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Black leaders tackled on WWII determined to secure equal rights seeing as the government was in need for loyalty and labor. They pushed for the double V campaign to gain victory over racial discrimination at home as well as over the Axis abroad.

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Rosie the Riveter represented women who took jobs in factories in place of men who were serving in the war.

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This memorial resembles a Native American trooper giving Navajo code to troops in America.

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Navajo coder who has survived to tell the story.

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Navajo Code Talker Explains Role in WWII

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The Japanese could break every code except Navajo code. Navajo code, unlike most code, was very specific and did not follow certain pattern.

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The Navajo tribe are from the "four corners" out west. The "four corner state" makes up of Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado.

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At WWII's peak, there were approximately 400 code talkers. Most worked for the marines.

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Double V Campaign

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Published March 30, 2011

In our professional development seminars, we highlight documents that go beyond the traditional narrative. World War II is and remains a seminal point of study. As in previous wars, African Americans once again heeded the calls of unity, support, and sacrifice while they continued to endure the limits of segregation. They served in the armed forces and participated in all aspects of home-front activities.

At the same time African Americans sought to create awareness about the injustice and paradox of racial segregation in a democratic nation. In January 1942, an editorial by James Thompson in the African-American newspaper Pittsburg Courier posed the question, " Should I sacrifice my life to live half American " Mr. Thompson suggested that while African Americans should join with all Americans in the war effort, they should not "lose sight of our fight for true democracy at home." He argued that if the Allies were using the "V for Victory" slogan to rally them to fight for victory over tyranny, then blacks should have the "Double V" for "democracy at home and abroad."

Beginning February 7, 1942 and continuing weekly until 1943, the Pittsburg Courier's "Double V" campaign demanded that African Americans who were risking their lives abroad receive full citizenship at home. The newspaper printed articles, editorials, letters, "Double V" photographs and even designed a recognizable "DOUBLE V" sign to promote the campaign. This campaign provided African Americans a way to express their support for the war effort while reminding the rest of the nation that it must guarantee equal opportunity for all.

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Featured Document: Pittsburgh Courier on World War II "Double V" Campaign

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Published March 30, 2011 In our professional development seminars, we highlight documents that go beyond the traditional narrative. World War II is and remains a seminal point of study. As in previous wars, African Americans once again heeded the calls of unity, support, and sacrifice while they continued to endure the limits of segregation.

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During the war, the female employment rate increased because women filled positions generally held by men. Over 6 million women got jobs during the war. Taking jobs in industrial positions helped women break away from sexism.

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For the first time in history, women had the chance to receive military status. In the Women's Army Corps and the Navy's Women Appointed for Volunteer Emergency Service, women took jobs as mechanics, radio operators, mapmakers, and ferry pilots. About 1,000 women even got jobs as pilots through the Women's Airforce Service Pilots. Shockingly, female veterans were granted the same rights and privileges as their male counterparts.

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Women also had to perform household duties that were usually done by men.
In a letter to her husband, Isabel Kidder describes her first time using the furnace:
"If you could see me now, pleased as punch because down in the cellar the fire is burning [in the furnace] and it is of my creating... My coal came this afternoon and I got a fire built... but it got away from me. The house got so hot I shut all the radiators and opened the front door...."

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The war sometimes drained the spirits of women. The song "They're Either Too Young or Too Old" depicted the sorrow women had as they longed to see the men they cared for who had gone to war.

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Jimmy Dorsey's Orch - They're Either Too Young Or Too Old

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As women joined the workforce, the necessity of child care centers became obvious. Less than ten percent of defense workers' children were covered by funds allocated to federal child-care centers. Children who were left on their own while their mothers worked were given the names, "eight-hour orphans" or "latch-key children".

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Some men didn't like the idea of women working and becoming more independent. One women whose husband was not fond of how independent she had become stated, "He had left a shrinking violet and come home to a very strong oak tree."
The divorce rate went from 16% in 1940 to 27% in 1944. Birth rate and marriage rates also increased during the war.

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In 1942, the federal government began trying to persuade women to join the workforce to help produce for the war. Songs like "We're the Janes Who Make the Planes" and other pieces of propaganda urged women to take the jobs of men in the war.

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Women working in the war had a small overall effect on decreasing sexism. Labor unions expected women to relinquish their positions to men when the war was over, and the government released propaganda depicting working women as temporary. A War Department brochure said, "A woman is a substitute like plastic instead of metal." Many women were reluctant to give up their jobs when men came back. Although women didn't hold their positions long term, the experience of working gave them a taste of freedom and independence and proved their strength.

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As much as Native Americans were discriminated by being forced onto reservations way back to Manifest Destiny. This was at least their time, the Navajo, to gain respects among the US government. Here they were the best code talkers in the world. The Defense Department honored all the Navajo code talkers, giving them recognition for their advanced coding.

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Although you only hear about the Navajo, once the US entered the war there was already 5,000 Native American soldiers in the military. By the end of the war there was about 44,000 Native Americans soldiers. For tribes, some of them had 70% of their tribal population help the war.

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At the end of WWII, most Native American troops stayed in cities and lived away from their reservation life. However there were some who went back to their reservations. Although the ones of the cities, did not really enjoy it. However they did know how to function in two worlds, urban and reservation. The war forever changed the Native American. Other wars they went back to being oppressed, but with their contribution and willingness to being in the war earned them respect, and the dissent slowly went away.

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Compared to every other minority group during this time period Japanese-Americans faced an extensive amount of suffrage and isolation especially during war time. This being a direct result of the attack the Japanese made on pearl harbor in 1941.

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Allowed the removal of any Japanese Americans that potentially presented a threat. Although when the "threat" of the Japanese Americans was further looked into no Japanese Americans deemed to be guilty of espionage nor sedition.

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Practically all Japanese Americans were faced with harsh discrimination per say. They lost there business, jobs, and there everyday lives. Relatively all of these people were insistent and were truly supportive of America.

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Japanese Americans Look Back On World War II Incarceration

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Thousands of Japanese-Americans were moved on to these camps. As described by a women of the name Monica Sone, "Our home was one room in a large army-type barracks, measuring about 20 by 25 feet. The only furnishings were an iron pot-belly stove and cots." She goes on to talk about the small jobs the Japanese-Americans would have on there camps.

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The NAACP pushed for legislation to outlaw the poll tax and lynching and end discrimination in defense industries and the armed services along with black disfranchisement. They campaigned for voting rights and were able to gain a step in the right direction when the supreme court ruled Smith V. Allwright unconstitutional.

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A. Philip Randolph led a march on Washington with one hundred thousand blacks planning to " wake up and shock white America as it has never been shocked before." He warned Roosevelt that if he did not end discrimination in the armed services and defense industry that angry African Americans would siege Washington. This cause FDR to issue an Executive Order 8802 which prohibited the discriminatory practices in employment by federal agencies and anything related to the war.

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These resulted in 2 million African Americans in industry and two hundred thousand in the federal civil service during the war. Between 1942 to 1945 the proportion of African Americas in war- production work rose from 3 to 9 percent. Black membership in the labor unions doubled to 1.25 million and the number of skilled and semiskilled black workers.

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About 1 million African Americans served in the armed forces. The number of black officers grew to over seven thousand by 1945. In 1944 both the army and navy began to racially integrate their training facilities, ships, and battlefield platoons. However, the majority of blacks serviced in segregated units commanded by white officers. Blacks were failed to be protected which resulted in riots on the army bases.