Dr. Robert C. Weaver

From 4/11/41 to 1/42, Weaver was chief of the Negro Employment and Training Branch within the Labor Division of the Office of Production Management. Next, the NETB functioned in the War Production Board until 7/30/42, when Roosevelt abruptly transferred the FEPC, the NETB and its equal, the Minority Groups Branch, to the War Manpower Commission. From then until 4/24/43, Weaver was chief of the Negro Manpower Service of the WMC (RG 179, 01.469, DNA). Weaver then served as liaison officer between the WMC and the FEPC, with special assignment of developing a program for the fuller utilization of minority groups, until 1/16/44, when WMC announced his resignation. He left to become director of the Mayor’s Committee on Race Relations of Chicago. WMC News Release, 1/16/44, in HqR86, Miscellaneous Releases. Reed, Seedtime, 86-87.

Weaver hired Mitchell on 5/1/41 as his field assistant responsible for the New Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania region. He subsequently promoted Mitchell to assistant director of the NETB. For the background of their relationship, see Watson, Lion in the Lobby, 122, 133-4. For more details, see “Official Steps Taken on Discrimination in Defense,” in Minorities in Defense, providing additional dates in its outline of the President’s Committee on Fair Employment Practice, the Negro Employment and Training Branch, Labor Division, OPM, and the Minority Groups Branch, Labor Division, OPM, RG 179, Records of the War Production Board, WPB 015.737, President’s Committee on Fair Employment Practice, Organization, DNA; and Current Programs of NETB, RG 179, Records of WPB, WPB 016.467, NETB Organization, DNA.

Gender: 
Male