"All the Colored Women Like This Work": Black Workers During World War I
| Rating: | Not rated yet |
| Rate item | |
| Type: | Library or Collection |
| Grade Level: | Secondary, Post-secondary |
Author: Center for History and New Media/American Social History Project
Subject: Humanities
Institution Name:
American Social History Project/Center for History and New Media
Collection Name: Many Pasts (CHNM/ASHP)
Abstract: Wartime production demanded the mobilization of thousands of workers to make steel and rubber, to work in petrochemical industries, and to build ships. As a result, African Americans made striking gains in employment even while also facing continuing discrimination. Black women, for example, got jobs working on the railroads for the first time during the world war. Black women found jobs as laborers, cleaning cars, wiping engines, tending railroad beds. Helen Ross was one of them, working for the Santa Fe Railroad. In an interview with the Women's Service Section of U.S. Railroad Administration, Ross described the advantages of her railroad job. Nevertheless, the same agency later declared such work too heavy for women.
Details
Specific
Types of Materials: Teaching and Learning Strategies
Language: English
Conditions of Use: No License
