Life on the Home Front

Section 3

Women and Minorities Gain Ground

• WWII had a positive effect on American society

• Devastation to Europe and Asia’s large ports• WWII put an end to Great Depression• War created 19 million new jobs and doubled

the average family’s income• Women and minorities began playing a huge

role in American factories

Cont.

• Factories wanted white men only

• Too many were going to war; not enough left to work in factories

• Factories left to recruit women and minorities to fill jobs

Women in Defense Plants

• During Depression people felt women shouldn’t work outside the home

• Shouldn’t take jobs away from men trying to support their families

• Women went to work when men were called to duty

• Rosie the Riveter• 2.5 million women went to work in shipyards,

aircraft factories, etc.

Rosie the Riveter

African American Demand War Work

• Factories were now hiring women but they refused to hire African Americans

• A. Philip Randolph- head of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters– Major union for African American railroad workers

• Informed President Roosevelt he was organizing a march of 10-50 thousand to march on Washington in the “interest of securing jobs, in national defense, and integration into military and naval forces”

Cont.

• Roosevelt responded with Executive Order 8802– “there shall be no discrimination in the

employment of workers in defense industries or government because of race, creed, color, or national origin.”

• President created the Fair Employment Practices Commission in order to enforce the order

Mexicans become Farmworkers

• Read this section– Bracero Program

A Nation on the Move

• Wartime created millions of new jobs• Americans didn’t always live nearby• 15 million Americans moved during the war• Most headed west and south in search of jobs• Growth of southern California and the expansion

of cities in the Deep South created a new industrial region called the Sunbelt

• South and West led the way in manufacturing and urbanization for the fist time since the Industrial Revolution

The Housing Crisis

• Read this section

Racism Explodes into Violence

• Great Migration slowed during Great Depression– Why?

• Picked back up again during WWII– Why?

Cont.

• African Americans were not met with open arms when they moved north

• They were usually met with suspicion and intolerance– Led to violence

• Worst racial violence of the war erupted in Detroit on Sunday, June 29, 1943

• Hot day and people met at Belle Isle to cool off

Cont.

• Fights erupted between gangs of white and African American teenage girls

• Chain reaction followed

• Full-scale riot erupted across the city

• When it was over 25 African Americans were dead as well as 9 whites

Belle Isle Park

Police defend African American Youth

Next Day Tigers Game

The Zoot Suit Riots

Cont.

• Zoot Suit people came across as unpatriotic• Everyone was trying to save fabric for war• Victory suit- suit with no vest or cuffs, short

jacket, and narrow lapels• Mexican American teenagers adopted the zoot

suit• After a rumor of several sailors being attacked by

zoot suiters, 2,500 soldiers stormed Mexican American neighborhoods

Cont.

• Mexican American teenagers were attacked, their hair was cut, and clothes torn off of them

• No police interference• Went on for several days• Los Angeles responded by banning the zoot

suit

Zoot Suit Riots

Japanese American Relocation

• Read this section

Read the rest of Section 3

• Wage and Price Controls– Office of Price Administration

• Blue Points, Red Points– rationing

• Victory Gardens and Scrap Drives– Victory Gardens

• Paying for the War– E bonds

• “V” for Victory