LETTER TO MR. FREDERICK M. RICHMOND FROM ALLEN W. DULLES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80R01731R000300070024-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 7
• Document Creation Date: December 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 9, 2003
• Sequence Number: 24
• Publication Date: September 8, 1959
• Content Type: LETTER

Approved For Release 2003/05/05 : CIA-RDP80R01731 R000300070Q244A_:
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Approved For Release 2003/05/05 : CIA-RDP80R01731 R000300070024-0
STAT
 VT 17,1-w ~L
PHONE:
PLAZA 1-0300
Honorary Co?Chalrman
DAVID DUBINSKY
President, ILGWU
DAVID SARNOFF
Chairman, RCA
FREDERICK W. RICHMOND
President, F. W. Richmond & Co.
National Urban League
THEODORE W.KHEEL
President
LESTER B. GRANGER
Executive Director
EQUAL 0PP?RaTUN ITY DAY
SPONSORED BY THE NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE
August 25, 1959
The combined strength of government, industry and labor will
again be focused on the importance of Equal Opportunity Day--
an annual national observance dedicated to a basic democratic
belief--equality of opportunity for all our citizens.
The observance has been enthusiastically endorsed by President
Eisenhower since its inception. Last year, thirty Governors
and sixty Mayors officially proclaimed Equal Opportunity Day.
The primary intention of the observance is to focus national
attention on the American idea of giving a decent and fair
chance to all in the "race of life".
The importance of your endorsement of EOD cannot be over-
emphasized. Therefore, I wish to invite you to join other
leaders as a member of the National Equal Opportunity Day
Committee, Your acceptance will swell the ranks of outstanding
citizens who believe in the principle of equal opportunity.
The 1959 observance takes on added significance. This year is
the 150th anniversary of Lincoln's birth. President Eisenhower
in his Proclamation has referred to Lincoln's spirit and states-
manship in establishing "the right of each citizen to enjoy the
fruits of his own toil."
I look forward to word from you that you will accept as a member
of the National Equal Opportunity Day Committee.
Sincerely yours,
FWR:T
Encls.
"November 19, the anniversary of the Gettysburg Address, has been the United States, whether an employer or employe, farmer or business
designated Equal Opportunity Day. In Lincoln's words, it is altogether man, ~join r ~i,nr~,the effort to abolish all artificial discrimination which hin-
fitting and proper 'firer 4ori d2OO 5t : G4ArrIRDp8oR~i,p:tZa:4RGGO.aooa7aGO,2AeOwith his merits
the firm establishment of equal opportunity for all. Let every citizen of as a human being and his capacity for productive work!'
PRESIDENT EISENHOWER
 November 19th 195 9
8qua/(~ffiahlunily
NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE
 _ Equal _
Opportunity
Day
In 1958.. .
Proclamations from Governors of thirty states designating November 19th as Equal Opportunity Day were
presented to President Eisenhower at the White House by an Urban League delegation. Left to right:
James P. Mitchell, Secretary of Labor; Lester B. Granger, Executive Director of the League; Theodore W.
Kheel, President of the League; President Eisenhower; Frederick W. Richmond, National EOD Chairman;
and Julius A. Thomas, the League's Industrial Relations Director.
 FREDERICK W. RICHMOND
National Ch.oirman
Equal Opportunity Day
an annual observance, not of the National
rban League but of the people of the United
tates. It is a day when-by official proclamations
d by citizen get-togethers throughout the
>untry-Americans are reminded of the true
enius of our Democracy. The day constitutes a
011 call of those leaders of American industry
nd business who recognize that our economy and
0cial structure will grow in material and
piritual strength to the degree that each man,
7oman and child has equal opportunity-without
indrance because of race.
 Few Americans are aware that the steel industry was
responsible initially for the large scale introduction of Negro
workers into the operational jobs of modern American industry.
World War I marked the employment of approximately
one-half million Negro workers by industry for the first time.
The overwhelming proportion of these were recruited for
the steelmaking that was the backbone of the war industry.
Into the great steel plants of Pittsburgh, Birmingham,
Youngstown and Chicago, East St. Louis and other steel centers
of the country, Negro workers moved fresh from the farms
of the Deep South into unskilled and semi-skilled jobs
of industry.
True, these were vestibule jobs but they comprised
the first step in the march toward equal opportunity that has
produced today more than one and one-half million Negro
workers in a vast spread of industrial and business employment.
They are employed as skilled craftsmen and operators, as
technicians and whitecollar workers, as technologists
and supervisors. And today the makers and fabricators of
steel products continue to be the world's principal
employer of Negro labor.
It is to give recognition to the steel industry for its role in
bringing the Negro worker into the nation's industrial
work force that the National Urban League has selected two
leaders in the industry to receive the 1958 Equal Opportunity
Day Awards at this dinner here tonight. They are :
Benjamin F. Fairless, former Board Chairman of a
company-U. S. Steel Corporation-that hires more Negro
workers than any other single company and now President of
the American Iron and Steel Institute.
David J. McDonald, President of a union-the United
Steelworkers of America-whose 250,000 Negro members
represent one-third of the union's total membership
working in basic steel.
 "November 19, the anniversary of the Gettysburg Address, has been the United States, whether an employer or employe, farmer or business
designated Equal Opportunity Day. In Lincoln's words, it is altogether an, join in the effort to abolish all artificial discrimination which hin-
fitting and proper that vve should use this day to rededicate ourselves to d -s the right of each American to advance in accordance with his merits
the firm establishment of equal opportunity for all. Let every citizen of a a human being and his capacity for productive work!'
PRESIDENT EISENHOWER