Graham et al. v. Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen & Enginemen (338 U.S. 232)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided November 7, 1949 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 338 U.S. 232 · 70 S. Ct. 14
- Decided
- November 7, 1949
- Term
- October Term 1949
- Vote
- 7–0
- Majority author
- Justice Jackson (R.H.)
- Issue area
- Judicial Power
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Mr. Justice Jackson delivered the opinion of the Court. Twenty-one Negro firemen, sometime employed by southern railroads, brought this suit against the principal defendant, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen, three railroads, two local lodges of the Brotherhood, and certain officers of those lodges. The complaint alleges in substance that the Brotherhood is an exclusively white man’s union and, as it includes a majority of the craft, it is possessed of sole collective bargaining power in behalf of the entire craft including the Negro firemen in consequence of the Railway Labor Act. It has negotiated agreements and arrangements with the southern railroads which discriminate against colored firemen, who are denominated “not-promotable” while white ones are “promotable.” The effect of the agreements is to deprive them, solely because of their race, of rights and job assignments to which their seniority would entitle them. Many Negro firemen have been thus displaced or demoted and replaced by white firemen having less seniority. The complaint asked for a declaration of petitioners’ rights, for an injunction restraining compliance with the above agreements, and for damages. In short, the cause of action pleaded is substantially the same as that which this Court sustained in Steele v. Louisville & Nashville R. Co., 323 U. S. 192, and Tunstall v. Brotherhood of…
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