Yeah. Adviser on the Economic Status of the Negroes. Another example of
the kind of thing that went on. You see, when I went in there Ickes said
"It's understood with the President that even though you're working in
my office you're to be operating throughout the government, anywhere."
I found that the CCC was set up, you know, to give employment relief to
people. They had Negro camps and white camps, but in the Negro camps
they would not employ any Negro skilled, intellectual labor or any . . .
. And the army people there were all white, even in the Negro camps. So
I went to the head of the CCC to complain about this and he said "Well,
there's nothing we can do about that. The reason we can't do anything
about it is that the army is in charge of assigning people to the camps
and they are assigning white officers. They don't want the white
officers to be eating with Negroes." I said "Well, I
Page 26 better go and see the army about it." So I went to see the army and
the man in charge was a Major Major. His name was Major Major. As soon
as I made him aware of who I was and what I'd come to talk about, he
said "Well now, Mr Foreman, I leave here usually at 4:30 and it is now
4:20." I said "Well, Major what I have to say won't take more than ten
minutes. Really, the problem is, why can't we have Negro officers in the
Negro CCC camps?" He said "Well, it would never work. You don't
understand. Obviously you don't understand the South." I said "Well, in
the First World War there were Negro companies in the South and Negro
officers and no trouble as far as I know and I don't see why you
couldn't have them now. It doesn't make sense to me to give employment
only to the most ignorant, illiterate Negroes and not give employment to
the officers who are trained and to the educated Negroes." He said "Well
obviously you don't understand the South. Where are you from?" So I said
"Well Major, I'm from Georgia. Where are you from?" "Well, I'm from New
York, but I've lived in the South a lot." "I don't think I need to take
any more of your time, Major. You still can get out on time. It's not
4:30 yet." So I got up and left and I went back and reported this
conversation to Ickes and said "I have found out that you have a right,
as ecretary of the nterior, to appoint the people in the camps in the
parks of the country." Because the National Park Service was a part of
the Interior Department. And any CCC camps that were set up in the
parks, he could appoint the people. He said "Well, all right, you write
me a peremptory order to the Park Service saying that the next job that
becomes available in"—intellectual work, I've forgotten what they called
it—"should go to a Negro." So I wrote up the peremptory order, all
right, and sent it down to the Park Service. A few days later they came
in, a delegation to see me and said "We have this order from you but
it's not going to be as easy
Page 27 as you think. The job
that's become available is that of an archeologist who will do some work
for us in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania." Finding an unemployed Negro
archeologist in 1933 was not an easy job. But we scoured the countryside
and found a very fine fellow named Dr King from West Virginia and sent
his name down to the Park Service for the job. A few days later a
delegation came back to my office and said "Well, the man's name that
you sent down is obviously the best qualified that we have for the job.
But we don't believe that you can understand what the situation is in
Gettysburg, Pa. There the CCC office is in the same building with the
post office, just above the post office, and there are only white people
there and they're not used to working with Negroes and not used to
having Negroes around. If you insist on this, there will be riots and
bloodshed and it will be on your head." He was trying to scare me into
backing away from it. I said "Well now look, my grandfather fought at
Gettysburg to keep the Negroes slaves. And your grandfathers fought
there to liberate them. If there's any more blood to be shed on this
issue, there's no better place for it than Gettysburg. So I think you
should go ahead, get the job done and give it to Dr King." They got up
and were furious and marched out. For days after that I looked at the
paper every day to see if there were any riots or bloodshed in
Gettysburg, you know. But weeks passed by. I got a call later, from
Gettysburg. It was some colonel there who called, said he was coming to
Washington the next day and could he see me. I said yes. He came in. I
didn't know what to expect. He said "Well, Dr Foreman, I understand you
are responsible for recommending Dr King to take the job with us in
Gettysburg." I said "Well yes, that's true. I was responsible." "Well, I
just wanted you to know that if you have any more like him, we'd like
them. Like to get them. We've never had a better person. We haven't had
a bit of trouble. The whole
Page 28 time he's been there,
everything's been fine." So that's always stood out to me as an example
of how, if you allow yourself to be intimidated, you see, you can lose
an opportunity. But once we went through with it and King got the job,
then the whole question of Negroes eating . . . Dr King was a Negro and
he sat there and he ate with the officers. Then they put Negro officers
in, later on. Other jobs they gave to Negroes. It was a question of
really trying to intimidate me on the part of the Park Service.