Growing Negro demands should not result in “a tendency to appoint or select applicants regardless of seniority or qualification solely because of their race,” Chief Judge Sidney Sugarman of the United States Southern District Court told the convention here of B’nai B’rith District 1. Judge Sugarman, an international vice-president of the order, is chairman of its committee on race relations. He told the 2,000 delegates that “we reject a separatist solution to the problem of race relations and are committed to an integrated democratic society.”
It should be possible, he said, to increase employment of Negroes without creating a “justifiable sense of discrimination” among whites who believe they are being passed over for less qualified Negroes. This is especially true, he said, among Government employes and teachers. He expressed the belief that compensation for past discrimination against Negroes “can be found in the filling of new jobs and in enabling Negroes to meet the qualifications of existing jobs. Our role is to help individuals move away obstructions to opportunity by reason of discrimination without diminishing quality of performance.’
The convention adopted a plan offered by Judge Sugarman involving a canvass of the district’s 100,000 membership to see how many could hire young disadvantaged people now for summer jobs; how many employers among them could hire young Negroes to learn trades; and how many B’nai B’rith units could help Negroes establish small businesses and gain managerial skills.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
