WWII: Crucible of Change

WWII: Crucible of Change Q: How did WWII accelerate changes already going on in the U.S.?

I. Blacks and the Sources of the Civil Rights Movement A. Breaking the Color Barrier • Pre-war defense industry: blacks only as janitors • A. Philip Randolph (Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters): demand FDR end discrimination • Threatened massive March On Washington June 1941 EO 8802 Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC) • Black Democratic voters • Eleanor’s criticism • 700,000 blacks hired in defense industries • 200,000 in Federal Government

B. Moving On Up • High paying, unionized jobs • # of blacks in unions doubled • Lured blacks from rural South to North and West: 2nd Great Migration • Roughly 1 million (2x as many) and West (CA black pop. 2x)

Effects: • Economic advancement • Urbanization • Control over own lives • Didn’t have to be Jim Crow South • Right + ability to vote • Army moved slowly toward desegregation “Double V,” Tuskegee Airmen •  Rise in expectations

C. Discrediting Racism • American attack Nazis + Imperial Japan’s counter-propaganda US racism broadcasted to the world pressure reform • Sim. USSR propaganda 1950s+60s • Blacks get outside Jim Crow • Whites see evils of racism (both of enemy and among selves)

D. A Dream Deferred • Revolutions occur when expectations are not met • North and West still segregated (schools, suburbs, jobs); South just as bad or worse; Army reinforced racial divisions

Port Chicago Mutiny • July 17th, 1944: explosion at Port Chicago Naval Munitions base—equiv. of 5-kiloton bomb • Largest state-side military disaster of WWII • 320 men killed, 390 injured • 202 killed black, 232 injured black • 15% of black casualties in WWII

Segregated boot camp, applied to training schools, and graduated as full seamen in the United States Navy. • Recruits believed about to get their ship duty military policy was to not allow blacks to serve on front lines •  Loading ammo and munitions onto ships

Blacks not trained • Received no gloves • White officers bet on who could load the fastest: speed over safety

Naval Court of Inquiry: only 5 witnesses were blacks • White betting explained away as healthy competition • Officers acquitted of all charges • Blame fell on those black sailors who were killed

Mutiny • August 9: most of the 300 men ordered to go back to work on Mare Island refused to do so citing continuing lack of training and safety concerns • 250 men arrested white officers threaten blacks with mutiny charges and threat of death penalty • 200 caved; 50 court martialed

Trial • Prosecution charged men with organized mutiny and cowardice • Defense attempted to argue individual insubordination • Oct. 24, 1944: all 50 convicted after 2 minutes of deliberation, sentenced to 15 years hard labor

Appeal • NAACP lawyer Thurgood Marshall (future Supreme Court justice) appealed the case • “This is not an individual case. This is not 50 men on trial for mutiny. This is the Navy on trial for its whole vicious policy toward Negroes.” • Eleanor Roosevelt took up the cause • United States Army Air Corps pilots stationed in Tuskegee, Alabama were the first black pilots to see combat during World War II (Tuskegee Airmen) • The 50 received amnesty at end of war, but received no veterans’ benefits

II. The Rise of Rosie A. The Hidden Army • Up to and especially in the Great Depression: unacceptable white, married women work outside the home: taking men’s jobs • Throughout 20th, stability in #s women not working (even with WWI spike) • WWII: 50% more women (7 million) working • SF: 2x Detroit: 5x • # of wives working doubled

Attitudes changed: patriotic duty: the “Hidden Army” on the “Homefront” (actively fighting war) • Canduty: women pressured to work

Black women benefited most from changing jobs • $3/week  $48/week • “Hate strikes”: diff. attitudes btwn men + women • New jobs gave: money, sense of pride and accomplishment, community • Gender consciousness

B. Gender Consciousness • What did women want? 4/5 wanted to keep working after the war • Vets had preference: women pushed out of work after the war • Lost factory jobs, most kept some kind of employment (necessity) • Women employed outside the home • 1940: 27% 1950: 32%

However: many attitudes remained unchanged • Discrimination • Pay disparity • Culture (2nd Shift) • Post-war propaganda pressured women back into the home delay Women’s Movement • Vs. Civil Rights Movement • Only 10% working women in defense industry • 55% housewives

III. Coming Out Under Fire A. Why We Fight • Massive demographic movement: opened horizons • Brought together broke isolation • Not the only one • Cycle: strict need loosen perceived problem strict • 16 million mobilized: 4-10% gay = 640,000-1.6million • “Buddies”: overrode biases • Some faced discrimination, others valued • Sex in strange places: situational ethics

Opportunities for expression: letters, newspaper, USO shows (drag) • Ike noted positive role morale • Disproved notion gay=sissy • Only 1/4 Army saw combat • Survey: 3/4 never fired during any one battle • “fear of killing” • “Hero” a dirty word • Foolhardy bravado, endangers buddies

B. The Army Made Me Gay! • Pre-WWII: spectrum sexuality: defined by behavior (sodomy laws; “male” role) • WWII: how screen accurately/fairly? • How deal with lesbians? • 1942: “Psychiatry”: homosexuality as mental disorder: binary world • Witch hunts + concentration camps (queer stockades) • Double V: Nazi persecution homosexuals + Army’s persecution homosexuals

Post-War: military definition spread rest gov’t, esp. Red Scare: homosexuality more prone blackmail more threat communism exclusion military + gov’t jobs • 1947: Truman National Security Loyalty Program (approx. 1,200) • 1953: Ike: Executive Order #10450 bans in fed gov’t • Tens thousands from military • Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell • Why care? Basically same argument used against integration (morale, unit cohesion, military shouldn’t be social experiment, etc.)

WWII: Crucible of Change