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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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Part:         Session:         Page of 912

Interviewer:

It has to do with the employment of Negroes.

Perkins:

I know. It had to do with the idea that a man mustn't be refused employment because of his color. Well, we'd never refused them employment because of their color in the Department of Labor. But it had a little more than that. You know, there was something else.

Interviewer:

Under Truman, it became quite a bit more.

Perkins:

Yes, but I think it had originally been more. I think it was the idea of some of the Negro politicians that they would pressure Negroes, in the War effort, into jobs that they hadn't had before. But it was a voluntary thing. It had no particular teeth in it.

Interviewer:

The teeth got into it by local action.

Perkins:

Yes, but--





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