Double Victory (22 page)

The USO was formed in 1941 when six existing organizations combined their resources and their efforts to serve military personnel and their families. The YWCA, YMCA, National Catholic Community Service, the National Jewish Welfare Board, the Traveler's Aid Association, and the Salvation Army pooled their efforts under the newly created United Service Organizations (USO). It was authorized by the federal government to “serve the spiritual, social, and general welfare needs of soldiers and sailors.” USO clubs were set up wherever men and women of the armed forces were located—in the United States as well as overseas. The USO also provided services for defense workers in some communities. The clubs were run by paid workers and thousands of volunteers. There were over 3,000 USO clubs in the United States during the war.

USO volunteers helped military wives who visited or wanted to live near their husbands at military camps around the country. It was difficult for these women to find places to stay, but it was even harder for black women because many boarding houses wouldn't allow black people. Sometimes the women had babies with them. In addition to finding lodging for the women, USO volunteers provided childcare and other services. They also conducted classes in first aid and budgeting and provided advice about marriage and family relationships during wartime.

In a New York City USO club a military wife could cook a meal for her husband and share it with him in a pleasant atmosphere. She could do her laundry or sew clothes. In Portsmouth, Virginia, the USO offered the Tiny Tots Checking Room where mothers could “park” their babies with volunteers while they ran errands or enjoyed a short rest. In Fayetteville, North Carolina, the USO offered military wives leisure-time activities such as music, arts and crafts, and discussion forums.

In addition to helping the families of soldiers and sailors, the USO clubs provided recreation for servicemen and -women who were far from their homes. At the clubs they could play games, read a book, or attend a social event. The USO looked for volunteers who they considered outstanding “socially, morally, educationally, and from a spiritual standpoint.” Women volunteers trained to become hostesses. In their special training courses they learned how to greet visitors to the clubs. They wrote letters for the service personnel, organized games, and mended uniforms. Sometimes the volunteers were there just to talk to lonely servicemen and -women. Another duty of the volunteers was to dance with the servicemen at the USO dances.

The USO was required to open its buildings for the use of
all
men and women in uniform—but the clubs were usually segregated. So-called Negro USO Clubs were created for the black military
personnel. And sometimes problems arose about the locations of the black clubs. In Salt Lake City, Utah, a USO center for black soldiers was scheduled to open in June 1943. But 17 white citizens presented a petition of protest to the city. The signers insisted they weren't opposed to the idea of a USO for black soldiers. But they thought a “more suitable” location could be found.

While the USO clubs were often segregated, that wasn't always the case. Many black women volunteered at USO clubs. Some worked at segregated clubs and others worked at integrated clubs. But wherever the women volunteered, they did it because they wanted to serve their country during a time of crisis.

There were integrated USO clubs at Sacramento, California; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Ayer, Massachusetts; and in other communities. The New York Stage Door Canteen served both black and white guests. The volunteers who operated it were also of both races. There were 200 black hostesses who worked there. A black hostess named Osceola Archer said that sometimes there were problems related to race. Although men and women of both races danced with each other, some visitors to the club resented this. The hostesses were trained to reply, “I am dancing with the uniform of my country.”

At the USO Soldiers and Sailors Recreation Center, not far from the Crispus Attucks memorial on Boston Common, black USO workers faced discrimination in 1943 when the board of directors of the Boston USO refused to allow black hostesses to volunteer at the center on Boston Common. The group said there weren't enough black soldiers using the club to justify the use of black hostesses. It explained that most black soldiers and sailors used another USO club on Ruggles Street, and there were black hostesses there. In May, after a month of negotiation with black leaders in Boston, the directors decided to allow black hostesses to volunteer at the Boston Common USO center. But
in July, 25 white hostesses at the center threatened to resign if the black hostesses were allowed at the club. Finally, in August, 18 black women were certified by the USO to be hostesses in Boston. When five of them were requested to work at the Hotel Touraine USO center, they were told that they could dance only with black soldiers. The head of the board of directors who had approved the training of the black hostesses said he would never have approved the policy if he had known “mixed dancing was involved.” Even the Boston police commissioner said he would not approve mixed dancing on the Boston Common.

Because the black hostesses were not allowed to serve without limitations, they decided to leave the club. In December 1943 a decision was reached by the Boston USO Committee and the black USO workers. A new “international” USO club was to be established in the exclusive Back Bay section of the city. The new club was open to all races, and volunteers of any race could work there. College co-eds of various races from nine colleges in the Greater Boston area pledged their support to the club. The women promised at least 200 volunteers would be ready by the time the new club opened in January 1944.

The establishment of the international USO was
not
a solution to the discrimination problem that existed at the Boston Common USO. While the black USO workers and members of the armed forces were promised a club where discrimination would be absent and which would be located in an exclusive Boston neighborhood, it didn't solve the problem of racism that existed in the Boston Common USO.

Saving Fat

The enemy knew what they were up against when it came to the force of the American military, but they couldn't have been
prepared for the might of the American housewife. The military draft ensured a ready supply of soldiers. American factories furnished a steady stream of weapons and aircraft. And American housewives put their clout behind volunteer home front conservation efforts.

The American housewife was called upon to scrimp and save every scrap of fabric, paper, cardboard, metal, and even kitchen fat. These materials were taken to government collection centers and recycled into products for war use. Recycled magazines, games, and athletic equipment were used in military camps for leisure activities for the troops. Fabric was used to make military uniforms and parachutes. Recycled metal was used for weapons and aircraft. Paper and cardboard cartons were needed to ship food, medical supplies, and ammunition to the armed forces. And fat and oils were needed for the glycerin they contained. Glycerin was used for making explosives and in ointments for surgical dressings. During the first nine weeks of the nationwide campaign 4.5 million pounds of fat was collected at grocery stores. The Fat Salvage Committee estimated that was enough glycerin for 11,300,000 anti-aircraft shells. The goal was to collect 500 million pounds of fat.

A government agency, the Office of Price Administration (OPA), organized a plan for rationing food in American homes. There was a need for large quantities of food for the fighting armies in war zones and for citizens of warring countries where the production of food had been interrupted by the war. American farmers, workers, and housewives were called upon to help grow, harvest, and conserve food so those who couldn't produce their own had food. And American housewives stepped up to help. It meant eating and cooking differently—sometimes the usual ingredients were in short supply or not available at all. The OPA set up a system for rationing. They used a points
system under which points were assigned to some products. Housewives got ration books from the county ration board. The books contained a limited number of stamps that could be used for the scarce items. Sugar, coffee, and red meat were rationed. Butter, milk, and eggs were also in short supply.

The rationing system could be a little tricky to understand. So in December 1942 black women's groups volunteered to help housewives understand the process. Representatives from several national black women's organizations attended a conference in Washington, DC, where they learned about rationing. Thomasina Johnson, Flaxie Pinkett, Elsie Austin, and Ethel Popel Shaw attended the conference and then went back to their communities and taught other women in their women's clubs about the system.

The Original Illinois Housewives Association existed before World War II but took on new duties after America joined the fight in late 1941. The group's motto was: “To give a greater knowledge to the housewife which will serve as power for an increased economic independence, that makes for better living.” The organization offered monthly lectures and demonstrations on consumer problems and home economics, as well as a “circulating library” of literature about home economic issues. Consumer clinics were held with lectures, exhibits, and demonstrations on food and nutrition, fabrics and clothing, house furnishings, drugs and cosmetics, health and hospital insurance, savings, and gardens and flowers.

In October 1942, Lillian Le Vine, president of the Original Illinois Housewives Association, called a three-day conference. The theme was “Be prepared for vital war service.” The group was taking on a new phase of war service work that fall and winter. Mothers, wives, sisters, and other female relatives
of servicemen and -women were invited to join the organization. And all the group's board members signed the Consumers' Pledge for Total Defense, promising to buy carefully, take care of things they had, and waste nothing.

“Good, wholesome food puts the fight in our fighters.” The federal government used catchy sayings such as this on posters and brochures to remind American farmers that they needed to help supply food to the military and to hungry people living in war-torn countries where food was in short supply. Through the US Department of Agriculture's Food for Freedom program, farmers were encouraged to grow more while using less. The government asked farmers to conserve fuel, machinery, and tires while producing more food with fewer workers. The government told farmers that in just one month the 7.5 million soldiers fighting the war ate a stack of food the size of the 102-story Empire State Building.

Since the increased demand for food directly affected farm families, black farming women played a key role in the war effort. Food production and food conservation were critical areas of focus. And black women on the farms came through for the war effort just as their counterparts in the cities did. Georgia's black farmers increased their poultry and egg production, enlarged their gardens, preserved fruits and vegetables, planted fruit trees, cured hams, and made lye soap from leftover cooking grease.

Even black women who didn't normally work on farms volunteered their efforts to help farmers meet the demands for increased food production. Because so many farm laborers had joined the military or gone to work at defense plants, farmers experienced a severe shortage of workers to help plant and harvest the crops. In the South, black wives of doctors, undertakers,
teachers, preachers, and storekeepers in one county volunteered to help harvest the peanut crop in 1944. In Fitzgerald, Georgia, a group of women from the Baptist church volunteered to help a recently widowed woman harvest her Victory Garden in 1943. They picked, shelled, and prepared the produce from Ashley Johnson's farm. Then the volunteers took the produce to the local high school, where it was preserved by canning and dehydrating. The dehydrated food was taken to the community food bank for use in the winter months by families who were in need.

Sherman Coffee's family was in need of help in the fall of 1944. They operated an 840-acre farm near Frankfort, Kansas. Normally they had plenty of help during the harvest season—there were five sons in the family. But in 1944 those sons were all in the armed forces. When the local community turned out to help the family with the harvest, the appearance of one woman turned heads. Lucile Bluford, managing editor of the
Kansas City Call
newspaper, had driven 150 miles from Kansas City. She had taken her vacation time to help on the Coffee farm. Although Lucile had no experience in farm work, she drove a wagon as she helped with the threshing and loading of wheat. And she served as the assistant cook.

The Women's Land Army (WLA) was formed by the federal government in 1943. The goal was to recruit 60,000 women to help farmers throughout the country as they met the demands for food production. The government ran articles in black newspapers, encouraging women to join the WLA. But some states were reluctant to include black women in the WLA. An official in South Carolina explained that they planned to use white women initially—because if they started the program with black women, white women would refuse to join. However, in Arkansas by mid-1944 about 25,000 black women were WLA members.

The Red Cross

For many Americans in the 1940s the Red Cross was a symbol of generosity and goodwill. It was an organization known for its spirit of caring and compassion for people in need. But for many black people in the 1940s the admirable work of the Red Cross was overshadowed by its policies of racial discrimination.

The American Red Cross played a vital role during the war, providing aid to members of the armed forces and their families. The agency trained nurse aides to help alleviate the shortage of nurses in hospitals, provided care packages to civilians in war-torn countries and to American prisoners of war in enemy camps, and even followed Allied armies to the war zones. Some individuals in the Red Cross volunteered their time, while others were paid for their work. Many of those who were in paid positions had left successful professions to serve with the Red Cross for the duration of the war. The combined work of the 40,000 paid employees and 7.5 million unpaid volunteers had extraordinary results.