Home Front USA

scrap drivers

way for everyone to contribute to war effort; recycling unused/unwanted metal for gov. to build ships, airplanes, equipment

Rosie the Riveter

A propaganda character designed to increase production of female workers in the factories; symbol for women to do their part (1943)

WAVEs, WAACs, WASPs

Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES naval), Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC military beyond nursing), Women's Airfare Service Pilots (WASP) (1942)

Congress of Racial Equality

organization that helped with tactics of modern civil rights movement using civil disobedience to challenge segregation; "freedom rides," bus journeys South in 1961. (1944)

Tuskegee Airmen

americas first black military airmen; bomber crews often requested to be escorted by these men (1943-1945)

"Black Panthers" (761st Tank Battalian)

effective tank battalions made of african Americans; fought their way further east than almost every other US unit (1942) oakland US

Smith v. Alright

African American men couldn't vote in Democratic Primary because of race;
Smith sued for violation of the 14th amendment ; deemed unconstitutional (bc equal protection law violated)
Outcome: Cannot discriminate for race in voting on the primary (1944)

Hispanic participation in war

500,000 Mexican Americans served in war as fighter pilots & bombardiers (air, land, sea, under sea), sensation of belonging

League of Latin American Citizens

hispanic/latin-american civil rights organization (1929)

Native American participation/impact

approx. 150,000 American Indians participated in military service & agricultural/industrial jobs to support war effort

war bonds

a low-interest loan by civilians to the government meant to be repaid in a number of years to support war effort

Willow Run

assembly (bomber) plant; where Ford Motor Company built one B-24 Liberator airplane every 63 minutes - manufacturing capacity helped Allie victory (1942)

Liberty Ships

cargo hips built using mass production methods that carried goods and troops during WWII.

conscription/Selective Service Act

all men 21-45 register for draft (peacetime draft - Burke Wadsworth Act) (1940)

Smith-Connollay Act

$2 a day wage increase after 400,000 coal miners had their wages significantly lowered bc of high wartime inflation (1942)

Manhattan Project

Code name for the American commission to develop the atomic bomb; experimental bomb was detonated in 1945, in New Mexico then in Japan in hopes of bringing the war to an end: Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. (1942)

Operation Drumbeat (Paukenschlag)

u-boat offensive by Germany off shores of Virginia/North Carolina; very deadly; many merchant ships and tankers sank (1942)

Lanham Act

early legislation that first funded for public works, including childcare, in communities with defense industries (1940)

Executive Order 8802

FDR (response to Philip Randolph); prohibited discriminatory employment practices by fed agencies and all unions and companies engaged in war related work (not military yet); made Fair Employment Practices Commission to enforce policy (1941)

Fair Employment Practices Commission

made fed. regulations requiring companies with gov. contracts not to discriminate on the basis of race or religion; increased black employment in American industries and the eventual desegregation of the US Armed Forces (prevented discrimination in defense & gov. jobs) (1941)

Servicemen's Readjustment Act (GI Bill) of 1944

FDR; provided veterans of WWII funds for college education, unemployment insurance, and housing.

Bracero Program

Plan that brought laborers from Mexico to work on American farms (aug 1942)

navajo talkers

navajo men created code based on complex, unwritten Navajo language to send secret allied messages (1942)