(March 1951 to October 1977)

The story of African-American mediators employed by FMCS[1] covers the 30-year period between 1947 and 1977. Below are names, hiring dates, photos and bios of 23 African-Americans hired by FMCS between 1947 and 1977. 1950 was the first class of new mediators hired since the creation of FMCS in 1947. During its first 30 years, FMCS hired 338 mediators in small groups as needed. Of those, 6.80% were African-Americans.[2]

Name	Hire Date	Duty Station	Education	Notes
George H. Fowler	Mar-51	NYC	LLB	Resigned 12-31-58
George V. Byrnes	May-59	NYC	BA.	NLRB – 11 years
Bill H. Lattimore	Oct-61	Detroit
Dick D. Williams	Oct-63	Chicago	BS.	RD & Dept Nat. Dir.
Bill Abner	Jul-64	D.C.	LLB	Sp. Asst to Nat. Dir.
Frank Allen	Oct-66	San Fran	LR Courses
Clarence Washington	Oct-66	San Fran	LR Courses
Hal Davis, intern	Feb-68	Philadelphia/DC	BA.	2 years law school
Charlie Riley	Jun-68	St.Louis/DC	BA, MA.	Tech coordinator
Jim Williams	Nov-70	Baltimore	LR Courses
Larry Berry	May-71	Atlanta/Detroit	LR Courses
Hez Brown	Oct-72	NYC		Com. College
Leo Gant	Aug-73	Chicago/Baltimore
Cleveland Fisher	Oct-73	LA	LR Courses
Tom Washington	Jun-74	Philadelphia	LR Courses
Julie Greer, intern*	Jan-75	Detroit	LR Courses
Bufford Thompson	Oct-75	Kansas City
James Authur	Nov-76	Boston	Trade School
Wesley Jennings	Jan-77	Baltimore/Chicago	BA
Hubert Robinson	Sep-77	NYC	BS, MA Candidate
Jerry Allen	Sep-77	San Fran	AA IR.	Son of Frank Allen
Fran Dunham*	Sep-77	Philadelphia/NJ	BA
Cliff Suggs	Oct-77	Buffalo	2 years in college – no degree

* woman

In the early 1980s, FMCS ended the practice of maintaining bio books on all mediators.[3] The Friends of FMCS History collection contains all existing bio books,[4] which were used in this paper.

FMCS may not have been a leader in offering African-Americans equal employment opportunity, but to be effective FMCS believed it needed to provide mediators who would be acceptable to labor and management. FMCS believed that mediators who lacked acceptability could not be effective and supportive of the FMCS mission. So the FMCS hiring decisions were strongly influenced by the racial attitudes of labor and management.[5]

A note: Bill Abner, as Special Assistant to the Director, was able to recruit four African-Americans mediators: Allen, Washington, Davis and Riley.

See my post on Abner in which he explains his experience with mediating during the 1960s in the south.[6]

[1] This paper relied on oral histories I’ve conducted, my acquaintances with all of these mediators except George Fowler, bio books reference in footnote 3, and Friends of FMCS History collection.

[2] Based on records in the Friends collection.

[3] In the early 1980s, the unofficial practice of maintaining bio books on all mediators with hire dates, bio info, work station, and photos was ended, based on a determination that they were inappropriate personnel record.

[4] In the years after 1977, only FMCS has hiring data on mediators. Unfortunately, FMCS did not provide any for this paper, which likely would have shown a more inclusive hiring practice.

[5] Certainly, the same rational has been used by employers whose employees deal directly with the public.

[6] See mediationhistory.org – post on Blog, titled: Willoughby (Bill) Abner.

“He was perhaps the union equivalent of a Rhodes scholar. Bill Abner, thirty-nine years old in 1959, was a Chicago born black who had organized thousands during the war in several South Side foundries and small manufacturing plants. A law school graduate, he was an adept and forceful speaker who clashed repeatedly with Communist-orientated blacks in the Cook County Industrial Union Council and the Chicago branch of the NAACP, of which he had been president in the early 1950’s. In 1962 he took on Malcolm X before a University of Chicago audience and, according to most observers, got the better of the black-nationalist in open debate.” (Walter Reuther by Nelson Lichtenstein, 1995)

The 1960s were the hay day of collective bargaining with numerous strikes and high visibility disputes. As an African-American, Abner played a key role in a number of major disputes including some in the South at a time when black faces were not seen in authoritative positions at the bargaining table.

When I asked him how he managed to successfully mediate with racially bigoted southern parties, he suggested an interesting theory based on what he believed to be the parties’ capacity for self-delusion. Here’s his theory:

— The parties needed a settlement, having failed to achieve one in direct bargaining and with a local FMCS mediator’s help.
— The National Director of FMCS had sent me to help them, and no other choice was offered.
— Therefore, to overcome their typical reaction to a black, they choose to identify this black (me) as positively different from any black they had ever known. In this view, I was not just a good mediator, I was exceptional. I was better than any other mediator.
— As a result of this self-delusion, Abner believed the parties credited him with exceptional skill, and inappropriately greeted his ordinary actions and suggestions with great respect and deference, and thus they gave him more impact on their settlement than he felt he deserved.
Abner’s reflections on this phenomenon seemed to me a combination of amusement and amazement. He was a very humble and honest man.

In 1969, Abner left FMCS to become Director of the National Center for Dispute Settlement (NCDS), a nonprofit created in response to the Kerner Commission Report following the major civil rights violence of the 1960s. The primary purpose of NCDS was to promote peaceful dispute settlement by using negotiations, mediation and arbitration. I worked at NCDS for two years in 1969-70 as Bill’s Assistant Director.

Abner hired me seeking a white mediator to team with him in cases where a black and white team would be helpful. Although many FMCS mediators had more experience than me, Abner knew about my interest in civil rights based on my two published articles on civil rights conflict resolution, which he told me he had seen as Special Assistant in the Director’s office.