Homefront

On Tuesday, May 25, 1942, twelve black workers were allowed to become welders at the Alabama Dry Dock, causing resentment among whites, a riot, and complete segregation in the shipyards. In the following months, racial confrontations would occur in industrial areas across the country. The war was profoundly altering the lives of African Americans.  Learning Objective: Students will understand how the war had both positive and negative effects on the lives of African-Americans in the United States.

Learning Objectives Students will: Examine life in America prior to its entry into World War II. Identify the changes brought on by wartime industry to industrial boomtowns. Evaluate the socio-economic changes in the character of four World War II-era boomtowns and the reasons for those changes.

Al McIntosh, editor of the Rock County Star Herald of Luverne, Minnesota, wrote about the personal losses the war brought home to the people of Luverne.

The chronic unemployment that had eaten at Mobile and every other American town for more than a decade during the Depression was over. Learning Objective: Students will analyze how the growth of war production helped rejuvenate towns hard-hit by the Great Depression.   Students will understand how the role of women changed during World War II.

Hear the experiences of people living in four American towns that would be transformed by war. Much of the country was recovering from the Great Depression and events overseas seemed far away. Learning Objective: Students will analyze how World War II economically and socially changed four towns recovering from the Great Depression.

As the country mobilized for total war, Americans were asked to do without the luxuries and necessities they had come to take for granted. Gasoline, fuel oil, rubber, tin foil, shoes, chewing gum, butter, nylons, canned goods, cigarettes and more were in short supply. Each American family was asked to collect scrap metal that would be recycled for armaments.  Learning Objective: Students will understand how the American public participated in "total war" by doing without some necessities and luxuries.

Despite the bravery of African Americans in all of America's previous wars, and despite the argument made by the NAACP and others that a "Jim Crow army cannot fight for a free world," the armed forces of the United States remained strictly segregated. Learning Objective: Students will understand the discrimination that African American troops experienced throughout the war.

During World War II, African Americans found themselves with conflicting feelings about supporting the war effort, since their own country did not offer them the freedom America was fighting for overseas. The Double Victory — Double V— campaign, begun by the Pittsburgh Courier newspaper in 1942, helped to address this issue. It encouraged African Americans to participate at every level in winning the war abroad, while also fighting for their civil rights at home. You had a white water fountain, and a black water fountain. And a black would get into trouble if he went and drank at the white water fountain. My friend at Brookley Field had his head busted wide open because he drank at the white fountain. — John Gray, The War Learning Objectives Students will: Identify the historical context of the scope of America’s unequal treatment of African Americans. View video segments from the Ken Burns film, take notes, and answer questions. Evaluate whether participation in the war effort helped or hindered African Americans’ quest for civil rights.

Sam Hynes discusses the allure of joining the military in 1941 and having the opportunity to become a combat pilot, or an artilleryman, and be something more than the kid you were.  Learning Objective: Students will understand why young men signed up to join the military after the declaration of war in 1941.

Americans woke up on June 6, 1944, to newspaper headlines and radio bulletins announcing that D-Day had arrived. But there were no live reports or frequent news updates on the progress of the invasion. No one knew where their husbands, fathers, and sons had landed or how those landings were going.  Learning Objective: Students will: Understand how the news of the D-Day invasion spread throughout small towns, such as Luverne;  Create a newspaper article for the D-Day invasion.

In this activity, students will view clips from the film series The War that focus on key themes and then examine how these themes were reflected in propaganda posters. The video clips often contain segments of newsreel stories that introduce the theme. These are followed by commentary from some of the recurring characters in the series. Next, a set of discussion questions will help students explore the themes and propaganda messages in more detail. In culminating activities, students will create a presentation that examines the composition of propaganda posters and their effectiveness in communicating their message. Students will also have the opportunity to create a propaganda poster on a current topic. Lesson Objectives The student will: Analyze the importance of propaganda posters and newsreel films in a nation’s war effort. Identify the ways propaganda posters appeal to human emotions and motivate people to take action. Analyze how the propaganda posters created during World War II reflected real-life conditions and sent messages of encouragement and inclusiveness to civilians. Create their own propaganda poster art on current issues of interest.

Learning Objectives: Students will: Analyze how war production pumped new energy to American cities that struggled during the Great Depression. Analyze how the influx of workers to wartowns lead to tensions between the newcomers and residents.

During World War II, African Americans found themselves with conflicting feelings about supporting the war effort, since their own country did not offer them the freedom America was fighting for overseas. In the activities contained within this gallery, students will examine the role African Americans played in the war effort abroad as well as experiences at home.Learning Objectives: Students will: Examine the role African-Americans played in the war effort abroad during World War II; Discuss the civil rights barriers that African Americans faced during the war.