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By Root 1819 0

daylights out of everyone.”51 The president spoke from the East Room of the White House to a worldwide audience of some 85 million. After laying out the threat posed by Nazi Germany, he announced his intention to ensure the delivery of needed supplies to Britain by whatever means were necessary. “I say that this can be done; it must be done; and it will be done.” That was followed by a “proclamation of unlimited national emergency.”52 Roosevelt did not ask for repeal of the Neutrality Act, he did not request new statutory authority, nor did he suggest the Navy undertake convoy responsibility. Nevertheless, by declaring an unlimited national emergency he prepared public opinion for the prospect that hostilities might follow. “I hope you will like the speech,” FDR cabled Churchill. “It goes further than I thought it was possible to go even two weeks ago.”53

Public response was overwhelmingly favorable. Ninety-five percent of the telegrams to the White House supported the president.54 A Gallup Poll in early June showed a clear majority of Americans now favored armed convoys to protect vessels carrying goods to Britain. In the South, 75 percent were in favor.55 “I hope that we will protect every dollar’s worth of stuff that we send to Great Britain,” said Senator Carter Glass of Virginia, “and that we will shoot the hell out of anybody who interferes.”56

As May melded into June, Roosevelt confronted one of the most serious racial issues of his presidency. The nation’s black leaders were concerned that qualified Negro workers were being passed over by defense contractors and not receiving their share of jobs. Led by A. Philip Randolph, the beloved and powerful head of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, they organized a protest march on Washington and scheduled it for July 1. FDR sought to head them off. A black march in segregated Washington could easily provoke violence and at the very least would antagonize the southern leadership of his preparedness coalition. He asked Eleanor and New York mayor La Guardia to meet with Randolph and his colleagues and dissuade them. When that failed, Roosevelt invited the black leaders to the White House.

The meeting took place Wednesday afternoon, June 18. In addition to Randolph and NAACP head Walter White, the president invited Stimson, Knox, and La Guardia. When Randolph asked FDR if he would issue an executive order making it mandatory for the defense industry to hire black workers, Roosevelt declined. “If I issue an executive order for you,” he told Randolph, “there will be no end of other groups coming in here and asking me to issue orders for them. In any event, I can’t do anything unless you call off this march of yours.”

“I’m sorry, Mr. President, the march cannot be called off.”

“How many people do you plan to bring?”

“One hundred thousand, Mr. President.”

Thinking that Randolph was bluffing, FDR turned to White. “Walter, how many people will really march?”

“One hundred thousand, Mr. President.”

Roosevelt recalled the 1919 Washington race riots, when he had been assistant secretary of the Navy. “You can’t bring 100,000 Negroes to Washington. Someone might get killed.” Randolph held firm, and Roosevelt continued to resist. Finally, La Guardia broke the impasse: “Gentlemen, it is clear that Mr. Randolph is not going to call off the march. I suggest we all begin to seek a formula.”57 FDR at length agreed and asked the group to adjourn to the Cabinet Room to hammer out an appropriate executive order. Negotiations over the precise wording required another week, and on June 25 the president signed Executive Order 8802, banning discrimination in the defense industry and the federal government because of “race, creed, color, or national origin.”

Randolph canceled the march, and Roosevelt’s action was an important civil rights breakthrough. For the first time since Reconstruction the U.S. government acted to guarantee equal opportunity for blacks. Roosevelt was not the prime mover; it was Randolph who had called the shots. But FDR was wise enough to recognize a just cause