History of the United States II / Unit 12 USH2 1673 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Executive Order Eighty-Eight Oh Two
The idea
On June twenty-fifth, nineteen forty-one, Roosevelt issued Executive Order eighty-eight oh two, and Randolph called off the march. The order declared that there shall be no discrimination in the employment of workers in defense industries and in Government, because of race, creed, color, or national origin, and it created the Fair Employment Practices Committee to enforce the rule.
In practice
A threatened march that never happened, traded for a federal rule against job discrimination in war industries.
Where people slip
The concession was real and limited. The Yawp records that even after the order factory supervisors often relegated Black women to the most menial tasks, and the armed forces stayed segregated. The order became a precedent: unit thirteen shows President Truman going further in nineteen forty-eight. The National Archives adds that Randolph would be a driving force of the March on Washington of nineteen sixty-three.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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