FIGHT - 3 February 2000
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 In July of 1964 - Rochester streets raged with riots and racial
violence. From that - rose an activist group called Freedom,
Integration, God, Honor, Today or F.I.G.H.T. Need to Know
looks at the legacy of F.I.G.H.T. - including the still existing
manufacturing company created by F.I.G.H.T. called FIGHTON,
inc.
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Submit your question: email ntk@wxxi.org. Send us your memories, concerns,
questions and opinions! We'll talk them up during the program.
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Transcript
FIGHT Feb. 3, 2000
TAPED OPEN PLAYS HERE-------
(E) THANKS FOR JOINING US FOR THIS EDITION OF NEED
TO KNOW -- ROCHESTER NEW YORK IN THE 1960'S DIDNT LOOK
LIKE A HOTBED OF RACIAL TENSION.
EVEN THOUGH ROCHESTER WAS AFFLUENT---AND UNEMPLOYMENT
WAS LOW - ONE QUARTER OF THE BLACK POPULATION OF THE
CITY WAS OUT OF WORK.
RACIAL TENSIONS WERE HIGH. LEADERS OF THE WHITE
COMMUNITY- AND THE BLACK COMMUNITY- KNEW THE SITUATION
WOULD COME TO A HEAD SOONER OR LATER
((((bite florence) :18
o/c...all hell broke out
(E)AS WE LOOK BACK ON FIGHT'S ACTIVITIES -
HERE'S SOME BACKGROUND ON THE ORGANIZATION -- THE
GROUP WAS CALLED FIGHT - FREEDOM - INTEGRATION - GOD -
HONOR - TODAY - LATER THE "INTEGRATION" WAS DROPPED
AND INDEPENDENCE SUBSTITUTED. THE GROUP WAS FORM IN
JULY OF 1965 - ONE YEAR AFTER THE RIOTING AND RACIAL
UNREST IN ROCHESTER - AT IT'S HEIGHT - FIGHT INCLUDED
MORE THAN 200 GROUPS SUCH AS BLOCK CLUBS - SOCIAL AND
CIVIC GROUPS - NEIGHBORHOOD ORGANIZATIONS AND CHURCHES -
THE GROUP ALSO HAD WHITE ALLIES CALLED FRIENDS OF FIGHT
- LATER METRO ACT - NOW EVOLVED INTO METRO JUSTICE -
FIGHT'S FIRST PRESIDENT WAS MINISTER FRANKLIN DELANO
ROOSEVELT FLORENCE`
(((((((((FCT SHEET ENDS)))))
(E) THE STORY OF FIGHT CANNOT BE TOLD WITHOUT TALKING
ABOUT THE GROUP'S HISTORIC CONFRONTATION WITH EASTMAN
KODAK OVER JOB OPPORTUNITIES - AND THAT STORY CANNOT
BE TOLD WITHOUT TALKING ABOUT THE COMMUNITY ORGANIZER
SAUL ALINSKY - MR. ALINSKY WAS HIRED TO COME TO
ROCHESTER AND HELP FIGHT ORGANIZE THE BLACK COMMUNITY -
AND WORKING WITH FIGHT AND MINISTER FLORENCE - SET THE
SIGHTS ON THE AREA'S LARGEST EMPLOYER - MORE FROM THIS
PBS DOCUMENTARY ABOUT SAUL ALINSKY CALLED -- THE
DEMOCRATIC PROMISE
(((((((((((((PKG))))))))))))))
(G-sin) FIGHT REMAINED LONG AFTER THE KODAK CONFRONTATION
AND WENT ON TO FOSTER OTHER PROGRAM AND OPPORTUNITIES
IN BUSINESS - HOUSING AND IN ADVOCACY - I'M GARY WALKER
AND YOU'RE WATCHING NEED TO KNOW -- JOINING ME IN
STUDIO IS THE FIRST PRESIDENT -AND ONE OF THE FOUNDERS
OF FIGHT - MINISTER FRANKLIN FLORENCE
(((((((((((((TALK))))))))))))))))))
(G) WE'LL BE BACK WITH MORE FROM MINISTER FLORENCE
ABOUT A UNIQUE BUSINESS START UP - ELISSA?
(E) AS YOU HAVE HEARD - FIGHT ORGANIZED NEIGHBORHOODS -
CREATED AND STILL OPERATES HOUSING COMPLEXES - LEVERED
LOCAL - STATE AND NATIONAL GRANTS FOR EDUCATION, JOB
TRAINING AND MUCH MORE. BUT FIGHT ALSO TOOK JOB
CREATION IN IT'S OWN HANDS -IN THE LATE 60'S FIGHT'S
LEADERS CAME UP WITH A RADICAL IDEA. IN THE BACK ROOM
OF FIGHT HEADQUARTERS, THEY DREW UP A PLAN THAT
WOULD GIVE BLACK WORKERS OWNERSHIP OF SOMETHING REAL -
THEY DID IT WITH HELP FROM A MAJOR ROCHESTER EMPLOYER -
WXXI'S BRENDA TREMBLAY HAS MORE
1950’s music)
On the surface, the 1960s seemed like a golden age
for the city of Rochester. Unemployment was less than two percent. (something else)
But for unskilled black workers, getting a decent
apartment – or a decent job – was nearly impossible. The unemployment rate for
African Americans was 25 percent. When Deleon McEwen moved here from the Mississippi
Delta, he says he was shocked that his fellow African Americans seemed so helpless.
Deleon 00:03:25:12
"EVEN THOUGH I CAME FROM A SEGREGATED
MISSISSIPPI, WHAT I
WAS EXPOSED TO WAS ESSENTIALLY OWNED AND RUN BY BLACK
PEOPLE. IT WASN'T MUCH BUT IT WAS OURS. AND I DIDN'T
SEE
THAT KIND OF OWNERSHIP AND THAT KIND OF PARTICIPATION
HERE."
So McEwen joined a civil rights organization
called FIGHT. One day he was sitting in FIGHT’s office when Joe Wilson walked in.
Wilson was – at the time - the CEO of the Xerox Corporation. Wilson asked McEwen and
his colleagues, ‘what do blacks in Rochester really need?’ They said,
‘jobs.’ They said they wanted to open their own factory. So Wilson promised to
help, and in 1968, McKewen started organizing FIGHTON, a factory that would be owned and
run by FIGHT. Despite the fact that he had no manufacturing experience, McEwen says he was
confident he was doing the right thing.
McEwen 00:09:53:24I WAS YOUNG, I WAS AMBITIOUS,
AND I FELT THAT I COULD LEARN JUST AS FAST AS ANYONE ELSE, AND NO ONE BEAT ME DOING WHAT I
REALLY WANTED TO DO AND I REALLY WANTED TO DO IT. I WAS THAT SELF-CONFIDENT (LAUGHS) SO I
WAS JUST DOING IT."
McEwen flew to Washington to meet with the
secretary of labor and secure a federal grant. He got a loan from a local bank. And on
January 29, 1969, FIGHTON opened the first black-owned manufacturing plant in Upstate New
York.
McEwen 00:13:34:20 IT WAS A BIG TO-DO, A BIG
BLOW-OUT. (edit: FIGHTON QUEEN, PARADE AROUND THE CITY - GREG MORRIS (STAR PLAYERS ON THE
TV
MISSION IMPOSSIBLE) - GREG MORRIS WAS THERE - SPOKE
WITH
EMPLOYEES - ALONG WITH OTHER LOCAL CELEBRITIES.)
Despite everyone’s high spirits, however, the
first couple of years were rough at FIGHTON. The company did not turn a profit. There was
a turnover problem: many workers would come in, get training, and leave for better-paying
jobs. In 1972, someone set a bomb off outside the factory, damaging its windows and
equipment. But the biggest problem at FIGHTON was the management. The company was
basically run by a committee. And its members didn’t always agree on how to make the
business work.
McEwen quote here
In 1976, FIGHTON’s managers decided to try to
save the company by changing the way things were run. They went on a national search and
found an ambitious, young graduate of the Harvard Business School. His name is Matt
Augustine, and he came to FIGHTON to start running the business according to a more
traditional entrepreneurial model.
Augustine 00:11:45:03 "WE BEAT THE ODDS, BUT IT
WASN'T EASY."
That’s because many American companies had
started buying the products FIGHTON made from companies overseas, where labor was cheaper.
Augustine 00:17:17:21 . . . YOU KNOW WE USED TO
MAKE THOUSANDS OF TRANFORMERS A DAY. POWER SUPPLIES. WE'D GET A LOT OF METAL STAMPINGS,
AND THAT BUSINESS ESSEENTIALLY WENT OFFSHORE. SO THAT'S WHEN WE
DECIDED TO DIVERSIFY AND TO DO SOME OTHER THINGS AND
NOW
ELTREX IS A MINI-CONGLOMERATE. WE DO A NUMBER OF
THINGS,
NOT JUST ELECTRO-MECHANICAL ASSEMBLY."
To reflect the company’s shifting focus,
Augustine changed its name from FIGHTON to Eltrex: the El, he says, stands for
electronics, and the X is an honor to Xerox. But Augustine says the company’s
philosophy hasn’t changed. Eltrex still provides training and opportunity. And today
it’s the largest manufacturer of industrial vacuum cleaners designed to clean copiers
and computers. Another branch of the company provides a mail service.
Sfx: Millicant talking to employee, factory
noises
On the floor of the Eltrex factory, Millicent
Hartzog chats with an employee twisting metal wires around a piece of plastic tubing.
Hartzog helps market the company’s products. She’s started working here in 1969,
so she’s seen all of the changes at Eltrex. She looks around at the workers
assembling parts around her her and says the spark of excitement she felt on her first day
has never gone out.
Millicent 00:01:18:14"TO ME IT WAS SENSE OF
PRIDE. BECAUSE IN THOSE DAYS THE IDEA OF A BLACK-OWNED AND OPERATED COMPANY WAS UNHEARD OF
AND THAT WAS SOMETHING THAT I ASPIRED TO DO. SO WHEN
I CAME
TO WORK FOR THE COMPANY I FELT A GREAT PRIDE AND I
WANTED
TO DO THE MOST THAT I COULD DO TO HELP TO COMPANY
SUCCEED."
Hartzog’s dedication is depicted in a
large oil painting that hangs in the company’s boardroom. It shows the entire factory
floor, offices, and portraits of Matt Augustine and Joe Wilson looking on. They’re
all players in the story of a Rochester company that emerged from the civil rights
movement. And so far, Eltrex has done just what FIGHT leaders wanted it to: it’s
given a sense of ownership to people who needed it most. I’m Brenda Tremblay, WXXI
news.
(G)TODAY THE ELTREX WORKFORCE IS STILL LARGELY AFRICAN
AMERICAN - BUT MATT AGUSTINE POINTS OUT THAT THERE ARE
LATINOS - WHITES AND ASIANS AT EVERY LEVEL WITHIN THE
COMPANY - I'M GARY WALKER AND YOU'RE WATCHING NEED TO
KNOW - JOINING ME KNOW ARE TWO KEY PLAYERS IN THE
CREATION OF FIGHTON - MINISTER FRANKLIN FLORANCE -
AND HORACE BECKER - THE MAN THAT XEROX CEO JOE WILSON
INSTRUCTED TO HELP DELEON MCEWEN AND FIGHT GET FIGHTON
UP AND RUNNING.
(((((((((TALK ))))))))))))))))))
G) THANK YOU MINISTER FLORENCE AND MR. BECKER FOR
BEING HERE. IF YOU'D LIKE TO DISCUSS THE HISTORY OF
FIGHT- YOU CAN JOIN THE DISCUSSION ONLINE CLICK ON OUR
WEBISTE WXX- DOT ORG-SLASH- COMMUNITY- CLICK ON NEED TO KNOW AND YOU CAN GET A FREE
TRANSCRIPT OF THE PROGRAM
ALSO - REFER TO A BOOK WRITTEN BY THE DEMOCRAT AND
CHRONICLE COLUMNIST MARK HARE AND LOCAL PROFESSOR
LOU BUTTINO - IT'S CALLED THE REMAKING OF A CITY:
ROCHESTER NEW YORK 1964-1984 -
(E) WE HAVE A SPECIAL "NEED TO KNOW" PROFILE THIS
WEEK- YOU MAY REMEMBER HIM FROM "PORGY AND BESS"-
OR HIS FLOOR SHAKING RENDITION OF "OLD MAN RIVER" IN
THE MOVIE "SHOWBOAT" HE IS WILLIAM WARFIELD -- KNOWN
WORLD-WIDE AS ONE OF THE GREATEST VOCAL ARTISTS OF OUR
TIME-
"NEED TO KNOW" SAT DOWN WITH MISTER WARFIELD WHE HE
WAS IN TOWN FOR HIS 80TH BIRTHDAY, WHY ROCHESTER?
WELL, IT IS - HIS… "HOME-TOWN".
((((((((((((((PKG)))))))))))))))
(G)SAY YOU HAVE HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE - OR ARTHRITIS -
ARE ACCUPUNCTURE AND QI QONG IN YOUR FUTURE INSTEAD OF
DRUGS AND DIETS?
(E) NEED TO KNOW LOOKS AT WHAT ALTERNATIVE TREATMENTS
ARE HERE IN ROCHESTER AND WHAT INSURANCE COMPANIES WILL
PAY FOR
(G)IF YOU WANT TO THOUGHTS ON OR EXPERINCES WITH
ALTERNATEIVE MEDICINE- JOIN IN THE DISCUSSION ONLINE---
GO TO WXXI-DOT ORG-CLICK ON COMMUNITY AND THEN
FEEDBACK AND EMAIL US YOUR THOUGHTS.
OR CALL US AT 716-258-0250.
(G)AND THAT'S NEED TO KNOW FOR NOW -
(E) THANKS FOR JOINING US
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