Transcript On the Homefront - Kettering High School

On the Homefront
America goes to war
Mobilizing for War
• Selective Service Act of 1917
– Men from ages 21-30 required to register
– 3 million men served as draftees in WWI
• African American Soldiers
African Americans in WWI
• Segregated Units
– Plessy v. Ferguson (1896): Establishes “separate but
equal” as both the legal and social status quo in
American society
– Selective Service: drafts white and black men alike
• Segregated units
• Not allowed to join the Navy or the Marines
• Black community organizes protests/ Pressure from the
NAACP
– African Americans trained as officers for the first time; still
never put in command of troops-only one officer training camp
• 400,000 African Americans fought with the divisions of
the French Army
• 380,000 African Americans serve in the Army in WWI
– 42,000 see combat
• 200,000 sent to Europe
• More than ½ are assigned to labor jobs: building roads,
bridges, trenches to support the soldiers at the front lines
369th Infantry Division
• Who were the Harlem Hellfighters?
– One of the most famous infantry divisions in
Europe
– Fought with the French Army
– Spent 191 days in combat; longer than any other
American unit in the war
– Heroic in battle at Belleau Wood and ChateauThierry
– First Americans to be awarded the Croix de
Guerre (Cross of War), given by the French
– Treated as heroes in France
Home sweet home?
The Great Migration: Many African Americans
had moved North for jobs in the cities during
the War
African American soldiers return home
-little to advance civil rights
* Rise of KKK in 1920s
*1919 Race Riots
* Lynchings increase
* segregation across the nation
Organizing for War: Supplying the
Armies
• Economically:
– Congress increases taxes and authorized the use of war bonds
» Liberty Bonds
• War Industries Board
– Set up to oversee the production and distribution of goods
manufactured by the nation’s war industries
• Food Supply
– Lever Food and Fuel Control Act of 1917
» Gave Wilson the right to establish price and production
controls over food and fuel
– Food Administration: created to increase food supplies for
troops by expanding agricultural production and decreasing
domestic consumption
• Overseas
– 25,000 Women volunteers serve in France
• Nurses, signalers, typists, interpreters, telephone
service
• Some worked as nurses and ambulance drivers on
the front lines
• Red Cross volunteers
• On the Homefront
– 1.5 million women worked in factory positions
left vacant by departing soldiers
• American products essential to Allied troops
fighting in Europe
• War= labor shortage
• Immigration stops during the war
• Pushed for higher wages and working conditions
– 4 million workers go on strike
– NWLB