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"It Is a New Kind of Militancy": March on Washington Movement, 1941-1946

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University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Open Access Dissertations 5-2010 "It is a new kind of militancy": March on Washington Movement, 1941-1946 David Lucander University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/open_access_dissertations Part of the African American Studies Commons Recommended Citation Lucander, David, ""It is a new kind of militancy": March on Washington Movement, 1941-1946" (2010). Open Access Dissertations. 247. https://scholarworks.umass.edu/open_access_dissertations/247 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Open Access Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. “IT IS A NEW KIND OF MILITANCY”: MARCH ON WASHINGTON MOVEMENT, 1941‐1946 A Dissertation Presented by DAVID LUCANDER Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY MAY 2010 AFRO‐AMERICAN STUDIES © Copyright by David Lucander 2010 All Rights Reserved “IT IS A NEW KIND OF MILITANCY”: MARCH ON WASHINGTON MOVEMENT, 1941‐1946 A Dissertation Presented by DAVID LUCANDER Approved, as to style and content by: ______________________________________________ John Bracey, Chair _____________________________________________ James Smethurst, Member _____________________________________________ Ernest Allen, Member _____________________________________________ Dayo Gore, Member _____________________________________________ Amilcar Shabazz, Department Chair Afro‐American Studies DEDICATION To the late Howard Zinn, for inspiring a generation of historians. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This project was substantially improved by a number of individuals and institutions. Like any graduate student, I am beholden to my dissertation committee: John H. Bracey, James Smethurst, Ernest Allen, and Dayo F. Gore, all from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. At some point in this project, they all offered criticism, bibliographic and archival recommendations, and insights that enhanced my understanding of the subject. I am especially indebted to my dissertation advisor, John H. Bracey, for sharing his knowledge of archival sources, presumption of excellence, and for ensuring that I will never run out of good books to read. His appreciation for African American Studies and what this field tells scholars about the human condition is infectious – I am proud to be one of his intellectual protégés. I am also grateful to the Gilder Lehrman Institute, Nellie Mae Foundation, Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts, and the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro‐American Studies for financially and institutionally supporting me during all or parts of this project. I was fortunate to begin graduate study in the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro‐American Studies in 2003. This permitted me to learn from foundational members of the department including Esther Terry, Michael Thelwell, Bill Strickland, Ernest Allen, and Robert Paul Wolff, as well as from newer faculty including James Smethurst, Manisha Sinha, Steve Tracey, Richard Hall, A. Yemisi Jimoh, and Amilcar Shabazz. This team of scholars crafted a rigorous program for training graduate students that made all of my conversations with peers useful, but discussions with Allia Abdullah‐Matta, Zahra Caldwell, Jon Fenderson, David v Swiderski, McKinley Melton, and Cristy Tondeur were particularly rewarding. Alum of the department including Chris Tinson of Hampshire College, David Goldberg of Wayne State University, and Thomas Edge of Northwestern University contributed important feedback, especially in this dissertation’s earliest stages. A standout of this group, Shawn Alexander of Kansas University, deserves accolades for teaching me through example that dedication and focus are what makes an effective archival historian. Department secretary Trish Loveland deserves accolades for her professionalism, positive attitude, and outstanding administrative support, as does librarian Isabel Espinal for her sharing her expertise so generously. For me, post‐baccalaureate education was inconceivable without Westfield State College’s Urban Education Program and University of New Hampshire’s McNair Graduate Opportunity Program. In this regard, I have to thank Joan E. Fuller for her early faith in me, Kamal Ali for his ceaseless tutelage, John Benvenuto for schooling me in American Labor History when I was a teenager, Mara Dodge for teaching me how to be a teacher, and Andrew Marshall for personifying determination – a necessary trait for completing a project such as this one. At University of New Hampshire I met J. William Harris, who told me that there was a place called archives and that I should spend time in them. My colleagues at SUNY Rockland Community College have enriched this dissertation by sharing their enthusiasm for research, writing critiques, and assistance arranging an unusually large teaching schedule so as to make possible this dissertation’s final stages. In particular, I am appreciative to Reamy Jansen, Christine Stern, Andrew Jacobs, Elaine Padilla, Nicole Hanaburgh, and Cliff Wood. vi Andree Elizee at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture deserves special accolades for referring me to obscure sources that enhanced this dissertation. Debra Foster‐Greene at Lincoln University shared her knowledge of Missouri history and historiography with me. Larry Hamilton at University of New Hampshire, Jeanne Theoharis at Brooklyn College, Timothy Gardner at Lehigh University, and Bradley Parry at Yale University shared valuable time with me discussing this project and offering insights at conferences, in coffeehouses, and at retreats in the hills. I am obliged to Robert M. Hastings for his lifelong friendship, and his mother, Teresa Pfeifer of Springfield Public Schools for teaching me that knowledge is power. I also owe a debt of gratitude to Bert Ames for strong coffee and wholesome food throughout graduate school, Samuel Brody for being Franklin County’s most widely read bartender, and my immediate family, the Lucanders, for their support. Finally, I am most thankful to my fiancée, Ursula Wieczorek, for her unfaltering patience over the past eight years. She occasionally talked sense into me, usually supported my decisions, and proofread more than her share of chapters. Her contributions to this project surpass my ability express in prose. vii ABSTRACT “IT IS A NEW KIND OF MILITANCY”: MARCH ON WASHINGTON MOVEMENT, 1941‐1946 MAY 2010 DAVID LUCANDER, B.A., WESTFIELD STATE COLLEGE M.A., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Ph.D., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Professor John H. Bracey, Jr. This study of the March on Washington Movement (MOWM) investigates the operations of the national office and examines its interactions with local branches, particularly in St. Louis. As the organization’s president, A. Philip Randolph and members of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP) such as Benjamin McLaurin and T.D. McNeal are important figures in this story. African American women such as Layle Lane, E. Pauline Myers, and Anna Arnold Hedgeman ran MOWM’s national office. Of particular importance to this study is Myers’ tenure as executive secretary. Working out of Harlem, she corresponded with MOWM’s twenty‐six local chapters, spending considerable time espousing the rationale and ideology of Non‐Violent Goodwill Direct Action, a trademark protest technique viii developed and implemented alongside Fellowship of Reconciliation members Bayard Rustin and James Farmer. As a nationally recognized African American protest organization fighting for a “Double V” against fascism and racism during the Second World War, MOWM accrued political capital by the agitation of its local affiliates. In some cases, like in Washington, D.C., volunteers lacked the ability to forge effective protests. In St. Louis, however, BSCP official T.D. McNeal led a MOWM branch that was among the nation’s most active. David Grant, Thelma Maddox, Nita Blackwell, and Leyton Weston are some of the thousands joining McNeal over a three‐year period to picket U.S. Cartridge and Carter Carburetor for violating the anti‐discrimination clause in Executive Order 8802, lobby Southwestern Bell Telephone to expand employment opportunities for African Americans, stage a summer of sit‐ins at lunch counters in the city’s largest department stores, and lead a general push for a “Double V” against fascism and racism. This study of MOWM demonstrates that the structural dynamics of protest groups often include a discrepancy between policies laid out by the organization’s national office and the activity of its local branches. While national officials from MOWM and National Organization for the Advancement of Colored People had an ambivalent relationship with each other, inter‐organizational tension was locally muted as grassroots activists aligned themselves with whichever group appeared most effective. During the Second World War, this was often MOWM. ix TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………………………………….…………………………………………………… v ABSTRACT………………………………………………………..……………………………………………... viii LIST OF TABLES…………………………………………………………………………………………...……..ix CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION..……………………………………….…………………………………………..…1 2. MARCH ON WASHINGTON MOVEMENT ‐ NATIONAL OFFICE AFFAIRS AND OPERATIONS ……………...………………………28
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