Chapter 2: Historic Overview

Chapter 2 Historic Overview

The story of the World WarII home front is a significantchapter in America’s history;the changes to society andindustry that occurredduring the war had sweepingand lasting impacts on thenation. The cooperation ofgovernment, private industry,and labor unions to mobilizethe work force, and thecreation of innovative plansand production methodsdesigned to rapidly producequantities of munitions andother essential suppliesthrust the United States intothe role of “arsenal ofdemocracy.” Fully engaged inwinning World War II,American citizens of all ethnic and economic backgroundsworked together toward a common goal, in a manner that hasbeen unequaled since. In significant ways, World War II was aperiod of large and lasting change for America, causing manyhistorians to see it as a watershed event that made postwarAmerica profoundly different from prewar America.

WARTIME MOBILIZATION

Mobilizing the United States for World War II involved anenormous effort with huge consequences for the American homefront. The task was immense: ensure that the nation had thematerial, munitions, manpower, and money to wage a global war,all the while managing the domestic civilian economy. Meetingthat challenge entailed giving the federal governmentresponsibilities and authority that went well beyond the NewDeal state of the 1930s. The process began haltingly in the late1930s, particularly after the beginning of World War II in Europein September 1939, and gained momentum in 1940-41 as theUnited States edged closer to war. After the attack on PearlHarbor and American entry into the war in December 1941,American mobilization efforts expanded rapidly and grew moreefficient until, by 1944, the United States provided some 40% ofall war goods produced worldwide.

23

The American WorldWar II Home Front

Recuiting poster, 1943, NationalArchives.

24

Although mobilization got off to a slow andstumbling start and never resolved all of itsdifficulties or disputes, the American productioneffort found its stride by 1943 and ultimately turnedout enormous quantities of munitions and otheressential supplies, while also providing essentialgoods to Great Britain and the Soviet Union. Notonly the sheer quantity but also the quality ofAmerican production helped win the war; and notjust through traditional manufacturing processes—new departures in science, technology, andfabrication were a key.

ENDING THE GREAT DEPRESSION

Wartime mobilization brought a successful end tothe war abroad and brought economic policy changeto America; it ended the Great Depression at homeand returned prosperity to the American homefront. In 1939, unemployment stood at a depressionlevel of 17.2%, but as mobilization geared up,unemployment went down sharply to 4.7% by 1942,and to 1.2% by 1944.

Mobilization brought more jobs and higherincomes; it brought new opportunities and risingliving standards. As production demands grew andsome 10 million people entered active militaryservice, employers had to find new workers toreplace those going to war. They increasingly turnedto groups which had filled only limited roles in thepre-war economy: women, African Americans,minority groups, and the elderly. People who hadonce been marginalized now found jobs that oftenhad high status and pay associated with them.

The armed forces also provided new opportunities,training, and experience, while the “GI Bill ofRights” provided veterans with educations, homeownership, and other benefits.

POPULATION ON THE MOVE

For more than a decade, industry and people hadalready been moving toward what would becomeknown as the “Sunbelt”—areas of the South and

West, particularly along the Pacific, Gulf, and SouthAtlantic coasts. Mobilization for war acceleratedthese geographic and demographic changes. Whilewar contracts went to established industries in theNortheast and Midwest, they also went to neweraircraft, shipbuilding, and other defense-relatedindustries in these Sunbelt areas. Nearly 10% of allfederal government expenditures during the war wasspent in California alone.

Military bases also were located in Sunbelt states,and millions of war workers, GIs, and their familiesmoved there during the war. Many, who relocatedfrom poor, rural areas and marginal jobs, weredetermined to stay on after World War II. Thus,rapid industrialization and the resulting massmigration of millions of Americans who relocatedaround burgeoning military and civilian defensecenters laid the economic and social foundations ofthe Sunbelt. The region grew in population andeconomic power in comparison with other sectionsof the country.

California received more interstate migrants thanany other state, absorbing more than 1.5 millionnewcomers between 1940 and 1944. Between 1940and 1943, migration for defense industry jobs helpedexpand the population of California by 72% and ofthe Pacific Coast states as a whole by 39%. This vastreshuffling of the population was one of the mostdramatic episodes in the history of Americanmigration, rivaling the great waves of Europeanimmigration of the late 19th and early 20thcenturies.

CHANGING COMMUNITIES

The cities where the World War II industriesmobilized were confronted with overwhelmingdemands on housing, transportation, communityservices, shopping, and infrastructure. Respondingto these needs required the cooperative efforts ofthe private sector and all levels of government.

CHAPTER 2: HISTORIC OVERVIEW

Consumer spending increased during the war, despite shortages,rationing, inflation, and higher taxes. With the United Statesdevoting only about 40% of its Gross National Product to warproduction, civilians were able to purchase a range of consumergoods and foodstuffs, enjoy rising living standards, and findentertainment through the various manifestations of Americanpopular culture. Home front Americans also found commoncause in aiding the war effort with bond drives, scrap collections,recycling endeavors, “victory gardens,” and other efforts tosupport American troops.

Nevertheless, there were less salutary aspects of the home frontexperience during the war. Although most Americans understoodthe need for price controls and rationing, they were never happyabout limits on their own income, and many bought at least somegoods on the wartime black market. The tides of migration thatsent millions of people to new destinations helped to create amore homogeneous national culture, but also produced tensionsand sometimes conflict. Older residents feared that newcomerswould erode community standards and would cause taxes to beraised to pay for additional community services andinfrastructure. Racial tensions and even violence sometimesflared, as did anti-Semitism.

25

Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park

Grease recycling for war effort, 1942. Library of Congress.

26

DIVERSIFYING THE WORKFORCE

Industry initially resisted the integration ofminorities in the nation’s workforce. However,African American leaders called for a protest marchon Washington, D.C., during the summer of 1941;this resulted in the issuance of an executive order byPresident Franklin D. Roosevelt prohibitingworkplace discrimination and setting up the FairEmployment Practices Committee. This governmentinitiative, along with wartime necessity, eventuallyforced the integration of the workforce that had notbeen otherwise achieved. Overall some 340,000African Americans relocated to California duringWorld War II to take advantage of defense industryemployment opportunities. In addition,approximately 40,000 American Indians worked inWest Coast defense plants along with manyHispanics and Asian Americans.

The contributions of women during World War IIprovide especially useful insights into the impact ofthe war and the combination of change andcontinuity on the home front. The phrase “Rosie theRiveter” was a term that was coined to help recruitfemale civilian workers and came to symbolize aworkforce that was mobilized to meet the nation’swartime needs. After some initial resistance from

employers, wartime necessity resulted in womenreplacing men in many traditionally male jobs asmen enlisted in active military service. Nationwide,6 million women entered the home front workforce.Employment opportunities for women of color wereunprecedented, and for the first time, AfricanAmericans, Asians, Hispanics, and Native Americanswere employed.

“Rosie the Riveter” has survived as the mostremembered icon of the civilian workforce thathelped win the war. The image of “Rosie theRiveter” has come to symbolize women’sempowerment. World War II established thefoundations for dramatic change in women’s rolesand opportunities by bringing far more women intothe work force in a much greater array of jobs. Thewartime experience of women in the United States,together with rising educational levels, the ability ofmarried women to enter the workforce, a changingpost-industrial world with more white-collar jobs,the demands and enticements of the consumerculture, and changing societal values, contributed tomajor gender role changes in postwar America.

ORGANIZED LABOR

The war years represented a significant chapter inthe development of the nation’s labor unions.


Integrated work crew, Richmond, California, ca. 1943. Richmond Museum of History.

Unions experienced rapid growth, schisms over newcomers’rights and the incorporation of minority members, dissent andleadership challenges, segregated affiliates, and concerns overprefabrication and “de-skilling” of trades. Unions and localsvaried in their accommodation of women and minorities, withthe Congress of Industrial Organizations being the mostsupportive. A rising tide of African American activism emerged inthe formation of some labor organizations.

Ultimately, management and organized labor cooperated tosupport the war effort, although many of the worker rights andprivileges obtained by women and African Americans would beforfeited when the war industries shut down at the end of WorldWar II.

CIVIL RIGHTS AND LIBERTIES

With the exception of Japanese Americans who were relocated tointernment camps and imprisoned during the war, World War IIchallenged the color line on many fronts for most minoritygroups in the United States. The hypocrisy of a country fightingfor freedom abroad while denying it to minorities at homebecame increasingly abhorrent. African American groups andinstitutions, growing in size and militancy, consciously used thewar effort to extract concessions and gains. These forces played apart in altering the status of African Americans and quickeningthe pace of their struggle for equal rights.

World War II may not be the watershed of “the NegroRevolution” that some have claimed it to be. Some wartime gainswere quickly lost after the war, and some of the seeds of changeplanted during the war did not flower for another decade or so(not until the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s).Nevertheless, the war years remain a key era in what was, and is,an ongoing struggle for civil rights in the United States.

27


28

The Richmond World War IIHome FrontIf there is any city that could be called America’shome front city, it is probably Richmond, California.The city was home to over 50 war-related industries,and as thousands of war workers streamed into thecity to support these industries, both public andprivate entities struggled to keep the city’sburgeoning population housed, healthy, and highlyproductive. They generally succeeded, but the costto the city was enormous.

Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home FrontNational Historical Park in Richmond, Californiacommemorates the efforts of all Americans servingon the home front, but also acknowledgesRichmond’s role in the victorious war effort and thehigh price the community paid for that role. Thesurviving historic buildings and sites in Richmondrepresent an unusually rich collection of relatedindustrial and community-based resources that werebuilt for the short duration of the World War IIeffort and remain surprisingly intact over a halfcentury later. The traumas and hardshipsRichmond’s citizens faced as a result of rapid warmobilization and postwar readjustment have left alegacy of urban problems with which the communitystill struggles, but its citizens have begun to embracea new found sense of pride in Richmond’s wartimeaccomplishments and legacy.

WARTIME MOBILIZATION

The cultural transformation of wartime mobilizationwas very evident in the East Bay community ofRichmond. It was the home of four Kaiser shipyardsand over 50 other war-related industries—more thanany other city of its size in the United States. Theseincluded new industries as well as existing plantsand facilities that were converted to wartimeproduction. In tonnage, the Port of Richmondbecame the 2nd leading port on the Pacific Coastand the 12th leading port in the United States, ascommodities consisting largely of supplies andequipment connected with the war effort movedthrough its four terminals to the war zone.

WARTIME BOOM AND DEMAND FOR HOUSING

The San Francisco Bay Area saw more economicactivity, social disruption, and sheer wartime frenzythan most regions of the country. As the nation’snumber one shipbuilding center and key port ofembarkation to the war’s Pacific theater, the BayArea’s population swelled by more than half amillion from 1940 to 1945. Over half of thesenewcomers, many of them from the South andMidwest, settled outside of San Francisco in the Eastand North Bay areas. In the process, the area’spopulation composition, urban environment, andsocial and cultural life were transformed. Thus, thelong-term social and demographic impacts of thewar, including changes in the racial and culturaldiversity of the Bay Area, would remain a permanentfeature of urban social and political relations, longoutliving the economic forces that brought it about.

Small industrial cities like Richmond becameboomtowns: from a prewar population of fewer than24,000 in 1940, the city’s population grew toapproximately 100,000 at the end of the war.Richmond earned a citation as the quintessentialwar boomtown bestowed by both the WashingtonPost and Fortune magazine. In 1943, it wasrecommended that Richmond be a “Purple HeartCity” because of the fiscal, environmental, social,and economic impacts of the industrial build up andassociated population explosion that it experiencedduring World War II. The relatively smallcommunity was suddenly thrown into civic chaosand social upheaval and forever altered by the eventsof the war. A February 1945 article in Fortunemagazine, entitled “Richmond Took a Beating,”described Richmond’s challenges as an impactedhome front city.

Richmond’s challenges were many. Along with thepopulation increase, Richmond’s overnight growthoverwhelmed public services (fire, police, health,and social), housing, schools, and infrastructure. Itselementary school population quadrupled, while itssecondary school population more than doubled,

necessitating double sessions and school building additions.Family breakdown, social dislocation, and criminal and antisocialbehavior were associated with this overnight growth. Henry J.Kaiser, other major defense contractors, and federal, state, andlocal government agencies initiated efforts to meet the social,educational, recreational, and economic needs of the burgeoningpopulation.

As the migration of war workers to Richmond began, previouslyvacant housing in the city was quickly occupied. Residents tookin boarders; suitable—as well as unsuitable—space was rented,including rooms, garages, and barns; and private buildersattempted to meet the demand with new, low-cost housing. “Hotbeds” (beds rented for an eight-hour shift) becamecommonplace. As more and more newcomers continued toarrive, they were often forced to sleep in movie theatres, parks,hotel lobbies, and automobiles.

Not only did many newcomers find poor living conditions inRichmond, but they often encountered resentment, jealousy, andprejudice, as well. Prior to World War II, Richmond had been arelatively small, close-knit, semi-pastoral community by East Baystandards. Despite its industrial growth since its founding in 1905,there was abundant open space along its south side. Open fieldscovered the area south of Cutting Boulevard, where poorerfamilies grazed goats and other livestock during the depressionyears. The downtown area was fairly small, encompassing themain thoroughfare of Macdonald Avenue and a few cross streets.

29


Housing poster, Office of War Information, 1944. National Archives.

30

Richmond’s predominately pre-war working classcitizenry found it difficult to adjust to the suddeninflux of war workers, many of whom came fromlower class, unskilled, and uneducated elements ofthe rural South. Thus, the city’s way of life wasdrastically changed by the war.

Richmond’s available housing was totally inadequateto take care of the flood of new arrivals. Privatehouse builders attempted in vain to meet theproblem. Rollingwood, a neighborhood of 700modest homes built in the unincorporated areabetween Richmond’s Hilltop neighborhood and SanPablo, was among the Federal HousingAdministration’s (FHA) first attempts in the nationto relieve wartime housing shortages throughpartnerships with local housing developers. To meetthe continuing critical housing shortage, theRichmond Housing Authority was incorporated inRichmond on January 24, 1941, to exert somedegree of control over imminent federally sponsoredconstruction.

The Lanham Act of 1940 provided $150 million tothe Federal Works Administration, which builtapproximately 625,000 units of housing inconjunction with local authorities nationwide. TheRichmond Housing Authority was selected to be thefirst authority in the country to manage a defenseproject. The site of Atchison Village, which wouldcontain 450 dwelling units, was selected for its closeproximity to the Kaiser shipyards, two miles to thesouth, and to the commercial downtown area to theeast. Constructed in 1941 as the city’s first publicdefense housing project, Atchison Village was one of20 public housing projects built in Richmond beforeand during the war.

The Richmond Housing Authority completed threefederally funded housing projects in Richmondduring its first year of operation: Atchison Village,Triangle Court, and Nystrom Village. By the end ofWorld War II, Richmond would maintain the largestfederal housing program in the nation. More than21,000 public housing units were constructed in thecity by 1943, providing housing for more than 60%of Richmond’s total population. Funding for thesevarious projects came not only from the LanhamAct, but also from the United States Maritime

Commission, the Federal Public HousingAdministration, and the Farm SecurityAdministration.

The Richmond Housing Authority initiatedsegregated public housing policies in the city,creating a kind of buffer zone between the prewarpredominately white community and the increasingnumbers of African American residents. As a resultof the housing discrimination faced by AfricanAmericans in Richmond, a local branch of theNational Association for the Advancement ofColored People (NAACP) was established at HarborGate Homes in 1944.

Overall, Richmond developed the largest federallyfunded housing program in the United States beforeand during American involvement in World War II.Costing more than $35 million, the city’s housingprogram was the largest in the nation controlled by asingle housing authority and included more unitsthan were built in the entire state of Michiganduring the same time period.


Atchison Village duplex, Richmond, California, ca. 2004.National Park Service

LARGEST SHIPBUILDING COMPLEX IN AMERICA

The building of new shipyards began in America in 1940—first insupport of America’s Lend Lease assistance program to GreatBritain, already at war, and then to supply naval needs after entryof the United States into the war following the Japanese attack onPearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

Massive new shipyards were built in the vicinities of Los Angeles,the San Francisco Bay, Portland, Seattle, and other major portsaround the United States. Although western shipyards had notproduced a single merchant vessel between 1929 and 1939,federal funds and industrial enterprise were united to create thecapacity on the West Coast to produce 52% of the ships builtduring the war.

The largest concentration of shipyards in the United States duringWorld War II was in the San Francisco Bay Area. Shipyards wereestablished at Richmond, Sausalito, Oakland, Mare Island,Hunters Point in San Francisco, and the Stockton Channel. Wellover half of the shipyard workers were employed in the East Bayarea at 12 shipyards located between Alameda and Richmond,making the East Bay the largest producer of cargo ships on theWest Coast. Bay Area shipbuilders launched more than 4,600ships during the war—almost 45% of all cargo tonnage and 20%of all warship tonnage built in the United States during the war.In addition to constructing new ships, many of the shipyards alsorepaired damaged vessels for return to service.

The most important development in East Bay shipbuilding andthe largest shipyard operation on the West Coast consisted of acomplex of four shipyards built on the mudflats along theundeveloped shoreline of Richmond by Henry J. Kaiser.Richmond was selected as the site for the shipyards because of itsdeepwater port, which had been developed in 1929. OnDecember 20, 1940, the newly organized Todd-CaliforniaShipbuilding Corporation in Richmond accepted a contract fromthe British Purchasing Commission to build 30 cargo vessels forGreat Britain.

Construction of Shipyard No. 1 began on January 14, 1941, underthe management of Todd-California Shipbuilding Corporation.Just a month later, however, on February 14, the shipyard cameunder the control of the Kaiser Permanente Metals Corporation. Construction of Shipyard No. 2 was started on April 10, 1941, bythe Richmond Shipbuilding Corporation, a subsidiary of theKaiser Permanente Metals Corporation. After the attack on PearlHarbor in December of that year, the government awardedKaiser the first of many contracts for Maritime CommissionLiberty ships—large merchant vessels used to supply Alliedtroops. To complete these contracts, two more shipyards wereconstructed adjacent to the first two in Richmond.

31


32

Construction began on Shipyard No. 3 during thespring of 1942 by the Kaiser Company, Inc. Duringthe same period, Shipyard No. 3A, which becameShipyard No. 4, was built by the Kaiser CargoCompany. By late 1942 the four completed shipyardsfeatured 27 graving basins/dry docks.

NEW SHIPBUILDING METHODS

The Richmond shipyards set historic precedents byproducing more ships, more quickly and moreefficiently, than had ever been done before. New toshipbuilding, Kaiser’s engineers revolutionized theshipbuilding industry during World War II byintroducing mass production techniques,segmenting job tasks, training unskilled labor, andsubstituting welding for the time-consuming task ofriveting steel plates and components together.


Kaiser Shipyard No. 1 in Richmond, California, ca. 1943. Richmond Museum of History.

Kaiser Shipyard No. 3, Richmond, California, ca. 1945.Richmond Museum of History.

Until the war, shipbuilding was a skilled craft characterized byslow and laborious processes. Beginning in May 1942, andcoinciding with increased recruitment of women, AfricanAmericans, and out-of-state workers, Kaiser instituted a newsystem of prefabrication adapted from his previous dam-buildingventures. Under this system, whole sections of a ship’ssuperstructure—boilers, double bottoms, forepeaks, after-peaks,and deck-houses—were preassembled in a new prefabricationplant located between Shipyards No. 3 and 4. This system—whichallowed more work with more personnel to be conducted awayfrom the ships with less welding, riveting, and crane lifts—resulted in the completion of ships in two-thirds of the time andat a quarter of the cost of the average of all other shipyards at thetime.

As preassembly required a large amount of space for workers,warehouses, and cranes, the expansive new West Coast locationswere ideal. These yards were designed with a city-like grid systemof numbered and lettered streets to provide for a straight flow ofparts and materials to facilitate and speed production processes;they differed noticeably from the tight vertical design of olderEast Coast shipyards. Whirley cranes were used to lift, move, andlower prefabricated ship components weighing up to 50 tonsfrom station to station.

33


Whirley cranes, Richmond, California, ca. 1945, Richmond Museum of History.

34

Proliferation of jobs in down-hand welding(considered the easiest position) facilitated quickplacement of new workers, and prefabricationresulted in increased specialization and “de-skilling”of basic trades. In the boilermaker trade alone,subassembly techniques fostered more than 17different job classifications. These narrow jobclassifications allowed workers the opportunity forrapid advancement from one grade to another,normally within 60 days. Under the right conditions,an unskilled newcomer could advance from traineeto journeyman status within several months—afraction of the time once required. This not onlyincreased the speed of construction, but also the sizeof the mobilization effort, and in doing so, openedup jobs to women and minorities.

TYPES OF SHIPS

During World War II, 747 ships were constructed inthe Richmond shipyards, a feat unequaled anywherein the world before or since. Ship productionincluded approximately 20% (519) of the country’sLiberty ships—huge, nondescript, versatile vesselsthat have been given credit for helping to swing thewar in favor of the United States.

In addition to Liberty ships, the Richmondshipyards also produced 228 other vessels. Theseincluded 142 Victory ships, a class of emergencyvessels designed to replace the Liberty ships after

1943. The Victory ships were faster, larger, and moreefficient than the Liberty ships, featuring moremodern steam plants, better trim and stability,stronger hulls, and electrically driven winches andwindlasses. Other types of ships built in theRichmond shipyards during the war included 15tank landing ships, 12 frigates, 35 troop transports,and 24 “Pint-size” Liberty ships.

The troop transports—all C4-S-A1 trooptransports—were among the most time consumingto build. The first was constructed on November 25,1942, and the last on August 12, 1945. While it tookonly 15,000 hours of joiner work to build a Libertyship, it took almost four times as many hours for aC-4 troop transport. Some 9,600 components wererequired to construct a Liberty ship, while a C-4required 130,000.

SHIPYARD WORKFORCE

At peak production during the war, the Richmondshipyards employed more than 90,000 people.During the early months of the war, many of thenew employees in the Richmond shipyards werefrom agricultural and mining areas in NorthernCalifornia—many were unemployed farm workersfrom the Central Valley. As the demand for newworkers grew, however, more than 170 Kaiserrecruiters scoured the United States for workers,resulting in a massive migration and resettlementprogram. The Richmond Chamber of Commercesupported the labor recruiting effort by distributinga publication, “Job Facts,” nationally through the1,500 offices of the U.S. Employment Office. By theend of the war, Kaiser had brought nearly 38,000workers to Richmond, fronting their train fare—another 60,000 came on their own with recruiterreferrals.

Many of the newcomers, including former farmworkers and sharecroppers, came from Texas,Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana. Recruiters paidtransportation fees and provided travel advancesthat were deducted from the workers’ first months’pay at a rate of $10 per week in exchange for signedone-year contracts.

Kaiser was among the first defense contractors toemploy women in substantial numbers. By 1944


Liberty ships under construction, Richmond, California,ca. 1943. Richmond Museum of History.

women constituted 27% of the workforce in the Richmondshipyards, accounting for more than 41% of all welders and 24%of all craft employees. Although the shipbuilding, iron, and steelindustries employed the largest number of women in themanufacturing sector, thousands also worked in machine shops,auto plants, military supply and ordnance, communications,electrical parts plants, and food processing in Richmond andthroughout the nation.

The San Francisco Bay shipyards, including those at Richmond,were among the first defense industries to employ AfricanAmericans and other persons of color. The California shipyardsprovided the biggest single opportunity for African Americans toobtain higher-paying industrial work. By 1944 the Kaisershipyards at Richmond employed more than 10,000 AfricanAmerican workers.

The influx of African American workers had a profounddemographic impact on Richmond. In 1940 the city had only 270African Americans (1.1% of the population) who lived primarilyin a semi-rural, four-block area just outside the city limits inNorth Richmond. By 1944 the number of African Americans inRichmond had increased to approximately 5,700, and by 1947 tomore than 13, 700. By 1950 African Americans accounted for13.4% of Richmond’s population.

35


Richmond shipyard work crew, ca. 1945. Clem family archives.

36

Other minorities also found employmentopportunities in the Kaiser shipyards. In an abruptreversal of past practices, Chinese Americans weremobilized for the war effort and played an activerole in Bay Area shipbuilding and other defensework. In early 1943, Kaiser employed more than2,000 Chinese workers, the majority of whom werelocal residents. Increasing numbers of MexicanAmericans also found employment in the shipyards,thus intensifying the crowding and expansion ofRichmond’s small pre-war Mexican Americancommunity that had centered near the Santa FeRailroad yards. Although Italian Americans hadconstituted Richmond’s largest ethnic group beforeWorld War II, ethnic-specific organizations in thecity by the end of the war included Gustav Vasa,Croatian Fraternal Union of America, United NegroAssociation of North Richmond, Jewish CommunityService of Richmond, and Hadassah.

By 1943, the Richmond population also included asmall group of more than 1,000 American Indians.Most of them lived at the foot of Macdonald Avenuein converted boxcars and cottages provided by theSanta Fe Railroad, a major employer of the group.American Indians also found work in the localshipyards; at least 75 worked at the Kaiser yardsalone.

LABOR UNIONS

Richmond witnessed increasing labor union activityduring the war. The International Brotherhood ofBoilermakers, Iron Shipbuilders and Helpers ofAmerica was the union that represented the majorityof West Coast shipyard workers, including morethan one-third of the Kaiser shipyard workers inRichmond. It manifested the traditional exclusivityand conservatism of American Federation of Laborcraft unions. Chartered in August 1942, Richmond’sLocal 513 quickly became the Boilermakers’ thirdlargest local in the nation with more than 36,500members. Primarily concerned with maintaining thestatus quo of long-time shipyard workers, the unionwas the most vocal opponent of the prefabricationprocess and “de-skilling” of the shipbuilding trade.

Under federal government and employer prodding,women were admitted to union membership inSeptember 1942. Prior to the war, the Boilermakers

had established auxiliary unions for AfricanAmericans, and a segregated auxiliary—Local A-36—was established in Richmond in early 1943for African American shipyard workers. Althoughthe auxiliary represented new access into the laborunion movement for black workers in the shipyards,it was controlled by a white “parent” local; itsmembers had no representation at nationalconventions, had no grievance mechanisms orbusiness representatives, and received no reducedinsurance benefits.

TRANSPORTATION

With the majority of shipyard workers commutingbetween points in the East Bay, the federalgovernment established provisional train, bus, andstreetcar lines to alleviate the chronic overcrowdingof local carriers. Most notable of these was the“Richmond Shipyard Railway,” constructed andoperated by the Key System for the U.S. MaritimeCommission from Emeryville and Oakland to theRichmond shipyards from January 18, 1943 toSeptember 30, 1945.

Initially, the trains were operated only to PotreroAvenue and 14th Street, several blocks fromShipyard No. 2. By February 1943, service wasextended to all of the Richmond shipyards. In earlyMarch 1943, a single track loop was completed tothe immediate vicinity of the prefabrication plantbetween Shipyards No. 3 and 4, and the securitycheckpoints of Shipyard No. 2.


Fred and Mourine Merrow, a husband and wife bucker andriveter, ca. 1944. National Park Service.

Constructed from old inter-urban track lines, the railway featuredconverted cars from the recently abandoned New York City’sSecond Avenue elevated line of the Interborough Rapid TransitCompany. Initially, 39 trains were operated in each direction eachday, but by late February 1943, the total number of daily trainshad increased to 94. A daily average of some 11,000 passengersused the transit line.

COMMUNITY SERVICES INCLUDING CHILD CARE SERVICES

Federal, state, and local public and private agencies coordinatedtheir efforts to develop an extensive program of public services inRichmond to support new residents and to acclimate them totheir new urban-industrial conditions. In addition to housing,war workers needed health care, child care, and recreationalopportunities.

The Richmond Health Department extended its services to thenew housing areas, and the Richmond Board of Educationinitiated an extensive recreational program in community centersthat included music, dancing, crafts, athletics, and a variety ofplayground facilities. With leadership and fundraising support bythe Elks Club, the Richmond Community Chest remodeled anarmory building in 1944 to provide headquarters for theRichmond Boys’ Club, a new organization designed to providerecreational and educational opportunities for boys aged six andolder.

Funded by the Community Chest and the State of California, andoperated by the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) andthe Richmond Recreation Department, Hospitality House wasopened in 1944 to provide recreation and sleeping quarters forservicemen as well as space for a YMCA Youth Center.Richmond’s United Services Organization building provided arange of recreational and leisure activities designed to buildmorale among servicemen and servicewomen, as well as defenseindustry workers.

In the highly competitive labor market during the war, Henry J.Kaiser played a leading role in providing corporate welfare to theworkforce in Richmond as an incentive to promote productivity,employee retention, and social harmony in the community. Kaiseroffered a wide variety of recreational and sports programs (32%of the shipyard workforce participated); a company newsletter(Fore ‘N’ Aft); counselors and specialists to help improve workconditions and promote responsible personal financialmanagement and family health; work time music; entertainmentduring elaborate lunchtime events; and inter-shipyardcompetitions to promote efficiency and safety and to spur

37


38

production. Additionally, Kaiser actively advocatedadequate housing and community services for hisworkforce.

Frustrated by the inadequacy of local programs,Kaiser helped to establish approximately 35 childcare centers of varying sizes in Richmond to providechild care for mothers working in the shipyards.Some were established in new buildings builtspecifically for this purpose, while others were inconverted buildings or in existing schools. At itspeak, with some 24,500 women on the Kaiserpayroll, Richmond’s citywide child care programmaintained a total daily attendance of some 1,400children. All but one of the 35 centers weresegregated.

With federal agencies providing for the buildingsand the Richmond school district supplying theadministration, the first government-sponsoredchild care centers opened in Richmond during thespring of 1943. The first was the Terrace NurserySchool, located at the Terrace War Apartments, nearthe western edge of the Richmond shipyards. TheTerrace Housing Community Center opened thisnursery with a capacity of 45 children, aged two tofour. The daily cost was 50 cents per child, with theoption of adding a breakfast for an additional 10cents.

The most substantial facilities built specifically forchild care were the Maritime Child DevelopmentCenter and its near-twin, the Pullman ChildDevelopment Center (since renamed the Ruth C.Powers Child Development Center). Funded by theMaritime Commission and operated by the

Richmond School District, the centers incorporatedprogressive educational programming developed bychild welfare experts from the University ofCalifornia at Berkeley. Kaiser’s innovative child careprogram was designed to help newcomers adapt byteaching youngsters how to “eat, sleep and play,”and how to practice “proper habits.” The programprovided 24-hour care, and included well-balancedhot meals, health care, and optional familycounseling.


Maritime Child Development Center, rear view, ca., 1945. Source unknown.

Child care in “War Nursery,” ca. 1943. Franklin DelanoRoosevelt Library.

HEALTH CARE

Kaiser’s most significant contribution in the arena of socialservices during World War II was in health services—a field inwhich the company set an industry standard. Following major fluand pneumonia epidemics in the East Bay in 1941, Kaiserinaugurated the Permanente Health Plan in 1942.

The plan involved a three-tier medical care system that includedsix well-equipped first aid stations at the individual shipyards, theKaiser Permanente Field Hospital (sometimes referred to as theRichmond Field Hospital), and the main Permanente Hospital inOakland. Together these facilities served the employees of theKaiser shipyards who had signed up for the Permanente HealthPlan (commonly referred to as the “Kaiser Plan”)—one of thecountry’s first voluntary pre-paid medical plans to feature groupmedical practice, prepayment, and substantial medical facilitieson such a large scale. By August 1944, 92.2% of all Richmondshipyard employees had joined the plan that was financedthrough paycheck deductions of 50 cents per week.

The health plan was highly popular with workers and boostedKaiser’s image as a preferred employer. Kaiser’s initial investmentpaid for itself many times over as better health care made forhealthier workers, less absenteeism, and increased productivity.

39


Henry J. Kaiser, ca. 1945. Bancroft Library, University of California–Berkeley.

40

After the war, the health plan was extended toinclude workers’ families, and it became the mostenduring of all of Kaiser’s programs. The “KaiserPlan” was a direct precursor of the HealthMaintenance Organizations (HMOs) defined by thefederal Health Maintenance Organization Act of1973. Today Kaiser Permanente is among thenation’s largest and most influential healthmaintenance organizations.

POST WORLD WAR II RICHMOND

During the late 1940s Richmond experienced the“bust” associated with the aftermath of the war“boom”—large numbers of war workers were leftunemployed and homeless when the defenseindustries shut down.

Although new industries, such as InternationalHarvester, moved in to occupy some of the vacatedshipyard structures, Richmond’s unemploymentwoes were exacerbated by the loss of industry tooutlying suburbs in the San Francisco Bay Area. Themost significant departure was the Ford MotorCompany, which moved to Milpitas, California, in1955.

War workers found it hard to obtain new jobs.Shipyard efficiency during the war had beenobtained by implementing assembly line procedures,i.e., one person, one job. After the war, those whohad learned only one skill found that they could noteasily transfer to other jobs in a highly competitivejob market. In addition, to protect their skilledcrafts, prewar workers had responded during thewar by creating a system of second-class unionauxiliaries for women, African Americans, and othernewcomers. At the end of the war, employers andunions easily disposed of these marginalizedworkers, thus creating serious economic dislocationin East Bay cities such as Richmond.

Unskilled workers who were members of a minoritygroup faced the additional obstacle of prejudiceamid the tensions of the highly competitive jobmarket. Hence Richmond became witness not onlyto the industrial development that supportedAmerica’s effort to win World War II, but also to thebleak realities of urban blight and economicdislocation associated with peacetime conversion.

In addition to employment challenges, manyworkers found themselves without housing. Much ofthe federally subsidized wartime public housing wasdesigned only for temporary use. To avoid conflictsbetween public and private sector housing duringthe peacetime conversion years, the RichmondHousing Authority agreed to tear down publichousing within two years of the end of the war.Communities like Seaport, which housed AfricanAmericans adjacent to the shipyards, wereobliterated almost overnight.

Today, in Richmond, California, there is a growinginterest in remembering and honoring the city’shistory. Community revitalization efforts arecentered on the historic resources remaining fromthe war years, and city celebrations are beingrenewed with “home front” themes. Despite thetumultuous years—both during and after World WarII—the citizens of Richmond are embracing theircity’s history and celebrating its many contributionsto victory in World War II and to significant socialchanges to American society.



Richmond Tank Depot during World War II. Therewere only three wartime tank depots in the UnitedStates; the Ford Assembly Building is the onlysurviving structure that housed one. Workers at thedepot equipped more than 60,000 military vehiclesincluding tanks, Army trucks, half-tracks, tankdestroyers, personnel carriers, scout cars,amphibious tanks, snow plows, and bomb lifttrucks. These vehicles were transported to the plantfor final processing and to have up-to-the-minuteimprovements installed on them before beingtransported out through Richmond’s deepwaterchannel to war zones throughout the world.

In addition to its importance for its wartime uses,the Ford Assembly Building is an outstandingexample of 20th century industrial architecture. Itwas designed by internationally famed architect Albert Kahn who developed “daylighted” factories

Historic Importance of Individual Park SitesThe legislation establishing Rosie the Riveter/WorldWar II Home Front National Historical Parkrecognized the national significance of the historicresources that are owned by private and publicpartners within the City of Richmond, California.The importance of those resources is discussed inthis section. While the park’s primary resources areowned and managed by many different public andprivate entities, they all help tell the story of Rosiethe Riveter and America’s World War II home front.

FORD ASSEMBLY BUILDING

The 500,000-square-foot Ford Assembly Buildingillustrates the conversion of American peacetimeindustries into wartime industries. Built as thelargest automobile assembly plant on the West Coast, the Ford Assembly Plant was converted to the

Ford Assembly Building, ca. 1935. The Henry Ford Museum.

41

42

“all under one roof.” The immense size of thishistoric structure, along with the adjacent oil house,can provide park visitors with an understanding of

the size and scale of the wartime industries that werebased in Richmond, California.


Ford Assembly Building Craneway, 2002. Library of Congress.

RICHMOND SHIPYARD NO. 3 AND THE SS RED OAK VICTORY

The Richmond Shipyard complex built by Henry J.Kaiser was one of the largest wartime shipyardoperations on the West Coast. Shipyard No. 3 is theonly remaining wartime shipyard of the four thatKaiser constructed in Richmond; it is still relativelyintact and is listed in the National Register ofHistoric Places.

Richmond Shipyard No. 3 was built for the ease ofmass production of wartime ships, and has retainedits exemplary resources in part because it was builtto be a permanent facility. The level gravingbasins/dry docks eased hull construction, while thelarge assembly areas and the alignment and spacingof the buildings contributed to production speed.

Kaiser’s ship building methods involvingprefabrication allowed much of the initialconstruction to be accomplished away from the dry-docks/graving basins, which led to increasedefficiency and speed. Whirley cranes were used tomove the components from place to place in theshipyard. After launching, the ships were taken tothe outfitting berths for the final electricalconnections, sheet metal work, furnishings, andartillery installation.

The park includes a surviving wartime ship that wasbuilt in the Richmond Shipyards. The SS Red OakVictory is listed in the National Register of HistoricPlaces to recognize its military, transportation, andengineering significance as an ammunition andcargo vessel during World War II. The ship also isacknowledged for its significance as a product of theKaiser Corporation’s revolutionary innovations in


shipbuilding techniques that were undertaken in theshipbuilding industry during World War II.

The SS Red Oak Victory is a tangible resource thatdemonstrates the power and contribution ofindividuals to the World War II war effort. The shiphelps visitors comprehend the massive undertakingassociated with the Richmond’s shipyards and theAmerican wartime home front. The size and scale ofthe surviving shipyard help visitors to comprehendthe enormity of the American World War II effort.By exposing visitors to the remaining historic sitesand structures of Richmond Shipyard No. 3, theycan learn how ships were made and how “Rosie theRiveter” contributed to the effort.

The views of the contemporary commercial land usealong the Santa Fe Channel from various park siteshelps provide visitors with the context and a senseof size of the wartime industrial landscape.

YARD 1YARD 1

YARD 4YARD 4

YARD 3YARD 3

YARD 2YARD 2

Kaiser Shipyards, ca 1945. Library of Congress. Richmond Museum of History.

43

44


SS Red Oak Victory ship under construction, ca 1944. RichmondMuseum of History.

SS Red Oak Victory ship, 2004. National Park Service.


KAISER PERMANENTE FIELD HOSPITAL

In 1942, Henry J. Kaiser inaugurated thePermanente Health Plan for his shipyard workers.He instituted a three-tier medical care systemconsisting of first-aid stations in the shipyards, afield hospital, and a main hospital. One of Kaiser’soriginal first-aid stations remains intact in RichmondShipyard No. 3. The Kaiser Permanente Field

Hospital still exists on Cutting Avenue in the nationalhistorical park and is privately owned.

Preserving the Kaiser Permanente Field Hospital canhelp visitors understand the health care needs of theworkers who labored in Richmond’s wartimeindustries, and can also help them understand theprofound changes to America that resulted fromWorld War II home front activities.

Kaiser Permanente Field Hospital, ca 1945. Library of Congress.

Kaiser Permanente Field Hospital, 2002. National Park Service.

45

46


CHILD DEVELOPMENT CENTERS

In addition to health care, Kaiser provided child carefor families working in Kaiser’s shipyards. Thecenters he built with funding provided by the UnitedStates Maritime Commission incorporatedprogressive educational programming and 24-hourcare; services included well-balanced hot meals,health care, and family counseling.

The largest child care facilities were the MaritimeChild Development Center and the Pullman Child

Development Center (later renamed Ruth C. PowersChild Development Center). Both are still inexistence and were in use as child care centers untiljust recently. By preserving the surviving childdevelopment centers in Richmond, California,visitors have the opportunity to explore the socialand community responses to the World War II homefront effort that occurred in cities and towns acrossAmerica.

Maritime Child Development Center, ca. 2004.

Ruth C. Powers (formally Pullman) Child Development Center, 2002. Architectural Resources Group.


WORLD WAR II WORKER HOUSING

Small, pre-World War II industrial cities likeRichmond, California, became boomtowns duringthe war; housing provides some of the most visibleevidence of the drastic changes that occurred inthese cities almost overnight. Beginning with aprewar population of 23,642 in 1940, the city’spopulation grew to more than 93,000 by 1943. Witha population increase of 296%, Richmond wasthrown into civic chaos and social upheaval and wasforever altered by the events of World War II.

To meet the continuing critical housing shortage, theRichmond Housing Authority was incorporated onJanuary 24, 1941. The program consisted of 20projects that including apartments, dormitories, andthree trailer parks; these projects housed more than60% of Richmond’s population during the war.

Atchison Village, 1940. Library of Congress. Housing Unit, Atchison Village, 2002. National Park Service.

47

.

Date post:	10-Feb-2017
Category:	Documents
Upload:	hoangkiet
View:	218 times
Download:	0 times

Chapter 2: Historic Overview

Documents