Arizona sun., 1947-12-05
Prejudice Tells In Wages, Workers Find
Jimcrow Weakens Hold In Railroad Unions
Negro Girl Visits Meeting
BY A. p. SAXTON
From The Daily Peoples World.)

| (From ] ne OdIy FeOpte WOFiu') }
San Francisco, Nov. 27.-Last
month a young Negro girl came in
to a railroad union meeting in Oak
land.
John Angelo, president of Local
802 of the Brotherhood of Railway
Clerks, said a few words of well
come, and the members applauded
her entrance. This was something
of a historic moment. The girl was
the first Negro member ever to at
tend a meeting of this local. She
was among the first Negroes to be
admitted to full membership in the
Brotherhood of Railway Clerks.
Until last summer, the Brother
hood of Clerks required Negro
members to belong to jimcrow, all
Negro locals, in which they had the
right" to pay dues, but no rights
to voice in union affairs.
FULL CITIZENSHIP
But in their convention last sum-
mer, the Clerks finally wiped this
discriminatory practice off the
Books. During discussion preceding
this action Leo Fried, divisional
chairman for the Clerks on the
Southern Pacific and one of the
delegates from Oakland, told his
fellow unionists in the convention:
GAS for as citizenship is concern
ed, l know that the Constitution of
the United States does no provide
for a secondary citizenship. Citizen
ship means equal rights for all. i. :.
I recall that in the Declaration of
independence it provides that there
shall be justice for ALL. regardless
of race, color or creed.
"The question of race discrimina-
tion is something that is not in
stinctive at all. 1t is strictly envir-
onmental. AS evidence of that, take
children a an early age. They play
with other children, colored or
white, and think nothing of it.
"But the capitalist press and 9TH
er puppets educate these people to
that sort of hing.
"They educate them because in
these colored men and say, You
haven't anything in common with
those white boys. Go in and take
their jobs. They won't let you join
their union anyway"
"The labor movement is suppos-
ed to be a movement of unity, con-
certed action and members work
ing together"
Since the convention, Fried esti-
mates that some SO or go Negroes
have entered Local 8O2. And the
first Negroes have been admitted to
at least two other locals of the Bro
therhood of Clerks in the San Fran
cisco Bay Area.
MANY PROBLEMS
Of course, there are still many
problems to be solved.
In some locals, small minority
persist in blocking the admission
of Negroes lit takes only three
blackballs to bar any applicant). In
some, cases, local union officers
continue the discrimination which
has been rejected by the national
union.
One of the most serious issues is
what to do with the jimcrow locals
established before the convention.
These locals have now been grant
ed full rights in the brotherhood.
Today, at many points, they con-
tinue as dual unions, side by side
with the regular locals of Clerks.
OF course, the Negroes have very
good reason to hang on to these
all-Negro locals, for. here is their
only guarantee of being able to
elect Negro officers and Negro del
egates to the next national conven-
tion.
The answer to this problem is
one which has already been worked
out in number of other unions:
it is to guarantee Negro represen-
tation at every level in the broth
erhood in ratio the otal Negro
membership.
These developments in the Bro
therhood of Railway Clerks are an
example of what is happening
painfully and slowly-throughout
the entire railroad industry.
The powerful Brotherhood of Rail-
way Carmen of America struck a
similar jimcrow clause out of it's
constitution in 1916. Most of the
other II Incorporating brotherhoods
no longer have anti-Negro clauses
in their constitutions; although
many locals continue to bar Ne
groes from membership. Even in
the hard-shelled big Five" operat-
ing brotherhoods, there are changes
under way.
Last August the Locomotive Fire
men & Enginemen lost a vital court
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