[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 8 (Tuesday, January 16, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H536-H538]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                HONORING THE MARE ISLAND ORIGINAL 21ERS

  Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the 
rules and agree to the concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. 31) honoring 
the Mare Island Original 21ers for their efforts to remedy racial 
discrimination in employment at Mare Island Naval Shipyard.
  The Clerk read as follows:

                            H. Con. Res. 31

       Whereas over 45 years ago African-American workers employed 
     by the Mare Island Naval Shipyard in Vallejo, California, 
     despite having work experiences and qualifications comparable 
     to their counterparts, experienced racial discrimination 
     resulting in the denial of opportunities in employment, 
     training, and apprenticeship positions, supervisory 
     positions, promotions, and awards;
       Whereas in March 1961 President John F. Kennedy issued 
     Executive Order 10925 establishing the President's Committee 
     on Equal Employment Opportunity and reaffirming the 
     prohibition of discrimination against any employee of, or 
     applicant for employment by, the Federal Government because 
     of race, color, religion, or national origin;
       Whereas Executive Order 10925 laid the foundation for title 
     VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964;
       Whereas on November 17, 1961, 21 African-American shipyard 
     workers at Mare Island Naval Shipyard filed a racial 
     discrimination complaint with the Committee on Equal 
     Employment Opportunity;
       Whereas the complaint outlined nine allegations of racial 
     discrimination in employment at Mare Island Naval Shipyard 
     and requested that the Committee investigate and correct the 
     deplorable conditions at Mare Island Naval Shipyard;
       Whereas the filing of this complaint along with other 
     similar complaints of racial discrimination led to an 
     acknowledgment by then Defense Secretary Robert McNamara in 
     1963 that there was employment discrimination based on race 
     in the military;
       Whereas on November 8, 1963, the Original 21ers Club was 
     officially recognized with the purpose of elevating qualified 
     minorities in every phase of Mare Island employment, creating 
     a better relationship between management and employees and 
     better acquainting their membership with the working 
     conditions of every occupation;
       Whereas the actions and persistence of the Original 21ers 
     provided the means for overturning racial discrimination in 
     employment at Mare Island Naval Shipyard and resulted in new 
     employment opportunities for African-American workers at Mare 
     Island Naval Shipyard;
       Whereas the Original 21ers went on to organize for equal 
     employment opportunities in other local military facilities 
     in the San Francisco Bay Area of California; and
       Whereas the heroic deeds of the Original 21ers have 
     remained heretofore unacknowledged: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate 
     concurring),
       (1) that the Congress recognizes the historic 
     accomplishments of the Mare Island Original 21ers in 
     combating racial discrimination in employment as envisioned 
     in title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and providing 
     equal employment opportunities for African-American shipyard 
     workers;
       (2) that the Congress recognizes the importance of the 
     Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity as a forerunner to 
     the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission which continues 
     the fight in resolving complaints of racial discrimination in 
     employment; and
       (3) that the Congress recognizes the importance of title 
     VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as a powerful and ongoing 
     tool for eliminating racial discrimination in employment.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
California (Mr. George Miller) and the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. 
Kline) each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from California.
  Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such 
time as I may consume.
  Madam Speaker, yesterday on the occasion of his birthday people 
across this country took time to honor and celebrate the life of Dr. 
Martin Luther King. Many of us participated in acts of community 
service and community rallies or took time out to listen to the

[[Page H537]]

words of Martin Luther King and his speeches. We were reminded that the 
words and works of this great civil rights leader are still timely 
today.
  In his writings Dr. King often cited examples of how the simple but 
courageous acts of one or two people to fight racial discrimination had 
far reaching implications for the future of this country. He talked 
about the persistence, the relentless persistence of average 
individuals to fight against discrimination, to fight against 
injustice, and to fight against inequalities. In his cell from the 
Birmingham jail, he writes of James Meredith and Rosa Parks, and how 
the simple but selfless acts of just one person helped change the 
course of this country. As he saw it, these acts and the destiny of 
African Americans were tied up with the destiny of America.
  The resolution I bring forward today honors a group of men, the Mare 
Island 21ers, whose destiny was tied up when they bravely took action 
to end racial discrimination in naval shipyards in the San Francisco 
Bay Area in the early 1960s.
  The Mare Island 21ers were a group of 21 African American shipyard 
workers employed at Mare Island Naval Shipyard in Vallejo, California. 
At that time minorities were mostly working in unskilled positions at 
Mare Island, as sandblasters, laborers and cleaners, with efforts to 
keep them out of certain positions. The discrimination was not 
restricted to withholding promotions and unfair hiring practices, 
according to one of the workers; they faced discrimination at every 
turn.
  Long time denied opportunity for advancement, these workers decided 
to organize. Under the leadership of Willie Long, a journeyman 
pipefitter from Shop 56 who was also a World War II veteran and a Pearl 
Harbor survivor, the group met in complete secrecy to protect their 
safety and their jobs.
  Not long after the group began to meet, President Kennedy issued his 
executive order establishing the President's Committee on Equal 
Employment Opportunities and reaffirming the prohibition against 
discrimination against any employee of or application for employment by 
the Federal Government because of race, color, religion, or national 
origin. The order issued in March of 1961 also created a discrimination 
complaint process for Federal workers.
  Learning of the President's executive order, the 21ers decided to 
file a complaint with the committee. The complaint covered deplorable 
conditions for African American workers at the shipyard, including the 
denial of promotions and access to the apprenticeship program, and 
general unfair treatment.
  In their report they cited that there was an established unwritten 
practice at the Mare Island Shipyard not to upgrade third step 
mechanics no matter what the qualifications of the employee are at any 
given time. As a result, there are Negro employees with 15 or 20 years 
of experience still in this category while white workers with much less 
experience and time have moved rapidly up the ladder of promotion. They 
also said that Negro employees are systemically barred from 
supervisorial positions although many are entitled to such positions by 
reason of seniority and experience. There are two Negro lead men and 
sandblasters and one Negro leading man laborer out of a force of 
hundreds of supervisors, and the statistics proved this discrimination. 
He also said that Negroes who take examinations for advancement for the 
most part are flunked out on later oral interviews even though they 
passed the previous examination. The board is made up of the top three 
supervisors within the shop; and so long as this situation exists, 
Negroes will never be able to advance through examination. Young Negro 
men are refused the opportunity of apprenticeship training for the most 
part in Shop 56. No Negro apprentices have been hired in at least 3 
years. In over 20 years at Mare Island, no Negro mechanic has ever 
received a superior accomplishment award, to our knowledge, which 
included cash bonuses for those who got it. Then, in fact when the time 
came for apprenticeship programs, they were not given credit for the 
training related to their jobs and they take on their own orders in 
advance of themselves. In fact, Negroes are discouraged from taking any 
training. And, of course, when the fleet started to change in this 
country and we went to atomic submarines, there were no Negroes who had 
been selected for the training of this program.
  This was the kind of discrimination that this brave group of men who 
had to meet in secret, who had to be very careful that anybody at the 
workplace would not know that they were discussing this with their 
fellow workers when they met at home, they said, with all of the shades 
drawn, this is the discrimination that they were living under in the 
Naval Shipyard at that time and this is the discrimination that they 
cited to President Kennedy's employment board. It was a complaint among 
many that were received by the Committee on Equal Employment in the 
early days of its existence. Finally, the Navy was forced to pay 
attention to the long history of discrimination felt by the workers at 
Mare Island. In August of 1963, almost 2 years after the initial 
complaint was filed, the Navy put policies in place to affirmatively 
take action on behalf of minority workers. These heroic men included 
Willie Long, Boston Banks, Jr., Matthew Barnes, Louis Greer, Jake 
Sloan, Charles Fluker, Clarence Williams, James Davis, Thomas King, 
Robert E. Borden, James O. Hall, Matthew Luke, Herman Moore, Jimmy 
James, John L. McGhee, James J. Colbert, Virgil N. Herndon, Eddie 
Brady, Brodie Taylor, W.J. Price, Levi Jones, Herbert H. Lane, Kermit 
Day, and Charles Scales.
  The actions of the Mare Island 21ers resulted in new employment 
opportunities for African Americans at other naval bases all across the 
Nation.
  Despite these pioneering steps, their early civil rights efforts 
remained in obscurity until recently. The group's surviving members 
still talk about the movement, but the full story was buried in the 
1960s and only recently came to light as a result of a series in the 
newspaper articles by the Vallejo Times Herald reporter Matthias Gafni.
  Mr. Speaker, in tribute to these men and their fight to end racial 
discrimination in the workplace, it is proper for Congress to formally 
recognize the Mare Island Original 21ers and thank them for their 
heroic actions and their gift to this Nation to end discrimination in 
the naval shipyards.
  Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. KLINE of Minnesota. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I 
may consume.
  Madam Speaker, I rise in support of H. Con. Res 31.
  First, I would like to thank the gentleman from California, my friend 
and our committee's new chairman, for bringing this important 
legislation to the floor of the House.
  Madam Speaker, the British political philosopher and statesman Edmund 
Burke famously observed many years ago that, ``The only thing necessary 
for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.''
  Forty-five years ago, at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard, there was 
such a group of good men who chose not to do nothing, but instead to do 
something. These men whom today we know as the Mare Island Original 
21ers took a brave step by coming forward and raising complaints about 
how they felt they were being treated and about the discrimination they 
faced based on their race.
  Madam Speaker, we lived in a different time then. The year was 1961, 
and there was no Civil Rights Act protecting Americans from 
discrimination in the workplace based on race or color. The Equal 
Employment Opportunity Commission, which today works to ensure that our 
workplaces are free of discrimination, did not yet exist. Indeed, then-
President Kennedy had only just established the Committee on Equal 
Employment Opportunity and the things we take for granted in our 
society today. That the color of one's skin, whether in a boardroom or 
a boiler room, simply does not matter was not yet ingrained in our 
national consciousness.
  Now, the Original 21ers' complaint did not immediately serve to 
address all of the issues they faced. As with all struggles, they faced 
backlash and challenge. In the end, though, they prevailed.
  Today, I can state with authority from firsthand experience as a 
former United States Marine that our Armed Forces are a model of 
integration and

[[Page H538]]

nondiscrimination, that in today's military it truly is one's skills, 
talents, ability, and merit that allows men and women of any color, 
race, or creed to advance to the highest levels of leadership. That is 
exactly how it should be.
  I would also echo the gentleman from California's comments with 
respect to the importance of title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 
the continued good work done by the Equal Employment Opportunity 
Commission and the hundreds and thousands of employers and businesses 
in this country who have worked to ensure that the workplace of 2007 is 
free from discrimination on any racial or any other grounds.
  Today, as our military looks forward and continues to prepare itself 
for the challenge of the 21st century and beyond, we pause for a moment 
to look back and remember some of those who took brave first steps. The 
Mare Island Original 21ers are among those courageous men, and it is 
proper that Congress today should pause to commemorate their efforts.

                              {time}  1530

  I thank the gentleman from California for his leadership and 
initiative on this issue.
  Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. I thank the gentleman from Minnesota 
for his comments and appreciate his support for this resolution.
  Madam Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman 
from New Jersey (Mr. Payne), a member of the committee.
  (Mr. PAYNE asked and was given permission to revise and extend his 
remarks.)
  Mr. PAYNE. Mr. Speaker, let me commend the gentleman from California, 
chairman of the Education and Labor Committee, for bringing forth this 
very important resolution dealing with the equal employment 
opportunities in the military.
  I think that it is great that we are finally recognizing these 21 
brave men who had the courage to stand up and say that enough is 
enough. In many instances, workers are intimidated by the surroundings, 
by worrying about their positions, worrying about having action taken 
against them; and so it is always great when people decide it is time 
to step forward and do the right thing.
  Dr. King said, in his march on Washington that there was a promissory 
note that was sent out by America to the, at that time, the Negroes, 
and that the check came back, the promissory note, marked 
``insufficient funds.'' And this was a part of the insufficient funds, 
people willing to work, but being denied. As a matter of fact, when 
World War II began, that infamous December 7 surprise attack on Pearl 
Harbor, our country was caught off guard; we did not have the build-up, 
the military wherewithal, we did not have the weapons, we did not have 
the ships, we did not have the tanks.
  And there then became a move to try to catch up to the enemy because 
they were preparing for war and we were not. However, blacks were not 
allowed to work in the factories that were producing or tried to catch 
up. It actually took President Roosevelt at that time to encourage U.S. 
businesses, even though they were short of manpower because the draft 
had come in, they would not hire blacks, even though it meant that we 
could not prepare and produce the equipment that we needed. And so 
sometimes racial discrimination really makes no sense at all.
  I agree with the gentlemen from California and from Minnesota who 
said that there have been big changes, things are different now. I 
would like to once again thank the gentleman from California for 
bringing forth this resolution.
  Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. I thank the gentleman from New 
Jersey for his support of this.
  This naval shipyard, it has been closed and it is going through the 
reused process, and it is a very, very exciting economic development 
plan for the city of Vallejo. It is in my district. And just down the 
way, down the river to San Francisco Bay is the Rosie the Riveter 
historic site. And at Rosie the Riveter, they talk about the various 
sites where we assembled the great American armada to carry supplies 
and troops to the Pacific during the Second World War.
  In the town in which I was born, in Richmond, California, the Second 
World War and the Kaiser shipyards being located there overnight 
completed integrating the city. And of course we all know the story of 
women who went to work, women of all races went to work in those Kaiser 
shipyards; blacks went to work alongside white shipyard workers. Then 
they moved on, the shipyard, in peacetime at Mare Island, and that is 
where this discrimination took place.
  Because of the actions of President Kennedy, because of the actions 
of people like the Mare Island 21ers and a lot of other brave people, 
today we look back at this as part of history in terms of workplace 
discrimination, certainly the Federal Government, one of the integrated 
workforces in the country. It is because of these kinds of actions that 
we can now speak of this, for the most part, as part of our historical 
past, but never losing sight of the sacrifice and the courage of 
ordinary people to move the dial toward integration from 
discrimination.
  It wasn't easy in these communities; it wasn't easy in these 
workplaces. So when we see actions like this taken, I think it is quite 
fitting that the Congress would recognize this by passing this 
resolution commending the actions of courage of these 21 African 
American workers in the shipyard.
  I thank my colleagues for support of this resolution. I thank the 
gentleman from Minnesota for his words in support of this resolution. I 
would hope that the House would adopt it unanimously.
  Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. KLINE of Minnesota. Madam Speaker, I urge all of our colleagues 
to support this resolution, and I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from California (Mr. George Miller) that the House suspend 
the rules and agree to the concurrent resolution, H. Con. Res. 31.
  The question was taken.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds of 
those voting have responded in the affirmative.
  Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the 
yeas and nays.
  The yeas and nays were ordered.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX and the 
Chair's prior announcement, further proceedings on this question will 
be postponed.

                          ____________________