Civil Rights and World War II
Southern Defense Industries & the
Struggle for Racial Equality
World War II and Civil Rights

Fight Against Fascism = fight for
democracy…for all people
 U.S. has to set an example at home
-gives civil rights advocates leverage
 Double V = Victory at Home and Abroad
 Jobs movement calls for equality in the
workplace



Desegregating the labor market
Equal access to training and skilled jobs
Equal wages for equal work
Victory at Home?
Industrializing the South &
maintaining Jim Crow
Def. Industries come South
Segregated Labor Market
Skilled and “Unskilled”
The Jobs Movement

June 1941 – March on Washington



Labor, NAACP, NUL unite
Threaten to march 100,000s on Washington DC
Force FDR’s hand on international stage

Executive Order 8802 (6/25/41) creates Fair
Employment Practices Committee (FEPC)
 Voluntary enforcement of equal rights in
defense industries
 EO 9346 (1943): creates new FEPC

1943-1945 field offices file 1000s of cases across
the U.S.
Training African Americans
Manpower Shortage
 YouTube
- Manpower - World War Two
(1943)
 How
did New Orleans and Southern
Industries respond to this crisis?
 How
do employers maintain Jim Crow
and meet the manpower challege?
New Orleans Defense
Industries
 Higgins
(Uptown, City Park, Ind. Canal)
 Delta Ship Yards (Liberty Ships on the
Industrial Canal)
 Consolidated Vultee (PBYs at
Lakefront)
 Todd-Johnson Ship Yard (Algiers)
 Avondale Marine Way (Avondale)
 Lane Ships (Industrial Canal)
Higgins Industries
 Higgins
often promoted as a model of
race relations for defense industries.
 In fact – he hired African Americans in
skilled carpentry only – no welders.
African Americans at Higgins
Eureka Magazine features stories
Waiting at the Station, 3/42
The 1942 Liberty Ship
Contract

Spring 1942 AJH gets $30 million U.S.
Maritime Commission contract for Liberty
ships - the largest ship contract in USMC
history
 40,000 - 100,000 workers to move to NO (!?!)
 AJH pledges to train black and white workers
on equal basis – avoid unnecessary inmigration of white workers
 Praised by Eleanor Roosevelt (the kiss of
death within conservative circles)
Andrew Jackson Higgins
 “Our
company may be the means of
showing that the races can get along
well together with equal respect for the
other and equal rates for the same
work.” Louisiana Weekly, April 1942
 “In a nutshell, we are going to use plain
common sense, and there is going to be
no prejudice.” to FEPC Spring 1942
Liberty Ship Contract
Cancelled – October 1942

USMC blames steel shortage
 Higgins and Congressman Hebert blame oldline East Coast ship builders
 Black media blames local conservatives –
(NOAC, YMBC, AFL Metal Trades)
 AJH to Fortune magazine, 10/42: “[local
opponents] were afraid they might lose their
chauffer or have to pay their servants more.”
Higgins Features Diverse
Workforce
Workers in Eureka magazine
Diverse Workforce with
Asian Welders
Integrated Meetings in Eureka
Labor Agreement with AFL
Limits of Integration
Lunch Time
Higgins’ Civil Rights Record

1943-5 numerous FEPC cases filed against
unequal work conditions, violence and
intimidation
 WMC reports indicate that many black
workers quit rather than protest inequality
 Failed to use trained black welders – after
announcing in the Louisiana Weekly (spring
1942) that they would do so
 Only carpentry open to skilled black workers
 AFL very conservative – white entitlement
Other New Orleans Industries
Delta Ship Yards (Liberty Ships on the
Industrial Canal)
 1/45
upgrades black welders quietly
 Symbolic victory for skilled black workers
Consolidated Vultee (PBYs at Lakefront)
 6/43
CVAC hires African American women
after lengthy negotiations with NOUL and
federal officials)
 NOUL is a model negotiator for region
New Orleans industries resist
 Avondale
 No
 Lane
 No
 Todd
Marine Way (Avondale)
symbolic victory
Ships (Industrial Canal)
symbolic victory
Johnson Shipyards
 7/45
Todd-Johnson upgrade of black
welder causes all-white walk-out.
Other Southern Def Industries
in Atlanta – hired skilled
African Americans to work in
segregated building
 North American Aviation in Dallas – also
hired skilled African Americans
 Consolidate Vultee in Ft. Worth – minor
gains
 Aviation industry is more open
 Bell Aircraft
Other Southern Industries
– AFL dominated, and
therefore little gains for Af Ams
 Shipbuilding
– did hire African American
women on seasonal basis
 Ordinance
Out migration
 War
Manpower Commission recruits
skilled black workers for western and
northern industries
 West Coast pay = $1.50/hr
 Southern pay = .75/hr
 Hanford and Oak Ridge, Kaiser, Boeing
are considered “top priority”
 Southern employers resist
Personal Stories
 Arthur
Chapman
-advances at Pearl Harbor ship yard
Personal Stories
 David
Cooper
-Ford engine plants –
-NO and Detroit
-bought his house uptown
Af-Am Jobs Gains nationally
1940-1944
 African American
men employed
 April
1940: 2.9 million
 April 1944: 3.2 million
 African American
women employed
 April
1940: 1.5 million
 April 1944: 2.1 million
Total: 900,000 jobs gained (and eventually
lost)
Loss of political leverage
Victory at Home?

Organized labor remains status quo on race
and equality in the South – 1940s-50s



Most black workers prioritize economic gains
Out migration continues after WWII – west coast
WWII failed to produce permanent jobs in NO
– labor market returns to surplus
Delta, Convair, Higgins all close
-loss of over 50,000 jobs in New Orleans


Cold War eventually helps create jobs at
Michoud and Avondale
Victory at Home?
 African American
political networks gain
confidence and expand across region
 Labor,
Churches, NAACP - Voter
Registration Drives in late 1940s
 ILA
1490 largest black union in the South
 PDL – A.L. Davis, Ernest Wright
The Legacy of World War II
jobs movement
Civil Rights Act – est. EEOC,
which makes equal employment rights a
federal law
 The goal of achieving “equality in the
workplace” came from this movement
 Skilled jobs open to all people – today’s
defense workforce diverse.
 1964