Rosie and Tuskegee:

The Experiences of

U.S. Women and African-Americans

in World War II

• What advantages or obstacles were faced in American society?

• To what extent did the group participate, and in what capacities?

• To what extent did the group’s situation improve?

Women Auxiliary Volunteers for Emergency Service

Women Airforce Service Pilots

The expectations of Rosie were high.

She had children and a house to care for, a victory garden to plant, war bonds to buy, and new skills to learn for her full-time job.

“She is the home-front equivalent of G.I. Joe.”

The women worked in pairs. I was the riveter and this big strong girl worked as the bucker. The riveter used a gun to shoot rivets through the metal and fasten it together.

The bucker used a bucking bar on the other side of the metal to smooth out the rivets.

Bucking was harder than shooting rivets; it required more muscle. Riveting required more skill.

-- Sybil Lewis, African-American riveter for Lockheed Aircraft

All the day long,Whether rain or shine, She's a part of the assembly line. She's making history, Working for victory, Rosie the Riveter. Keeps a sharp lookout for sabatoge, Sitting up there on the fuselage. That little girl will do more than a male will do. Rosie's got a boyfriend, Charlie. Charlie, he's a Marine. Rosie is protecting Charlie, Working overtime on the riveting machine. When they gave her a production "E," She was as proud as she could be. There's something true about, Red, white, and blue about, Rosie the Riveter.

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The Glamour Girls of 1943

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The Real “Rosie”Who was this woman?

• Rose Hicker was a riveter at the Eastern Aircraft Co. in Tarrytown, NY– Was she the real Rosie?

• Or was it Rose Will Monroe, who worked at the Ford Motor Company aircraft assembly plant in Michigan?

The Real “Rosie”

Who was this woman?• December 2010: The woman who inspired the "We Can Do It!"

poster during World War II that was embraced as a feminist symbol in the 1980s died age 86.

• Geraldine Hoff Doyle was working in a Michigan factory in 1942 when a photographer took her photo. The image became the inspiration for the poster—which Doyle didn't know until she recognized herself in a magazine in 1982.

• Her daughter says that while the face is her mom's, the arms are a fiction. – “She didn’t have big, muscular arms,” says the daughter. “She was 5-

foot-10 and very slender. She was a glamour girl. The arched eyebrows, the beautiful lips, the shape of the face—that’s her."

• In fact, Doyle quit the factory job after two weeks because she was afraid she'd damage her hands and be unable to play the cello.

“Bad Rosies”

A fiercely determined woman whose husband and father were in Japanese prison camps.

She had four children. She worked a full shift in the factory. She invested 25% of her wages to purchase war bonds.

Supervising Women Workers

• Govt-produced film to help bosses deal with specific issues of women workers– Women ask for too much time off– When breaking a new worker, and of course

especially a woman, you’ve got to explain every angle of the process down to the last detail

– Women can be awfully jealous of each other– Women are more sensitive than men.

Betty Grable, 1943

"Pin-up girls at a Navy dance in Seattle.” April 1944

Lena Horne

All-American Girls Professional Baseball League

Dorothy Kamenshek

Mildred Gillars Iva Ikuko Toguri

• What advantages or obstacles were faced in American society?

• To what extent did the group participate, and in what capacities?

• To what extent did the group’s situation improve?

They Fought Two Wars

Executive Order 8802  Fair Employment Act

Doris “Dorie” Miller

Steward's mates joke as they dry silverware in the wardroom of U.S.S. Ticonderoga, November 1944.

Negro messmen aboard a Navy cruiser who volunteered for additional duty as gunners. “They have been doing proficient work under battle conditions in the Pacific.” July 1942

761st Tank Battalion

Black Panthers

2nd Lt. Jack Roosevelt Robinson

Red Ball Express

"These drivers chalked up 20,000 miles each without an accident.” May 1945

The Triple Nickel555th Parachute Infantry Battalion

The First Tuskegee Class

Eleanor Roosevelt flying with Alfred “Chief” Anderson

Pilots in Italy

Red-Tail Angels

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“Although a dress uniform is not a part of the regular equipment, most of the Negro Marines spend money out of their pay for what is generally considered the snappiest uniform in the armed services.” May 1943

“These Negro members of a Coast Guard Horse Patrol unit patrol beaches in the New Jersey area in all kinds of weather.”

"Members of a `CHECKERBOARD' crew that brought a Liberty Ship from the U.S. to England, fondle their mascot `BOOKER.’”

"Marian Anderson, world's greatest contralto, entertains a group in San Francisco.” April 1945

"Hattie McDaniel, Chairman of the Negro Division of the Hollywood Victory Committee, leads a caravan of entertainers and hostesses.”

• What advantages or obstacles were faced in American society?

• To what extent did the group participate, and in what capacities?

• To what extent did the group’s situation improve?