Arnold Aronson (March 11, 1911 – February 17, 1998) was a founder of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and served as its executive secretary from 1950 to 1980. In 1941 he worked with A. Philip Randolph to pressure President

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

to issue

Executive Order 8802 Executive Order 8802 was signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on June 25, 1941, to prohibit ethnic or racial discrimination in the nation's defense industry. It also set up the Fair Employment Practice Committee. It was the first federal ac ...

, opening jobs in the federal bureaucracy and in the defense industries to minorities. A close associate of Randolph and

Roy Wilkins Roy Ottoway Wilkins (August 30, 1901 – September 8, 1981) was a prominent activist in the Civil Rights Movement in the United States from the 1930s to the 1970s. Wilkins' most notable role was his leadership of the National Association for the ...

, Aronson played an important role planning the

1963 March on Washington Events January * January 1 – Bogle–Chandler case: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation scientist Dr. Gilbert Bogle and Mrs. Margaret Chandler are found dead (presumed poisoned), in bushland near the Lane Cove ...

for Jobs and Justice. He was awarded the

Presidential Medal of Freedom The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian award of the United States, along with the Congressional Gold Medal. It is an award bestowed by the president of the United States to recognize people who have made "an especially merit ...

in 1998.

Early life and education

Aronson was born in Boston in 1911. He received a B.A. degree from Harvard in 1933 and an M.S.W. from the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

. Aronson was

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

Career in civil rights

In 1945 he became executive director of the National Community Relations Advisory Council, now known as the

Jewish Council for Public Affairs The Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA) is an American Jewish 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization that deals with community relations. It is a coordinating round table organization of 15 other national Jewish organizations, including the Re ...

, a position he retained until 1976. With Randolph and Wilkins, Aronson was a founder of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights in 1950. As secretary of the Leadership Conference, he helped coordinate lobbying efforts for the Civil Rights Act of 1957, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968. Although one of the few white leaders involved in planning the 1963 March on Washington, Aronson downplayed his participation. After he retired, he founded The Leadership Conference Education Fund and served as its director until his death. President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

awarded him the

on January 15, 1998. He and his wife Annette had two sons, Simon Aronson of Chicago and Bernard Aronson of Takoma Park, Maryland. His nephew, singer-songwriter and organizer Si Kahn, credits his uncle with helping inspire and shape his own work.Si Kahn, ''Creative Community Organizing'' (San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2010), p. 121.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aronson, Arnold 1911 births 1998 deaths Harvard University alumni University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration alumni People from Boston American activists Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients 20th-century American Jews