Department of Labor

Department of Labor

Politics

The document describes the activities that Roberta Church and her office accomplished following a promotion. In it the document describes the Minority Groups Program’s efforts to promote employment based on merit, training, upgrading, and performance without consideration to race, creed, color or national origin. Also the need for teens to have vocational guidance, skills of the work force, and employment problems for teens is addressed. In 1953 the Minority Groups Policy was used to protect workers from discrimination. These policies and ideas were created to go along with the then current trends. Secretary Mitchell supported Church and her office in their strides to eliminate discrimination in employment. In 1959 Roberta Church was a principal guest for an Urban League of Greater New Orleans in which she spoke about the role of women at work in which they had the power of influence at home, the community, and nation. It was the work that Church did in 1953 and years before that allowed her to be the authority figure in employment opportunity and equality in the workforce. During this time Church was the highest ranking black woman in the federal government. She has spent 13 years as a social worker in Chicago at the Family and Child Welfare Administration and the Illinois Children’s Home and Aid Society before gaining appointment to her father’s previous position.

Mississippi Valley Collection

The University of Memphis Libraries

U.S. Department of Labor

Mitchell, James P.

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Hist4851, Spring 2015