Word: servicemen
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...battle began in 1963, when American Airlines offered half-price seats to servicemen on a standby basis. Ever since, U.S. airlines have been competing for traffic with an ever proliferating and vastly confusing array of cut-rate fares. As a result, more passengers than ever are crowding aboard planes. But the cheap promotional fares are putting such a squeeze on profit margins that last week four major trunk carriers agreed that the time had come to dump some of the discounts...
Kuchel's speech probably changed no minds; few speeches on Viet Nam ever do. But it did prompt Morton and Cooper to "clarify" their own demands for a bombing halt by explaining that they would not approve of such a step if it left U.S. servicemen in jeopardy...
...program's success has resulted from its simplicity. Whenever Ekman has proof that a landlord will not accommodate Negroes, white servicemen are forbidden to lease or rent from the property owner. Since most landlords around military bases depend almost exclusively on military occupants, Ekman's decree leaves them with little choice between integration or bankruptcy. But, says Ekman, "first we try to use persuasion. I point out that a lot of the combat leaders are Negroes. If they have to live 20 or 30 miles from the base, it is uneconomic and very bad for morale...
Wooing & Warning. In Washington and Maryland, where 56% of rental housing was closed to Negro servicemen-despite fair housing laws-Ekman won by ceaselessly wooing and warning reluctant landlords. By letter, telephone or in person, he approached 1,700 owners or managers. He found that many of them were segregationists only for economic reasons. "What they would most like," argues Ekman, "is a law that would force them to open up." That way, of course, no landlord would be fearful of losing white renters to rival apartment owners. Without such a law, Ekman can only counterweight landlords' misgivings about...
Since the program has been successful in Washington and Maryland, McNamara and Ekman have chosen California as their next prime target. There, 102,000 servicemen live off base, and 32% of the housing near bases is segregated. At the same time, property owners in other states also will begin to feel pressure from Ekman's office. The lesson of Maryland is already rubbing off on landlords. "Every week thousands of voluntary units are turned in," exults Ekman...