[NYTr] Chief Justice Roberts: The Roots of His Bigotry
by way of NY Transfer News <nyt@viola.tamara-b.org>
Workers World - Jul 19, 2007 issue
http://www.workers.org/2007/us/roberts-0719/
Judge Roberts: the roots of his bigotry
By Stephen Millies
What do Janet and Michael Jackson have in common with U.S. Supreme
Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr.?
They all grew up in Indiana and had fathers who were employed in the
steel industry. There are some differences though.
Joseph Jackson, Janet and Michaelbs father, was born into a
sharecropperbs family in Fountain Hill, Ark. Joseph Jackson moved north
and worked as a crane operator at U.S. Steelbs Gary, Ind., works before
becoming full-time manager of the bJackson 5.b
John G. Roberts Jr. was born in Buffalo and is the son of Bethlehem
Steel executive John G. Roberts Sr. The elder Roberts was sent to open
up Bethlehembs newest plant in Burn Harbor, Ind.
This steel boss moved his family to the exclusive community of Long
Beach, Ind., which for decades was off-limits to African-American and
Jewish people. bRestrictive covenantsb once banned selling or leasing
property to bany person who is not a Caucasian gentile.b
The future Supreme Court justice grew up in this atmosphere. He
attended a private boarding school.
Unemployment rates for Latin@ and African-American youths are 80
percent or more. Summer job programs have shriveled.
But John Roberts Jr. was always able to land a good-paying summer job
at Burns Harbor between semesters at Harvard. He was no more qualified
than thousands of Black youths in nearby Gary, but Roberts got the job
because his daddy was the plant manager.
Such favoritism didnbt prevent this hypocrite from writing memos
attacking affirmative action against discrimination when he was one of
Ronald Reaganbs White House lawyers.
President George W. Bush appointed Roberts to the Supreme Court. In a
show of bi-partisan racism, exactly half of the Democrats in the Senate
voted to confirm this bigot.
Steel and meatpacking were the first two northern industries in which
African Americans were able to get jobs during the First World War.
bBlack membership in the USWAbbUnited Steel Workers of Americabbtotals
from one-fourth (overall average) to two-thirds or more in varying
locations,b wrote Cal Bonner in Workers World newspaper back in 1972.
The jobs held by African-American and Latin@ steelworkers were the most
dangerous. Black workers were the majority in the coke ovens, where
coal is heated up to remove impurities. These workers were 15 times
more likely to get cancer.
African-American and Latino men were kept out of skilled jobs while
Black and Latina women werenbt hired at all. The 1974 bFairfield
Decisionb opened up jobs but came too late for tens of thousands of
workers who thrown out of work when dozens of steel plants were shut
down.
John G. Roberts Sr. was an enforcer of Bethlehem Steelbs apartheid
hiring practices at both the Lackawanna and Burns Harbor works. Vince
Copeland, a founding editor of Workers World newspaper, fought against
them.
Copeland, who died in 1993, led wildcat strikes of Black and white
workers at Bethlehembs Lackawanna works outside Buffalo before being
fired in 1950. He wrote about the successful struggle to get Black
workers in previously all-white repair gangs in the pamphlet bThe Blast
Furnace Brothers.b
Milt Neidenberg, a contributing editor of this newspaper, fought
Bethlehembs racism as a unionist at Lackawanna in the 1950s and 1960s.
The late Ed Merrill, a founding member of Workers World Party, worked
at Lackawanna on a track gang. He estimated that by 1970 there were
5,000 African Americans employed at Lackawanna.
It was a different story at Bethlehembs newest facility at Burns
Harbor. Built in the late 1960s, Burns Harbor is the last bintegratedb
steel mill to be opened in the United States. It takes iron ore and
other raw materials and turns them into steel, unlike bmini-millsb that
melt scrap metal.
Burns Harbor is located just ten miles from the majority Black city of
Gary. Forty years ago, 5,200 African Americans were employed at U.S.
Steelbs Gary Works.
Yet Bethlehem Steel scoured southern Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky and
Tennessee to hire whites. It used biased psychological and aptitude
tests along with interviews to keep out African-American applicants.
The biggest weapon in the corporationbs racist arsenal was the
scientific-technological revolution. Corporation executives could
cherry-pick job seekers because of the radically shrunken need for
workers. By 1999 less than 5 percent of those hired at Burns Harbor
were Black. (bIf you ask me...Bethlehem turns back clock on equality,b
Peoplebs Weekly World, Sept. 4, 1999.)
Burns Harbor ultimately doomed the Lackawanna plant. Thousands of Black
and white steelworkers lost their jobs there.
On March 31, 2003, Bethlehem Steel ripped off health benefits and life
insurance from 95,000 retired workers and their families.
Judge Roberts wants to turn back the clock on all poor and working
people, just like his father did to Black workers at Burns Harbor.
It will be up to the struggle to overturn every one of his hateful
decisions.
Articles copyright 1995-2007 Workers World. Verbatim copying and
distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without
royalty provided this notice is preserved.
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Email: w...@workers.org
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