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. . ..:.:~~--~~..:,:_:::: - ·., ,,-- i ", ,·~ "f: 'When the riots occurred, we re-examined what we were doing to see if we were doing enough - and we're still looking for new ways to help' Radio Corp. of America Executive CITIES [! BUSINESS WEEK October 21, 19 67

Summer's backlash

'., more job programs !a;~ In wake of riots, business takes a second look at the Negro 'Businessmen who didn't recognize it before are aware · ~:: job problem. Companies are accelerating current that the Negro's troubles programs, initiating new ones, and revising hiring policies cannot be ignored and ,· ' What did business learn from the riots that erupted in over 70 AmeriJames B. Ammon can cities last summer? Vice-president, \Vhen Business Week reporters Baxter Laboratories, Inc. talked to top executives last week they found: 'The thinking of • There's little sign of a corporate businessmen regarding backlash on civil rights programs. • The riots have spurred a broad hiring practices has taken cross-section of companies, particua new twist ... They're going larly large national concerns, to accelerate programs or to initiate new into the ghettos to hire ·-··--~·-· ones. Negroes' ~ • Other companies are taking a Pittsburgh manufacturer second look at their own policies and those of local and federal agen'We will do everything in our cies. Their concern allays the fears power to liberalize screening of some observers after the riots that business would pull back from and testing methods' civil rights efforts out of disillusionRaymond T. Perring ment or fear of financial risk. Chairman, James B. Ammon, vice-president Detroit Bank & Trust Co. I ;_; and treasurer of Baxter Laboratories, Inc., says: "I think the riots have 'We would think twice about made businessmen realize that the Negro's problems will be more of a putting up a store in a factor in our society and businesses Negro neighborhood' in the future, not less of a one .. . If we don't develop programs today, Florida grocery chain we just won't have as many options Executive five years from now." 'Riots are going to occur William F. X. Flynn, who heads the National Assn. of Manufacturers' until there's visible evidence STEP (Solutions To Employment of improvement . .. but you Problems) program, concurs. Flynn and his staff collect and circulate can't get any solutions in a case his tories of corporate and comriotous atmosphere' munity action programs to interReed 0. Hunt ested companies. "After the sitChairman, uation this summer . . . we found Crown Zellerbach Corp. companies impatient to move faster." And a California industrialist 'We've been breaking our minces no words: " Perhaps riots help more at some stages in the evobacks for several years to lution of this thing than they hurt. get jobs for Negroes. Now How the devil do you get 200-million people to wake up?" with all the demonstrations, New trend. Such words obviously business might just decide would disconcert many businessmen to rest on its oars' who feel they were facing up to the problem long before the riots. But Milwaukee executive the fact that business has stepped up its effor ts in the wake of the sumexpected to melt away' 194 Cities mer's violence appears 11ii,l,·11iahle. The Urban Coalition is just one sign. The new national advisory group includes such top business names as Chase Manhattan's Davi<l Rockefeller, Andrew Heiskell of Time, Inc., Litton Industries' Roy Ash, and General Electric's Gerald L. Phillippe. The group is not only preparing task force reports on urban problems, but has backed such legislative programs as the ClarkJavits proposal to create I-million jobs for ghetto residents. It is also helping to blueprint some 50 loca1 urban coalitions. At least three such groups have already been set up-the New Detroit Committee headed by Josepl L. Hudson, Jr., of J. L. Hudson Co. the New York Coalition led by Chris tian Herter, Jr., vice-president ·o t Mobil Oil, and a statewide coalition in Minnesota. The Detroit group (whose m em bers include Ford Motor's Henrv Ford II, General Motors' James M. Roche, and Chrysler's Lynn Townsend) hasn't wasted any time. Meeting with Michigan Governor George Romney last week, it called for passage of a statewide open hous ing law-unquestionably the most powerful support such legislation has ever had in the state. Such groups, of course, are me-rely advisory in nature, and the big q ue~tion is whether in the long run they will generate more than sound and fury. For the present, it's clear that business thinking has taken a significant new turn. As one observer comments : "Industry is no longer content to play follow the leader on urban problems. It is moving ahead itself, drawing on its own resources." Other action. This heightened concern is reflected not only in the insurance industry's announced intention to put $I-billion into slum renewal, but in a spate of local programs surfacing since last summer: • In P ittsbur~h. some 19 corpornBusiness Week October 21, 1967 �BUSINESS WEEK (cont.) October 21 , 19 6 7 tions have contributed $1.4-million to set up Allegheny Housing Rehabilitation Corp., which will buy and renovate old houses in ghetto areas and sell them back to ghetto residents. With a goal of $3-million, the organization hopes to renovate more than 1.000 housing units a year. • A major corporation is now completing plans to construct a manufacturing facility within the ghetto area of a Midwestern city. • 1n· Tampa, the city and General Telephone of Florida have set up a Community Relations Council h eaded by Negro businessman James A. Hammond. Dozens of graduates of th e council's training courses have found jobs. • In Baltimore, over 1,000 ghetto residents were hired in a crash employment program that was initiated last August by companies in the area. • In Cleveland, five banks and six companies put up $400,000 f?~ a _revolving fund for slum rehabihtat10n projects. Negro candidate for mayor, Carl B. Stokes, comments: "Frankly, I don't know what the motivation is, fear or genuine social concern, or both. But the important thing is that business is becoming more involved. " The lis t is endless. In cities across the nation-St. Louis, San Francisco, Camden, Wilmington, Denver -new programs are being mapped out, old efforts intensified. In Detroit for example, between 7,000 and _10,000 ghetto residents have b een hired by the auto companies since the riots. "The jobs were there b efore," says an ob server, " but communications with the community were poor." In u ps tate New York, Rochester Jobs, Inc., an agency that started function ing just last July, has already found over 400 entry-level jobs fo r slum dwellers. All of this apparently reflects considerable soul-searching at the highes t corporate levels. Understandab~y, most companies are reluctant to discuss such matters. "We've learned not to talk about any progress we've made," says one man. "No one wants to admit they haven't been doing all they can." But Ford Motor Co.'s creation of a top-level department of urban affairs is indicative of the new mood. Hiring reforms. One area in which corporate thinking is shifting is in hiring practices. Comments the employee relations director of a major Pittsburgh company: "In the past, corporations pushed the idea of hiring 'qualified' Negroes-protesting that giving preference to a Negro simply because of his race was reverse prejudice. But since the riots, many corporations have been hiring people who couldn't begin to compete with whites for jobs. This doesn't mean that companies are throwing away their yardsticks of productivity and profits. What's happening rather is that many are recognizing that old rules and practices may be screening out potentially competent p eople. As Reed 0. Hunt, board chairman of Crown Zellerbach Corp., puts it: "Most ghetto kids have jail records, but you have to ask what for? You have to ask if he can do a good job?" Long-term goals. Other companies are reviewing th eir contributions programs. Says a Chicago executive: "We used to take the shotgun approach and give $1,000 to every group with a good story. Now we're thinking in terms of five-year commitments in sp ecific areas." As companies become involved in urban problems , many report a heightened sens e of purpose. U.S. Gypsum Co. , for example, rehabilitated six slum buildings in New York's Harl em this summer. It is now working on 150 apartments in Chicago and 64 units in Cleveland, and it has options on 450 more units in Chicago. "We're going along," says an executive, " not with the expectation of a great profit, but to demon strate th at private industry does have a role and responsibility. We are beginning to feel a deepseated involvement th at can't be measured in return to stockholders." Other side. Not everyone shares this feeling, of course. Many companies voice a sense of outrage at the riots. "You can't run a society with riots," says one executive, "and you can't be intimidated by lawlessness." In Milwaukee, currently p lagued by civil rights demonstrations for open hous ing and the scene of two nights of rioting last July, a backlash among some segments of the business community is evident. "We've been breaking our hacks to get jobs for Negroes," says a businessman, "Now with all th e demonstrations, business might just decide to rest on its oars." A number of companies report no appreciable change in th eir policies since the riots. "\Ve've alwavs tried to hire qualified Negroes,"· is the typical comment. One industry observer, in fact, reports that some executives are coming to regard riots "as seasonal hazards, much like hurricanes and tornadoes." But others are anything but complacent. Says Crown Zellerbach's Hunt: "You can't ask the-Negro people to be quiet. . . . Riots are going to occur until there's visible sign of improvement. End �