Defense and Labor Departments Sued for Condoning Job Bias by Textile Manufacturers

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ome } g 

President ~ 

Hon, Franeis E. Rivers 

a # BATA) FE PRESS RELEASE Director Counsel 
egal efense und Jack Greenberg 

‘S i Director, Public Relations 
NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND, INC. Jesse DeVore, Jr. 
10 Columbus Circle, New York, N.Y. 10019 * JUdson 6-8397 NIGHT NUMBER 212-749-8487 

Statement by Attorney Robert Belton, 
director, Title VII Litigation Program, 
NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) 
Sheraton Park Hotel, Washington, D.C.,April 8, 1969 

DEFENSE AND LABOR DEPARTMENTS 
SUED FOR CONDONING JOB BIAS 
BY TEXTILE MANUFACTURERS 

Shultz, Laird, McCreedy and Packard Named 

WASHINGTON, D.C.---The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. 
(LDF) today filed suit in federal district court here charging the 
Departments of Defense and Labor with “knowingly permitting and con- 
doning racial discrimination in employment by government contractors." 

Our suit lists three major textile manufacturers: Dan River 
Mills, Inc.; J, P. Stevens and Company, Inc.; and Burlington Industries. 

All told, these three companies have been awarded $75,000,000.00 
(seventy-five million dollars) during the past year--which more than 
covers the period during which their employment policies have been 
in dispute. 

Named as defendants in the LDF action are George P. Shultz, 
secretary of Labor; Melvin R. Laird, secretary of Defense; David 
Packard, deputy secretary of Defense; and Ward McCreedy, acting 
director, Office of Federal Contract Compliance. 

The LDF is representing 20 Negroes from four southern states* 
“and on behalf of all black employees at Dan River, Burlington and 
Stevens." 

Our suit also asks the court to declare illegal the issuing of 
federal contracts to the three companies during the period of time 
during which they refused to sign written promises of fair employment 
practices under Executive Order 11246. 

We are also seeking "a permanent injunction prohibiting the de- 
fendants from awarding any further government contracts to J.P.Stevensg 
Burlington and Dan River unless and until their employment practices 
are so revised so as to entirely eliminate racial discrimination." 

Our suit points out that the action of the defendants violated 
the rights of the plaintiffs and other Negroes similarly situated. 

The nature and form of discrimination against southern Negroes 
in this suit vary. 

Four plaintiffs from Wilson, North Carolina, applied for work at 
the Burlington facility there in August and September of 1968. They 
were not hired nor have they been called back. We have reason to 
believe that white persons of no greater qualifications have been 
hired at the same facility since that time. 

Another plaintiff has been employed by Stevens at its Greenville, 
South Carolina, facility for more than three years as a fork lift 
driver. We have reason to believe that white persons of no greater 
qualifications have been hired subsequently and have been placed in or 
promoted to more desirable and better-paying positions. 

Two Danville, Virginia, plaintiffs have been employed at the Dan 
. River Mills facility there for more than twenty years each. They have 
m applied for promotion from time to time to jobs traditionally reserved 

for white workers. They have had no success. White workers of no 
x greater qualifications who have been hired subsequently have moved on 

to the more desirable and better-paying jobs. 

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Statement by Robert Belton, 
NAACP Legal Defense and 
Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) -2- April 8, 1969 

We also note in our suit that Deputy Secretary of Defense Packard 
wrote Secretary of Labor Shultz on February 13, 1969 acknowledging 
that the three companies were in non-compliance. 

Mr. Packard awarded an additional $9,000,000.00 (nine million 
dollars) in contracts to the three companies on February 8, 1969. 

This was done while expressly recognizing continued discrimina-' 
tion. Oral assurances of future compliance were accepted in lieu of 
specific programs and timetables for affirmative action as required by 
the Executive Order. 

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* North and South Carolina, Virginia, and Alabama. 

NOTE: The LDF was established by the NAACP, but we are a completely 
separate and distinct organization even though the initials are 
retained in our name. Our correct designation is NAACP Legal Defense 
and Educational Fund, Inc., frequently shortened to LDF.