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    Congressional Record 1945 79th Congress Vol 91 Part 6 July 12 FEPC

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    Edward H Sebesta
    The congressman from Texas spoke against proposed legislation to establish a Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC) with permanent enforcement powers. He argued that the FEPC would give bureaucrats too much power to interfere in the lives and businesses of citizens. He also expressed concern that the FEPC could increase racial tensions and undermine progress that had been made on improving race relations and cooperation between whites and blacks in the South through local efforts rather than federal intervention. The congressman warned that forcing integration and nondiscrimination faster than what communities were ready for could destroy the friendship and understanding between races that had been built up over decades.

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    Congressional Record 1945 79th Congress Vol 91 Part 6 July 12 FEPC

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    Edward H Sebesta
    61 views4 pages
    The congressman from Texas spoke against proposed legislation to establish a Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC) with permanent enforcement powers. He argued that the FEPC would give bureaucrats too much power to interfere in the lives and businesses of citizens. He also expressed concern that the FEPC could increase racial tensions and undermine progress that had been made on improving race relations and cooperation between whites and blacks in the South through local efforts rather than federal intervention. The congressman warned that forcing integration and nondiscrimination faster than what communities were ready for could destroy the friendship and understanding between races that had been built up over decades.

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    Sumners speaks out against the Fair Employment Practices Committee.

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    The congressman from Texas spoke against proposed legislation to establish a Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC) with permanent enforcement powers. He argued that the FEPC would give bureaucrats too much power to interfere in the lives and businesses of citizens. He also expressed concern that the FEPC could increase racial tensions and undermine progress that had been made on improving race relations and cooperation between whites and blacks in the South through local efforts rather than federal intervention. The congressman warned that forcing integration and nondiscrimination faster than what communities were ready for could destroy the friendship and understanding between races that had been built up over decades.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    61 views4 pages

    Congressional Record 1945 79th Congress Vol 91 Part 6 July 12 FEPC

    Uploaded by

    Edward H Sebesta
    The congressman from Texas spoke against proposed legislation to establish a Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC) with permanent enforcement powers. He argued that the FEPC would give bureaucrats too much power to interfere in the lives and businesses of citizens. He also expressed concern that the FEPC could increase racial tensions and undermine progress that had been made on improving race relations and cooperation between whites and blacks in the South through local efforts rather than federal intervention. The congressman warned that forcing integration and nondiscrimination faster than what communities were ready for could destroy the friendship and understanding between races that had been built up over decades.

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    Congressional Record 79th Congress First Session, Vol 91 Part 6, July 12, 1945

    PAGE 7582

    The CHAIRMAN. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Texas· [Mr. SUMNERS].

    Mr. SUMNERS of Texas. Mr. Chairman, my colleague the gentleman from Texas [Mr.
    PICKETT] has time allotted to him which he desires to assign to me. I ask unanimous
    consent that he may be permitted to yield his time to me.

    The CHAIRMAN. Without objection, it is so ordered. There was no objection.

    Mr. SUMNERS of Texas. Mr. Chairman, I want to speak in a noncontroversial sort of


    way. In my judgment we are dealing here with one of the most vital, delicate, and
    dangerous propositions that has confronted the American people for a long time. That is
    especially true with reference to the section of the country from which I come. We, white
    people and colored people, are trying in that section an experiment which has never
    before succeeded in the world. We are making progress. We are trying to have two
    different races, each in relatively large numbers, live together in close association. That
    has never before succeeded. The thing that has made that possible—I mean their living
    together and progressing in adjusting their interracial problems—is largely the
    interracial friendship that reaches across racial lines. We are developing better schools,
    better facilities, better living, and better working conditions for each of the races in the
    South.

    I regret to have to say, however, that during the past few years racial antagonism has
    been developing. The influences largely responsible for that antagonism are supporting
    this FEPC proposition. I am not questioning motives, but I am stating that which I
    believe is generally recognized as a fact. Behind this pending proposition and for which
    it is a spearhead, is the FEPC bill, to establish that agency by permanent law. It provides
    the farthest reach of bureaucratic power to be found in our entire bureaucratic
    development. There is no use decrying bureaucracy while establishing this new thing. A
    permanent bureau is to be established, with the necessary personnel and financial
    support. Under the construction of the Supreme Court of the Interstate Commerce
    clause, as to what constitutes commerce, what affects commerce, and the provision in
    the proposed law to include the FEPC provision in every contract of the Federal
    Government, a power would be given to hinder, disturb, bedevil and harass the people
    of the country greater than has heretofore been conferred upon any agency of our
    democracy. It is proposed to give the power to drag our citizens across the country by
    subpoena, force them to testify under oath; and if these bureaucrats decide that an
    individual has violated provisions of the act, he is not only subject to prosecution but
    also he is blacklisted insofar as getting any contract with the Federal Government is
    concerned. This is the final provision of H. R. 2232:
    WILLFUL INTERFERENCE WITH COMMISSION
    AGENTS

    SEC. 13. Any person who shall willfully resist, prevent, impede, or interfere with any
    member of the commission or any of its referees, agents, or agencies, in the performance
    of duties pursuant to this act, shall be punished by a fine of not more than $5,000 or by
    imprisonment for not more than 1 year, or both.

    The personnel of this outfit is to be turned loose on the country as sort of super
    personages. Nobody may dare raise his protest when they come barging in to see
    whether free people have acted as free people have a right to act.

    A $5,000 fine and a year in prison is the threat which they will carry wherever they may
    go.

    A thing which makes this proposed legislation especially dangerous at this time is that
    the people are getting tired of the sort of governing which supersede the ordinary
    processes of government. In such a condition of public attitude it is proposed to turn
    loose upon the people this new agency whose powers penetrate deeply into the most
    intimate and the most important affairs of the people. And yet proponents of this
    legislation talk about being opposed to bureaucratic government.

    It is a remarkable fact that at this time, when the people are getting ready to do
    something about this sort of government—at this time, when the people have
    accumulated resentment to the point of explosion against this sort of government and
    the relationships between the races all over the country are more delicate, more
    strained, than they have been for a long time—it is a remarkable fact that it should be
    proposed, in the name of one of these groups, to add this new thing—more provocative
    and irritating than anything which has heretofore been suggested. Everybody must
    realize that we are moving toward the condition where the accumulated resentment
    against the abuses of arbitrary power will reach the point of explosion. Some such
    proposition as this, this very proposition, if enacted into law, might cause that pent-up
    resentment to explode. If it should, it would be in the direction of the innocent minority
    of my own people, in whose behalf it is claimed this legislation is being enacted. Doing
    this provocative thing, dangerous to the harmony of the races and at the same time
    shoving this minority into the place of peril, is what you are doing, as I see it. I feel I
    ought to tell you that. You are playing with fire. My people are in front of this danger.
    I am doing my best to be a helpful Representative of the peoples of the two races who
    are now facing as difficult and dangerous a situation as ever challenged

    PAGE 7483

    the forbearance and required the levelheaded thinking and cooperation of any people. I
    am trying to make you understand what you are doing. These people cannot live
    together each in such large numbers unless there is friendship and mutual, sympathetic
    understanding which, unwittingly, let us assume, you are trying to destroy. Such things
    are not created by law. They cannot be preserved by law. Unwise legislation, however
    irritating and disturbing governmental interference, can stop that development and
    reverse the trend, can destroy that which decades have been building up.

    The CHAIRMAN. The time of the gentleman from Texas has expired.

    Mr. RABAUT. Mr. Chairman, a parliamentary inquiry. Could I yield 2 minutes of my


    time to the gentleman from Texas?

    The CHAIRMAN. That may be done by unanimous consent.

    Mr. RABAUT. Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous consent that I may yield 2 minutes of my
    time to the gentleman from Texas.

    The CHAIRMAN. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Michigan?

    There was no objection.

    Mr. SUMNERS of Texas. Mr. Chairman, I am very grateful to my friend. I am grateful to


    the Members of the House for the attention which you are giving to me while I am trying
    to be helpful in the consideration of this matter. I am not speaking at this moment for
    the white people of my section of the country. They will take care of themselves. I am
    speaking for the people, among whom I have many friends and in whom I have deep
    interest, whom we brought here a few generations ago. They came here as slaves to this
    country. We owe them a debt of protection. I am not blind to our difficulties, to the
    shortcomings, of each of these races, and to their good qualities. We must not make
    these colored people footballs of politics in times like these.

    I have seen some great things accomplished despite outside interference. I have seen the
    people of my country, the people of the communities of my section of the country,
    through racial cooperation suppress the crime of lynching, for instance. No major crime
    in this country has been dealt with more effectively. I have done as much as I could to
    hold back the interfering outside power of the Federal Government while the people of
    the communities completed the undertaking. I have done my best to help. I could do it. I
    was one of their people. I could say things helpfully to my people which no outsider
    could say without doing hurt. The people of those communities where the problems are
    greatest and the danger greatest, possibility of hurt from this sort of legislation greatest,
    are the same sort of people as you are. They are just as good as you are, no better and no
    worse. The only difference is—and that is important—they know better how to deal with
    their problems than you do. We ask to be left alone. Outside bureaucrats taking over,
    substituting the force of a bureaucratic agency unknown to the processes of democratic
    government, will not help to establish and strengthen good accord, indispensable to our
    living together.

    History warns us against this attempt by force to proceed faster than natural adjustment
    develops. The Balkans furnish us a good example. For centuries force has been
    attempting to unify those people. We are dealing with a practical situation. We must
    deal with this thing realistically. We have learned by experience—history teaches the
    same thing— that the only way races can get along together, difference races living close
    together, each in large numbers, is not to ignore natural tendencies toward some degree
    of segregation. I say natural tendencies.

    This FEPC bill says to every union of six persons or more, "You cannot get together and
    determine for yourselves as to your membership, as to whom you will have for your
    close working associates." This bill says to every employer, regardless of what he or his
    employees want or feel is best for everybody, "You cannot do anything about what you
    think you ought to do." Somebody in Washington, some snooper from Washington,
    some smart aleck from Washington, butt's in on the situation, stirs up bad blood, while
    every leader in the community, black and white, is doing his best to keep a workable,
    livable harmony among a people confronted with all sorts of interracial problems and
    difficulties. That is not good statesmanship; it is a great disservice to the very people in
    whose behalf this legislation is proposed.

    I have not addressed myself exclusively to the measure now pending, but to this whole
    FEPC proposition, of which this is a part. I am gratified for your attention. I do not
    question the motives of those who do not agree with the views I have expressed. I beg
    you to consider the perils and the disservice involved in this proposed legislation.

    The CHAIRMAN. The time of the gentleman from Texas has expired. The gentleman
    from New York [Mr. MARCANTONIO] is recognized.

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