Mexican Inclusion: The Origins of Anti-Discrimination Policy in Texas and the Southwest

Chapter 4. State Building on the Ground: The Institutional

chaPTer 4 State building on the Ground The Institutional Development of the FEPC and People of Mexican Origin The period characterized as the first FePC, 1941 to 1943, showed both the opportunities and constraints of the agency. The experience of the first FePC allowed the agency to engage in some small-scale social learning regarding people of Mexican origin, building understanding of the particular needs the community faced. Through that social learning, the idea of federal intervention backed by leadership from Mexican american civil rights leaders came to be seen as the most promising approach for incorporating people of Mexican origin into the FePC. The potential to exercise what Daniel Carpenter has characterized as bureaucratic autonomy emerged. as Carpenter has noted, “bureaucratic autonomy” is politically forged.1 To facilitate that autonomy, people need to act as political entrepreneurs. adam sheingate has characterized political entrepreneurs as “strategic, self-activated innovators who recast political institutions and governing relationships.”2 FePC chairman Malcolm ross and Mexican american civil rights leader Carlos Castañeda were each political entrepreneurs, shaping the FePC as an agency with a pluralistic mission and focusing its efforts on people of Mexican origin in the southwest. This chapter shows how ross and Castañeda created an infrastructure with the potential to provide strong services to people of Mexican origin but that was ultimately hindered by the institutional weaknesses of the FePC. Despite these weaknesses, the concept of local autonomy backed by federal authority became a durable model Mexican american civil rights leaders used during the FePC and advocated for in the post–World War ii era. State Building on the Ground • 63 The Second FePc executive order 9346, issued by President roosevelt in May 1943, provided for a newly empowered FePC with enhanced resources. specifically, the order reaffirmed the roosevelt administration’s belief that “the successful prosecution of the war demands the maximum employment of all available workers regardless of race, creed, color, or national origin”3 and gave the agency the power to “conduct hearings, make findings of fact, and take appropriate steps to obtain elimination of such discrimination.”4 With President roosevelt continuing and reiterating his support for the agency, the second FePC gained the resources needed to open a network of regional offices, took greater notice of groups beyond african americans, and worked with community leaders at the local level throughout the nation. The regional offices were the most prominent manifestation of an enhancement in state capacity for the FePC. Thirteen regional offices were established. Table 7 (also shown in chapter 1 as table 2) lists the regions they served by each office. While there were regional investigations, hearings, and occasional short-lived offices during the first FePC, a more systematic approach was taken during the second FePC, expanding the institutional structure and staff to provide greater coverage directly in areas experiencing discrimination. The region x office, which served louisiana, new Mexico, and Texas, served as the institutional home for Carlos Castañeda; he there fashioned a communityspecific approach to combating discrimination. although there were several small changes in office locations and territory throughout the life of the agency, table 7 generally outlines areas and primary populations the regional offices of the second FePC covered. This chapter later compares the region x and region xii offices, traveling from the macro level of a federal agency to the strategies employed in the day-to-day operations of the FePC. Community-based leadership was a factor in several regional offices , and the involvement of civil rights leaders was a key determinant in the levels of activity and success of various regional offices. in terms of the african american community, Merl reed reports that “no black regional directors were appointed in the Deep south or the southwest, though a black ultimately headed the FePC’s region iv in Washington D.C. which served the upper south, and black field investigators worked out of atlanta and Dallas. Blacks also took charge of regional and sub regional offices in new york, Philadelphia, Pittsburg, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, and st. louis.”5 in the region x office, Carlos Castañeda and george i. sánchez played a strong role, and Castañeda also devoted attention to other states with populations of Mexican origin such as Colorado. Table 7. The regional offices of the second FePC Regional Office Area Served Primary Focus regional office i new england never functioned regional office ii new...