Part 5 - Climbing that Ladder: Jobs and Opportunity
In this episode of New Yorkers at Work, minorities and women discuss the difficulties they have faced in finding jobs and receiving equal treatment and equal pay. The program begins with minorities returning from war to be confronted with prejudice and with women facing their own limited options.
As things opened up somewhat thanks to protests and political efforts, new problems arose: unions struggled to cover quotas, shifting minorities around to ensure they were in compliance with John Lindsay's executive order 71; and women faced persistent prejudices and inequality of pay.
Martha Greenhouse and Frederick O'Neal narrate the program and gospel and blues recordings are included between spoken portions.
The episode begins with a gospel recording. Two women and a man discuss the prejudices that faced them as they sought employment.
Frederick O'Neal and Martha Greenhouse discuss the difficulties in finding opportunity for women and minorities. That will be the theme of the episode.
Emma Jean Walker talked about coming to New York in 1943. She talks about finding work with the city.
O'Neal talks about the integration of the armed forces during World War II under the urging of A. Philip Randolph. Maurice Fredericks talks about the place of African Americans in the military. Geraldine Miller talks about organizing women workers and how employment was found. William Atkinson talks about the jobs available through Macy's and after the war; the best money was available through jobs that were not available to blacks. He eventually found help through his union.
Skilled labor unions were less able to help. Ed Cross, of the tunnel workers union, talks about his work and the perilous tasks he undertook in the tunnels.
Unnamed performers sing the song "Everybody's Got a Right to Live."
In the 1950s, Gilbert Banks tells us, very few blacks were allowed to work in skilled trades. He talks about a hospital in a black community, Maurice Fredericks recalls not being able to work at building is.
O'Neal recalls the 1963 fight for city construction jobs and the role of CORE, the NAACP and the National Urban League in it. Affirmative action and other actions were created.
Ed Cleary Jr. of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers recalls the opening up of unions to minorities.
Cynthia Long, and Asian woman recalls taking part in a sleep-in, to work in the electrical union. She was eventually accepted.
Joe Banks recalls executive order 71, in which there would be an increase in minority populations at work places. Banks forced contractors to hire minorities. Ed Cleary talks about having to move employees around to cover quotas. He felt they should look at the industry rather than the population. Gilbert Banks talks about the role of contractors.
O'Neal and Greenhouse talk about the "game of numbers" in talking about inequality in jobs and pay. Various speakers talk about quotas in their industries.
Audio courtesy of the NYC Municipal Archives WNYC Collection
WNYC archives id: 92586
