A Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Company official told a Washington, D.C. radio audience, on the record, that the company would not hire Black operators until the city’s schools were integrated — and it would take, in his own estimate, two or three more generations. Part 4 of a 12-part series, covering 1952 to 1974.
By the time the Bell System had grown into the largest private employer in the country, the union that represented most of its skilled workers barred Black membership outright — and the company’s own hiring pattern needed no written rule to produce the same result. Part 2 of a 12-part series, covering 1900 to 1945.