Financing Fair Employment

After the sermon and the sit-in, U.S. churches are now using economic pressure to assist the Negro in his struggle for social and economic justice. Both Catholic and Protestant bodies are trying to see that the millions of dollars they hand out daily to commercial firms go to companies with fair-employment hiring practices.

This month Roman Catholic Archbishop John F. Dearden of Detroit and St. Louis' Joseph Cardinal Ritter announced that they would give preferential treatment to suppliers who gave equal opportunity to minority groups; the same policy will eventually be applied to contractors. Under the terms of "Project Equality," bids from suppliers will be judged not only on the basis of cost and quality, but also on the company's fair-employment practices record. Directors of the project expect that within two years this policy will be adopted by at least 40 other dioceses.

Confining Investments. Protestant churches are taking similar action. Recently, the Episcopal Diocese of New York passed a resolution asking church agencies and parishes to confine their investments to corporations that have "demonstrated their commitment to equal opportunity in employment." In Chicago, churches belonging to the city's nondenominational Conference on Religion and Race all have fair-employment clauses in their hiring contracts; next month a five-man committee of financial experts will begin a study of one Protestant denomination's financial portfolio to see how its assets can best be used to further integration. The United Presbyterian Church insists on fair-employment clauses in all contracts, is also planning to invest its funds in integrated housing projects.

Church leaders admit that it is somewhat easier to set such a policy than to enforce it. Because of their decentralized structures, most Protestant bodies have to rely on persuasion rather than what they shudder to hear called a boycott, and local churches have had little luck in trying to go it alone. When one racially mixed Presbyterian church in St. Louis insisted on a fair-employment clause in a contract to renovate its sanctuary and build a new community house, it spent months trying to find a contractor willing to cooperate. Even then, difficulties were encountered--such as pipes filled with concrete. Was this a deliberate attempt to frustrate integration? "You can draw your own conclusions," answers the pastor.

Our Hands Are Tied. Moreover, where does the blame lie? "We'll sign," says President John Armstrong of Detroit's Darin & Armstrong Construction Co., "but our hands are tied as to what the unions will do." For their part, unions insist that there are seldom enough qualified Negro applicants for jobs--and in any case, liberal-minded clergy find it easier to condemn discrimination by employers rather than by unions. Dr. Gayraud Wilmore, director of the United Presbyterian Religion and Race Commission, admits that many churches are content to accept a letter from a corporation official, and do little in the way of following up their contractual demands.

Nonetheless, the churches' fair-employment policy has already produced some small but tangible results. Since the Roman Catholic diocese of Greensburg, Pa., introduced fair-hiring clauses into its contracts, the area's Negro groups have issued no complaints against city builders. Most Christian leaders are convinced that the churches' financial power, which contributed $900 million worth of new building to the U.S. economy last year, is a force that can and must be used to further social equality. "Either you use your assets to further integration or to impede integration," says Eugene Callahan, executive director of the Chicago Conference.

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