Fair Employment Practice Committee

The Fair Employment Practice Committee (FEPC) was created in 1941 in the United States to implement Executive Order 8802 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt "banning discriminatory employment practices by Federal agencies and all unions and companies engaged in war-related work."^[1] That was shortly before the United States entered World War II. The executive order also required federal vocational and training programs to be administered without discrimination. Established in the Office of Production Management, the FEPC was intended to help African Americans and other minorities obtain jobs in home front industries during World War II. In practice, especially in its later years, the committee also tried to open up more skilled jobs in industry to minorities, who had often been restricted to lowest-level work. The FEPC appeared to have contributed to substantial economic improvements among black men during the 1940s by helping them gain entry to more skilled and higher-paying positions in defense-related industries.^[2]

In January 1942 after the US entry into World War II, Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9040 to establish the War Production Board, which replaced the Office of Production Management and put the FEPC under it answering to the War Manpower Commission. The new board, concentrating on converting the domestic economy to a wartime footing, slashed the committee's limited budget.

In response to strong support for the FEPC and a threatened march on the capital, Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9346 in May 1943, which gave the FEPC independent status within the Office of the President, established 16 regional offices, and widened its jurisdiction to all federal agencies, in addition to those directly involved in defense. It was put within the president's Office of Emergency Management.^[2] Analysis of the incomes of blacks who gained entree into the defense industries compared to men outside them showed that they benefited from the higher wages and generally retained their jobs in the early postwar years until 1950.^[2]