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Here's another example, as the U.S. was anticipating war (it was before the Pearl Harbor attack but the European war was ongoing and most knew that the U.S. disputes and blockades would lead to hostilities with Japan) where a staunch ally of FDR nevertheless committed to pushing his interest group's agenda. (I posted this early December.)
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...It would be a brutal rewrite of history to have imagine that FDR was governing silently without constant inputs by interest groups, liberal groups, labor organizations, leftist groups, and the like.
Hell, there were general strikes, including the then-largest strike ever in the U.S. in the textile industry (whose brutal & violent crushing by state authorities and mill goons ended much organizing in the South), and the 1941 march planned by A. Phillip Randolph against racial discrimination in defense industry hiring, which wasn't carried out because the threat of it led to negotiations with FDR.
A recap might be interesting from that time. Remember, this is 1941 -- the U.S. was gearing up for war. A coalition led by 2 prominent African American labor & civil rights leaders (Randolph & Bayard Rustin) and a radical pacifist religious leader A. J. Muste [head of the Fellowship of Reconciliation], still in a Depression and the call to march had been issued on January 15th of 1941. Randolph, though, had fought for 12 years getting the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters recognized by the Pullman Company.
[Randolph begins defining to Roosevelt what it is he and the "10,000 Negroes" would march on Washington for.]
"Mr. President, we want you to issue an executive order making it mandatory that Negroes be permitted to work in these plants."
"Well, Phil," answered the President [FDR], "you know I can't do that. If I issue an executive order for you, then there'll be no end to other groups coming in here and asking me to issue executive orders for them, too. In any event, I couldn't do anything unless you called off this march of yours. Questions like this can't be settled with a sledge hammer."
"I'm sorry, Mr. President, ," Randolph responded steadfastly.
"How many people do you plan to bring?" asked Roosevelt.
"One hundred thousand, Mr. President," answered Randolph.
Sensing a bluff, Roosevelt asked Walter White [NAACP leader] how many people really planned to march. Unhesitatingly, White replied, "One hundred thousand, Mr. President."
Whether Randolph and White were bluffing, no one can say for sure. What is known is that the president seemed alarmed at the prospect. "You can't bring 100,000 Negroes to Washington," he said. "Somebody might get killed."
Randolph replied that violence was unlikely if the President spoke to the marchers. Roosevelt responded impatiently, "Call it off and we'll talk again."...
...Finally, the officials relented and agreed to draw up an executive order for the president to sign. After he rejected several initial drafts as too weak, the White House finally came up with an executive order that met Randolph's approval.
On June 25, 1941, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 8802. The order mandated that "there shall be no discrimination in the employment of workers in defense industries or government because of race, creed, color, or national origin."... Most importantly, the order established a Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC) to "receive and investigate complaints of discrimination" and to take "appropriate steps to redress grievances."
Holding up his end of the bargain, Randolph agreed to cancel the march.
- Excerpted from Philip A. Klinkner's & Rogers M. Smith's _The Unsteady March_.
http://tinyurl.com/Randolph-1941-FDR
...these leaders represented organizations whose members were all overwhelmingly loyal allies and fervent electoral supporters of Franklin D. Roosevelt.
