“Admission,” Ross repeated. “I would be forced to say no.”
As there had been about thirty cases involving racial discrimination brought against the craft unions, Judge Kinneary wanted to know what the results were.
“The object was to gain admission of qualified Negroes,” Kinneary said. “Now, how many have gained admission as a result of the processes of the Ohio Civil Rights Commission?”
“How many have actually been admitted to the craft unions,” Ross repeated.
“Yes,” the judge replied impatiently.
“I know of no one,” Ross answered.
“No one,” Judge Kinneary repeated.
“No sir.”
“What is the end result?” Judge Kinneary asked, after listening to a few minutes of evasive testimony. “Has your commission been effective? Has your commission been ineffective?”
“In the trades,” Ross admitted, “we have not been effective.”
While closing our case I placed into evidence the collective-bargaining agreements between the craft unions and the various contractors involved in the Ohio State bidding process. They didn’t require workers to have any particular qualifications for particular jobs. The contracts also prohibited the unions from discriminating against workers who wanted to be referred out of the various hiring halls on the basis of race or union membership, allowing the contractors to hire nonunion workers if the craft unions couldn’t provide qualified workers, which we claimed meant an integrated workforce.
Hoiles opened his defense by referring to a state legislative bill that would declare void any hiring hall agreements with a union that could not offer an integrated workforce on job referrals for public projects.
“Mr. Hoiles,” the judge interrupted, “the court has gone along on the assumption that the state of Ohio does not want to practice—in any way, shape, or form—discrimination against any group. Am I correct in that?”
“You are,” Hoiles replied.
“So why doesn’t the state tell the contractors on the project to hire Negroes from other sources if they want to work on the project?”
Hoiles referred to a law requiring the state to accept the lowest bid, which prompted Judge Kinneary impatiently to direct Hoiles to call his witnesses. To my surprise he recalled Ellis Ross, who testified that, in a few cases before his commission, orders had been issued requiring minority complainants to be given admissions tests to craft unions, which accorded them equal treatment.
It was my turn to cross-examine.
“Many workers have never taken tests to gain admittance into the craft unions,” I said. “Isn’t it unfair to now require tests after the whites got in without them? In the father-son friends-and-family system that prevailed, didn’t newcomers get trained on the job?”
“They do,” Ross replied.
“So tell me, why should a Negro have to start a job and be able to perform it with no training when whites started out without training? Is that fair?”
“It is not fair to require that,” Ross acknowledged. Sensing that Ross was tired of hedging, I took the chance I had avoided in March.
“You have no doubt in your mind, do you, that there has been racial discrimination in the craft unions?”
“Well, I’m pretty sure there has been, and this is based on twenty-six years of experience in the employment field,” he replied.
”And you are pretty sure there has been in Columbus, Ohio, aren’t you?”
“Yes,” he agreed.
I had one last question—a little riskier.
“And you are pretty sure of the fact that no Negroes are in most of the craft unions in Columbus, Ohio, today based on those historic patterns of racial exclusion, aren’t you?”
“Yes.”
“If your commission got the electrical union to accept Mr. Ethridge under an agreement that didn’t force the union to change its practices, would you be eliminating discrimination in the union?” I pressed.
“No,” Ross acknowledged.
The judge picked up on the point, asking if that had happened on an individual person-by-person basis, and Ross said it had. Then he gave us a parting gift, adding, “It will probably take eons to complete the eradication of discrimination.”
During my closing argument Judge Kinneary asked if he could stop the state of Ohio from entering into construction contracts for the project until it had a plan that would enable qualified Negroes to obtain employment. I said he could, explaining why and how he could make that happen. The logical follow-up question, “How many is enough?” wasn’t asked. Perhaps the judge thought that when the number of blacks in a particular trade was zero, it was moot.
On May 17, the thirteenth anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Brown decision, Judge Kinneary issued his ruling. As McConnell read it to me, tears of joy welled up in my eyes. We had won, totally