(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.