Binder
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The Roots of War
Declaration of War or Statement of Isolationism
Map Assignment
Group Summary Prompts
1) Organizing the economy
2) The enlistment of science
3) Men & Women in the military
4) African Americans and Japanese Americans
5) Women in the military
The War at Home
The New American Life
• Residents in war production cities – had to cope
with new workers (mostly unattached males,
young men waiting for their draft call, and older
men without their families)
• Fear of sexually transmitted diseases
• Lives put in fast forward: increase in marriages;
1.2 million
• Mixed effects on children: “latchkey kids” of
working mothers had to fend for themselves,
middle class kids worked to support the war
effort (fund raisers, salvage drives)
The New American Life
• Government censorship to control war
images and use of propaganda
• The Office of War Information – wanted
propaganda in feature films
• Hollywood obliges with deluge of jingoistic
films
• Patriotism in film softens through the war
and switches to comedy to keep spirits up
New Workers
• Women in the work force – replaced men in industrial
workforce
• Rosie the Riveter (journeymen jobs involving welding and
skilled jobs)
• Higher pay
• By 1944 – 19 million women held paid jobs (up 6 million
form 1940)
• Women’s share of gov’t jobs increased from 22 to 33
percent
• Mexican American Workers – primarily in farming
• Bracero program – Mexican gov’t recruited workers to
come to the U.S. on six to twelve month contracts
New Workers
• Native Americans – 40,000 moved to off
reservation jobs (worked in military supplies)
• War experience accelerated the fight for full civil
rights
• Congress made Indians citizens in 1924 – but
several states continued to deny them the right
to vote
• National Congress of American Indians, 1944 –
efforts led to Supreme Court decision to compel
states to allow Indians to vote
New Workers
• African Americans found economic advancement
through war jobs
• Labor leader A. Philip Randolph of the Brotherhood of
Sleeping Car Porters worked with Walter White of the
NAACP to plan “Negro March on Washington” to
protest racial discrimination by the federal government
• President FDR issued Executive Order 8802, June 1941
– barring racial discrimination in defense contracts
and creating the Fair Employment Practices
Committee (FEPC) “No discrimination on grounds of
race, color, creed, or national origin.”
Clashing Cultures
• Migration of men and women in search of work
during the war led to clashes with traditional
boundaries of race and region
• African-American migration from the South
collided with white workers seeking the same
jobs
• Racial violence in over 50 cities in 1943 alone
• Zoot Suit Wars: Los Angeles, Mexican Americans
and Whites erupted into widespread violence
including over 400,000 people
Extra Credit Assignment
1. Listen to the interview below by pressing play.
2. Write a short summary (2-3 paragraphs) of
the contents of the interview.
3. Write a short passage sharing your thoughts
about why these men did what they did, and
how they made a lasting contribution to the
legacy of WWII.