March to June, 1956, 1956

There is a confidential memorandum by Mitchell to the AFL-CIO on the evidence of a major revolt among southern AFL-CIO members against the organization's civil rights policy (March 12); see also Mitchell's letters to AFL-CIO Civil Rights Director Boris Shiskin and to Walter Reuther on the same subject (March 7; April 26). There is also an exchange between Mitchell and George Meany on the subject of organizing small farmers (March 28; April 13). The papers include two unpublished magazine articles by Mitchell on the racial crisis in southern labor unions (May 1,15), and an importantly letter from Mitchell to E.J. Bourg, Secretary-Treasurer of the Louisiana State Labor Council, on that organization's campaign to repeal the Louisiana Right-to-Work Law (May 31); see also the NAWU "Fact Sheet " on the repeal campaign (June 23)