Dr. Stephen G. Hall (@historianspeaks.bsky.social)

Black Longshoremen and Civil Rights Activism in Brownsville, Texas (1964) Waves of racial tension began to form at the port of Brownsville almost immediately after the erection of dock facilities in 1934. The International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) organized the piers by establishing the all-Black Local 1368 and the all-white Local 1367. In the port’s first six years of operations, shipping companies almost exclusively hired white dock workers. In 1940, the ILA revoked Local 1368’s charter until available work for them increased. Following the union’s decision, Black longshoremen brought their grievances to a local NAACP conference in the same year. There, the notable Thurgood Marshall agreed to serve as their legal counsel and sought federal intervention on their behalf. With the assistance of Thurgood Marshall, Brownsville’s Black dock workers filed complaints with the Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC) under Executive Order 8802. Issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in June 1941, the wartime measure prohibited racial discrimination in the defense industry. The FEPC served as the Order’s compliance agency, but had no enforcement powers. The Committee could only receive and investigate complaints. The NAACP considered the FEPC to be largely ineffective in its five-year tenure. In a late May 1942 letter to Marshall, the FEPC declined to […] https://zurl.co/ldPPD