INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION - This single interview with Spencer Wylie was conducted as part of a student project on desegregating unions during WWII.
1980-04-30
Description:
SUBJECT BIO - Spencer Wylie, labor and civil rights activist, rose from menial floor sweeping jobs to become a certified maintenance welder at the beginning of WWII. While working at the shipyards, he participated in the boycott of the Boilermakers Jim Crow Auxiliary A35. When he began working at US Spring and Bumper in 1944, he became a member of the UAW and quickly rose up the ranks. He served as local and Western District education director, directing civil rights education campaigns. In the late 1940s, Wylie was elected Trustee of the CIO and at the time of the merger of the AFL-CIO, he became a state VP. Wylie represented the UAW and CIO on the boards of the NAACP and Urban League and played a prominent role in the California civil rights movement and Democratic Party in the 1950s and 1960s. The interview with Wylie was conducted as part of a student project on desegregating unions during WWII.
TOPICS</b> - Boilermakers Union and segregation; racial discrimination; CIO; UAW; IAM; community coordination with CIO/UAW; NAACP; Herbert Ward; and A; Philip Randolph and March on Washington Movement;FEPC; WWII and sentiment among African American community; UAW organizing strategies; seniority and quota system in trade unionism; postwar climate in labor movement; and impact of Taft-Hartley Act;CIO; Taft-Hartley Act; Revels Clayton; community activism; Boilermakers Union; and segregation; The audio quality of this side of the tape is poor;