mobilization in 1949 and 1950 in support of President Truman's civil rights program was a major development. The first break in the employment battle came in 1941. A. Philip Randolph, the labor leader and civil rights activist, warned President Franklin D. Roosevelt that if he did not create a temporary Committee on [ Full article ] |
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