APUSH Civil Rights in WWII

Civil Rights in WWII

“Arsenal of Democracy”

► Lend-Lease Act (1941)

▪ Provide arms to Great Britain

on credit and decisively
pro-British “neutrality”

► Atlantic Charter (1941)

▪ Promote and secure

self-determination and free
trade

▪ No pursuit of territorial

expansion

▪ Blueprint for United Nations

The Economy and World War II

►

Economic Recovery and Growth

▪GDP

►$103.6B - 1929

►$56.4B - 1933

►$101.4B - 1940

►$223.1B - 1945

▪Unemployment

►17 million new jobs

►3.2% - 1929

►24.9% - 1933

►14.6% - 1940

►1.2% - 1944

►

Fiscal Policy

▪War cost $304B

►$136B from tax revenue

▪Revenue Act of 1942

►$168B from war bonds

▪National Debt

►$25B in 1918

►$20B in 1933

►$39.65B in 1939

►$251B in 1945

►

Industry

▪Factories converted for war
production

▪Doubled industrial production

▪Real wages increased by 50%

►

Agriculture

▪Net farm income doubled

▪$20B increase in land value

▪$11B savings accumulated

▪17% decline in farm population

►

Labor Unions

▪National War Labor Board

▪Smith-Connally War Act (1943)

▪Union membership

►9 million – 1940

►14.8 million - 1945

Women in World War II

► 350,000 served in

military

► Women’s Army Corps

(WAC)

► Women Appointed

for Voluntary
Emergency Service
(WAVES)

► Office of Strategic

Services (OSS)

Women in the Workplace during World War II

►
“Rosie the Riveter”

▪“A woman is a substitute, like
plastic instead of metal.” – War
Department brochure

▪Women in the Workforce

► 1940 – 27%

► 1945 – 37%

▪Earned 65% of what men earned

▪Domestic sphere included the home
front

►

American Family

▪Marriage and birth rates increased

▪Divorce rates increased

▪High school enrollment decreased

“At Boeing I found a freedom and
an independence I had never
known. After the war I could never
go back to playing bridge again,
being a clubwoman and listening to
a lot of inanities when I knew there
were things you could use for your
mind. The war changed my life
completely.” – Inez Sauer

Black Americans in World War II

► 1.2 million served during the

war
▪ in segregated units

► Tuskegee Airmen

▪ “Red Tails”

▪ recognized for impressive

record for protecting bombers

► Double V Campaign

▪ “We call upon the president

and congress to declare war on
Japan and racial prejudice in
our country. Certainly we
should be strong enough to
whip them both.”

Black Americans during World War II

► Great Migration

► FDR and Black

Americans
▪ March on Washington

(1943)

► Congress of Racial

Equality (C.O.R.E.)

► Double V Campaign

Japanese-Americans in World War

II

► Generally prohibited from

combat in Pacific Theater
and in segregated units

► 442nd Infantry

▪ Nisei (second generation

Japanese-Americans)

▪ ⅔ from Hawaii; ⅓ from

Mainland

▪ 18,000 served

► 4,000 Purple Hearts
► 21 Congressional Medals of

Honor

Japanese-American Internment

► Executive Order 9066

► Japanese internment

camps

► Korematsu v. United

States (1944)

The Internment of Japanese Americans Was Justified;

The Internment of Japanese Americans Was Not Justified

Hugo Black – Majority Opinion in
Korematsu v. United States (1944)

►

[W]e are not unmindful of the hardships
imposed by it upon a large group of
American citizens. But hardships are part of
war, and war is an aggregation of
hardships. All citizens alike, both in and out
of uniform, feel the impact of war in greater
or lesser measure. Citizenship has its
responsibilities as well as its privileges, and
in time of war the burden is always heavier.
Compulsory exclusion of large groups of
citizens from their homes, except under
circumstances of direct emergency and
peril, is inconsistent with our basic
governmental institutions. But when under
conditions of modern warfare our shores
are threatened by hostile forces, the power
to protect must be commensurate with the
threatened danger.

Frank Murphy – Dissenting Opinion in
Korematsu v. United States (1944)

►

This exclusion of “all persons of Japanese
ancestry, both alien and non-alien,” from
the Pacific Coast area on a plea of military
necessity in the absence of martial law
ought not to be approved. Such exclusion
goes over “the very brink of constitutional
power” and falls into the ugly abyss of
racism… Being an obvious racial
discrimination, the order deprives all those
within its scope of equal protection of the
laws as guaranteed by the Fifth
Amendment...[T]his order also deprives
them of all their constitional rights to
procedural due process. Yet no reasonable
relation to an “immediate, imminent, and
impending” public danger is evident to
support this racial restriction which is one of
the most sweeping and complete
deprivations of constitutional rights in the
history of this nation in the absence of
martial law.

Hispanic-Americans during World War II

► 400,000-500,000 served in the

Armed Forces (integrated)

▪ Desi Arnaz and USO

► Braceros Program

▪ Mexican Farm Labor Agreement

▪ Demand for labor due to wartime

economy

► Zoot Suit Riots (June 3-6, 1943)

▪ White servicemembers and Los Angeles

residents attacked teenagers

▪ Rationalized attacks for disrespecting

call for rationing and racial cleansing of
city

▪ 500 Mexican-American youths arrested

for “vagrancy”

Indigenous Peoples and World War II

- 25,000 served in Armed

Forces (integrated)

- Navajo Code Talkers

- Integration during war

led to postwar
migration from
reservations

- 5% lived on reservations

(1940)

- 20% lived on

reservations (1950)

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Document 1: Executive Order 9066

Many Japanese Americans or Japanese citizens living in America found out about the internment camp program by reading these notices posted in their neighborhoods after Pearl Harbor. What stands out to you as interesting or noteworthy, and why? How do you think you would feel after seeing a notice like this?

Open Ended

Document 2: Korematsu v US

How did Justice Black justify Executive Order 9066? 

Do you agree? Why or why not?

The

Bracero
Program
Arrival,
1942

“Americans All,” 1942

“Processing,” 1942

Harvesting, 1943

Culture

Clashes, 1943 Zoot Suit Riots in
LA

"Zoot suiters," mostly Latino youths, line up
outside a Los Angeles jail on their way to court to
stand trial for various offenses connected with
the Zoot Suit Riots

Japanese Internment:
Executive Order 9066

1.Evacuees must carry with them on departure for the
Assembly Center, the following property:

a.Bedding and linens (no mattresses) for each family
member

b.Toilet articles for each member of the family

c.Extra clothing for each member of the family

d.Sufficient knives, forks, spoons, plates, bowls and
cups for each member of the family

e.Essential personal effects for each member of the
family

2.No pets of any kind will be permitted

3.No personal items and no household goods will be
shipped to the Assembly Center

4.The United States government through its agencies will
provide for storage at the sole risk of the owner of the
more substantial household items, such as iceboxes,
washing machines, pianos, and other heavy furniture.

“Waiting for the Signal From Home,” Dr. Seuss, 1942

A 5th column is a
group of people
who invade and
sabotage a larger
group

“I am an
American,”

1942

Japanese Internment:
Executive Order 9066

“Final Boarding,” 1942

Arrival at internment camps, 1942

Children at
Manzanar, 1943

Internment Remembered 80 Years later

The Purple Heart
Battalion, 1943

Korematsu v.

U.S.

• Upheld Executive

Order 9066

• Wartime powers of

government vs civil
rights

We uphold the exclusion order. . . hardships are part of
war...Citizenship has its responsibilities, as well as its
privileges, and, in time of war, the burden is always
heavier...When, under conditions of modern warfare,
our shores are threatened by hostile forces, the power
to protect must be commensurate with [equal to] the
threatened danger. . . . To cast this case into outlines
of racial prejudice, without reference to the real military
dangers which were presented, merely confuses the
issue. . . military authorities feared an invasion of our
West Coast and . . . because they decided that the
military urgency of the situation demanded that all
citizens of Japanese ancestry be segregated from the
West Coast temporarily, and, finally, because
Congress . . . determined that our military leaders
should have the power to do just this.

Commission on Wartime Relocation, 1983 Report

. . . . Executive Order 9066 was not justified by
military necessity...The broad historical causes that
shaped these decisions were race prejudice, war
hysteria and a failure of political leadership.
Widespread ignorance about Americans of
Japanese descent contributed to a policy
conceived in haste (in a hurry) and executed
(carried out) in an atmosphere of fear and anger at
Japan. A grave (serious) personal injustice was
done to the American citizens and resident aliens
of Japanese ancestry who...were excluded,
removed and detained by the United States during
World War II.

African Americans &

WWII

Segregated units

Over 1.2 million African Americans
served in WWII (including
thousands of women)

Made up 25% of war labor force

Race related violence in 47 cities

“Why Should We March?” 1941

A. Philip Randolph threatens a

50,000 man March on

Washington

Executive Order 8802: The Fair

Employment Act

“It is the policy of the United States to encourage full participation in the
national defense program by all citizens of the United States, regardless of
race, creed, color, or national origin...the democratic way of life within the
Nation can be defended successfully only with the help and support of all
groups…

it is the policy of the United States to encourage full participation in the
national defense program by all citizens of the United States, regardless of
race, creed, color, or national origin, in the firm belief that the democratic
way of life within the Nation can be defended successfully only with the
help and support of all groups…

I do hereby reaffirm the policy of the United States that there shall be no
discrimination in the employment of workers in defense industries or
government because of race, creed, color, or national origin…”

Tuskegee Airmen

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The Women’s Auxiliary Corp (WACs)

Quartermaster
Sergeant Ellis
Ross in Italy

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Explain the meaning of the Double V campaign. How and why did it start?

Multiple Choice

Where did the Zoot Suit Riots take place?

• Phoenix, AZ

• Oakland, CA

• Los Angeles, CA

• Las Vegas, NV

Multiple Choice

Who were the famous African American pilots known for their heroism?

• Tuskegee Airmen

• Brooklyn Bombers

• Saskatchewan Sabers

• New England Patriots

Multiple Choice

Which of the following groups were associated with wearing zoot suits as a form of protest?

• women

• Mexican-American youths

• African-American youths

• Japanese-American youths

Multiple Choice

The Pittsburgh Courier argued that African Americans should join the war effort in order to achieve a double victory over Hitler’s racism and racism at home in a campaign called  

• “Double V.”

• “Tuskegee Airmen.”

• “Fight for Right.”

• “Two V.”

Multiple Choice

First regular army corps for women

• Women's Fighting Corps

• Women’s Army Corps

• GIs

• Women's National Army Corps

Multiple Choice

Who was Rosie the  Riveter?

• The first woman to work in a factory during WWII

• a representation of American women that went to work during WWII

• A pretty girl used for make-up advertisements

• A famous pilot

Multiple Choice

During World War II, many women experienced a change in role in that they

• served in military combat positions

• worked in jobs formerly held by men

• controlled most corporations

• chaired several congressional committees

Multiple Choice

The picture shows President Franklin Roosevelt signing the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, better known as the "G.I. Bill."

What important benefits did this law provide to veterans returning from World War II?

• free medical care and a special retirement plan

• low-interest housing loans and a bonus payment after 5 years

• low-interest housing loans and payments towards high school, vocational school, or higher education

• the promise of a guaranteed job and payments towards high school, vocational school or higher education

Open Ended

Document 2: African-Americans in the military

Why do you think many African-Americans served in WWII despite facing discrimination?

Why do you think President Truman signed Executive Order 9981 after WWII?