Great Depression and World War II (1929-1945)
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While government planners and factory owners assumed that women’s industrial work during World War II would last only as long as the war lasted, many of the women had other ideas. After the war ended, despite their new skills, they found themselves forced to accept the same low-paying positions that had been the only jobs available to them…

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Item Type: Oral History
Date: 1980

The hard times of the Great Depression were even harder for African Americans, who were often the “last hired and first fired.” Particularly hard hit were black domestic workers (mostly female) and black tenant farmers (mostly male), the two broadly defined occupations that employed about 60% of all African Americans. As the National…

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Item Type: Quantitative Data
Date: 1935

The U.S. government forced more than 100,000 Japanese Americans to leave their homes and businesses on the West Coast and report to one of fifteen assembly centers. At these centers they were first processed and then transported by train to one of ten permanent relocation centers, or camps, hundreds or even thousands of miles from their homes. The…

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Item Type: Quantitative Data
Date: 1999

Before World War II (1941-1945), when women worked outside the home it was usually in jobs traditionally considered to be “women’s work.” These included teaching, domestic service, clerical work, nursing, and library science. During the war, the nation needed more airplanes, ships, trucks, and other military hardware, and had…

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Item Type: Quantitative Data
Date: 1941

In his 1941 State of the Union address to Congress, President Franklin Roosevelt identified "four freedoms" (freedom from want, freedom from fear, freedom of speech, and freedom to practice religion) that the U.S. needed to defend by entering into World War II. For African Americans, the desire to support the war effort was coupled with a need to…

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Item Type: Newspaper/Magazine Article
Date: 1942

This presentation outlines the goals of the Bracero Program, the people who joined, and the results of the program during World War II. It also includes instructions for the corrido-writing activity outlined in "Nos creemos Americanos: Braceros in History and Song."

Item Type: Worksheet
Date: 2010

This billboard advertisement, dating from the early 1940s, suggests the common ground shared by the labor and civil rights movements. Created by the Congress of Industrial Organizations, the more progressive of the country's two main labor federations, the billboard urges support for Roosevelt's Fair Employment Practices Committee legislation…

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Item Type: Advertisement
Date: Circa 1941

These cards are for the activity "The Movement Before the Movement: Civil Rights Activism in the 1940s." Before beginning the activity, the teacher should print and cut out a set of event cards and who-what-where cards for each student or group participating in the activity.

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Item Type: Worksheet
Date: 2011

This graphic organizer helps students categorize different events in the 1940s civil rights struggle. It is part of the activity "The Movement Before the Movement."

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Item Type: Worksheet
Date: 2011

In this activity, students read cards about various civil rights protests and events during the 1940s. For each event, students match the issue (voting rights, fair employment, fair housing, or segregation in public places) at stake, identify the key people involved and what region of the country it took place in. After students have completed all…

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Item Type: Teaching Activity
Date: 2011