Discrimination

Resolution Adopted by the CCAR

DISCRIMINATION

Digests of resolutions adopted by the

Central Conference of American Rabbis

between 1889 and 1974

1. We find substantial progress in the expansion of employment opportunities

and in

legislation against discrimination. We point with pride to the contributions

made

by Conference members through voluntary service on the President’s Committee

on Fair

Employment Practices; boards of Negro social work institutions; on racial

commissions of

governors and mayors. (1945. p. 122)

2. See American Indians.

(a) ARMED SERVICES

• We appeal to the President of the United States and the Secretaries of

  War and Navy

  to admit the Negro on equal terms with other Americans. (1942, p. 100)

• We urge equality of opportunity in all branches of the armed services of

  our country

  for our Negro fellow citizens, without regard to color or race. (1943, p.

  123)

• Reiterated 1944, p. 96.

• We regret that the pamphlet "The Races of Mankind" has been

  banned by the U.S.O.

  and the War Department. If such pamphlets were distributed among our soldiers,

  it

  would be easier to do away with segregation in the Army and to have amicable

  relations

  among our citizens when the war is over. (1944, p. 97)

• We appeal to the American Red Cross and to the Army and Navy Departments

  to end the

  segregation of the blood of Negro donors. This policy is an affront to the

  American

  Negroes for which sanction can be found neither in religion, morality nor

  science.

  (1944, p. 97)

• We strongly urge that since the draft law was passed, every effort be

  made to democratize

  the armed forces through the reform of the court martial procedure along lines

  of

  civilian justice, the abolition of caste privileges and the elimination of

  racial segregation. (1948, p. 127)

• We commend the President of the U.S. and Secretary of Defense Lewis A.

  Johnson, for

  their recent statements frowning upon segregation in the armed forces and hope

  that

  they will vigorously follow through to eliminate discrimination in the

  nation’s military. (1949, p. 129)

(b) EDUCATION

• See Civil Liberties, Sec. 5 (1938)

• The disparate nature of Negro and white educational facilities and

  advantages is

  most apparent in the Southern states. In Georgia, Mississippi and So.

  Carolina, only

  20 cents is spent for a Negro pupil for each dollar spent per white pupil. We

  urge

  full support, therefore, of S181, the Federal Aid to Education Bill, to

  correct these

  injustices. (1945, p. 125)

• We applaud the majority report of the President’s Commission on Higher

  Education,

  denying federal funds to educational institutions which resort to

  discriminatory

  practices in the enrollment of students. We hail the enactment of the

  Quin-Ollife

  Fair Educational Practice Bill by the State of New York. (1948, p. 127)

• See Segregation, Sec. 1 (1955)

(c) EMPLOYMENT

• We strongly urge that the President’s Fair Employment Practice Committee

  be made

  a permanent function of our Government. Any discrimination in employment

  because

  of race, nationality or religion is morally repugnant and in violation of the

  spirit

  of our Constitution. (1944, p. 93)

• We urge unstinting support of H.R.2232 and S101 for a permanent Committee

  on Fair

  Employment Practice. We reject with utter contempt a warning to Jews that they

  keep

  hands off this issue. We believe it is a sound educational as well as

  protective

  weapon. Therefore, we hail the enactment in New York State of the first Fair

  Employment

  Practice Law with penalties for employers who are guilty of discrimination.

  (1945,

  p. 125)

• We reaffirm our conviction that FEPC legislation has resulted in a

  greater measure

  of justice for minorities in those states where such legislation has been

  adopted,

  and we plead that all states follow suit. (1947, p. 69)

• In order to achieve equal economic opportunity for minority groups, we

  must strive

  for a well-balanced, healthy economy offering full employment opportunity to

  all.

  We recommend the enactment of Federal, State and local FEPC acts forbidding

  discrimination in employment based on race, creed, color or national origin,

  applicable to private

  industry, labor unions, trade and professional associations and to the

  government.

  (1948, pp. 123-25, report)

• Reiterated 1949, p. 130.

• We again urge upon our Government and its people the following program:

  The enactment

  of a Fair Employment Practices Act on both state and national levels. We

  deplore

  the obstacles which the Civil Rights program has encountered in Congress.

  (1950,

  p. 170)

• Our foreign and domestic policies are interdependent parts of a whole.

  They cannot

  be divorced from each other or considered separately. The kind of society we

  create

  at home will not only inevitably affect our ability to defend ourselves–it

  will also manifest to all other nations the measure of our sincerity in

  assuming the moral

  leadership of the free world. (With respect to an expanding democratic

  civilization

  at home, this Conference has already gone on record in favor of federal

  legislation

  to activate a Fair Employment Practices Commission to provide for racial

  equality in housing

  and recreation, and to outlaw both lynching and the poll tax.)

We deeply regret the failure of the Congress to make progress in any of these

areas.

The one point at which the President could act himself, without waiting for

legislative

approval, is on the FEPC. The substantial improvement already made toward

racial

equality in our armed forces demonstrates how the Executive itself can

integrate our

military needs with an expansion of American democracy. There have been

indications

in recent months that the President was prepared to reestablish the FEPC by

executive

degree. We strongly urge him to do so without delay. (1951, pp. 103-4)

• See Individual Rights, Sec. 1 (1953) .

(d) HOUSING

• We applaud the recent decision of the Supreme Court which held that

  restrictive covenants

  are unconstitutional. (1948, p. 126)

• We commend those of our fellow citizens who in such areas as Stuyvesant

  Town, N.Y.

  and Levittown, L.l. have–even at great personal sacrifice–resisted the

  un-American

  efforts of some property owners to deny equal and adequate housing to Negroes

  and

  other colored people. (1951, p.106)

(e) INDUSTRY

• We deplore the "Jim Crow" tactics in the area of economic

  discrimination, including

  defense industries, that exists against Negroes and urge a speedy

  rectification of

  this injustice. (1941, p. 137)

• Repeated 1942, p. 99, including Jews and foreigners against whom

  discrimination is

  also directed.

• We applaud the unflagging efforts of the Congress of Industrial

  Organizations to

  end discrimination in industry and to extend the principle of racial

  conciliation

  to all aspects of national life. (1944, p. 96)

(f) MEDICINE

• We commend officers and the Board of Sydenham Hospital in New York City

  for their

  inspiring example of a fully integrated inter-racial program in all phases of

  their

  staff and services. We find a glaring incongruity in the present refusal of

  the American College of Surgeons to admit qualified Negro physicians to its

  fellowship. (1945,

  p. 125)

(g) UNIONS

• We appeal to the leaders of the trade union organizations to demand the

  removal of

  racial bars in all unions. (1942, p. 100)