Home Front Battles

World War II Mobilization and Race in the Deep South

Charles C. Bolton (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

384 Seiten

2024
Oxford University Press Inc (Verlag)
978-0-19-765561-0 (ISBN)

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Mobilization for World War II disrupted life in the Deep South of the United States, sparking new-and, in some cases, reigniting old-battles across the home front. Rural migrants flocked to towns and cities, hoping to take advantage of new war-related job opportunities. Wealthy landowners attempted to wield their enormous power to keep farm workers on the land, especially Black tenants and wage hands who provided much of the essential labor. Towns that attracted wartime industries, such as Pascagoula, Mississippi, which exploded with new demand for its shipbuilding industry, grew exponentially and quickly, making the men who owned these shipyards powerful millionaires and laying the foundation for economic concerns that continued well beyond the postwar years. The areas around southern military installations were transformed and experienced heightened racial tensions.

Home Front Battles examines the many effects of World War II economic and military mobilization on the Deep South, including the federal government's attempts to solve some of the social problems that arose from a massive influx of migrants who were unfamiliar with a new world of work. It also underscores one of the primary home front battles, which began with the passage of the Selective Training and Service Act in 1940 and the creation of the Fair Employment Practices Committee in 1941, banning discriminatory military training and employment practices and making it clear that the federal government would be promoting the ideal of nondiscrimination as part of its wartime mobilization efforts. In the Deep South, where race relations were already tense, these directives and southern tradition clashed.

White politicians-ranging from the liberal Georgia governor Ellis Arnall to Theodore Bilbo, the reactionary U.S. senator from Mississippi-disagreed about the long-term impact of wartime mobilization. At the same time, the fight for African American rights culminated with the elections of 1946, when Blacks in the Deep South tried to vote on a scale unprecedented in the twentieth century and white Southerners closed ranks to beat back their efforts-using tactics that ranged from social intimidation to outright violence.

Charles C. Bolton is Professor of History and former Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, where he has also served as Head of the Department of History. He previously taught at the University of Southern Mississippi, where he served as chair of the Department of History and director of the Center for Oral History and Cultural Heritage. Bolton is also the recipient of major grants from the Mississippi Humanities Council, NASA, and the U.S. Department of Education. He is the author of many books on Southern history, including Poor Whites of the Antebellum South, The Hardest Deal of All: The Battle over School Integration in Mississippi, 1870-1980, and William F. Winter and the New Mississippi.

Introduction

Part I: Economic Mobilization

Chapter 1: World War II and Agriculture in the Deep South
Chapter 2: Ingalls Shipyard: Pascagoula, Mississippi
Chapter 3: The FEPC and Black Workers
Chapter 4: "A Typical Crowded War Community": Pascagoula, Mississippi

Part II: Military Mobilization

Chapter 5: Military Mobilization and Black Troops
Chapter 6: The 364th Infantry Regiment, Camp Van Dorn, and the Crisis of 1943
Chapter 7: A Conservative Revolution

Part III: Southern Politics

Chapter 8: Ellis Arnall: Southern Liberal
Chapter 9: Theodore Bilbo: Southern Reactionary
Chapter 10: Political Crossroads, 1946: Black Voters and White Resistance

Epilogue
Notes
Bibliography
Acknowledgements

Erscheinungsdatum	04.10.2023
Zusatzinfo	10, b/w
Verlagsort	New York
Sprache	englisch
Maße	168 x 249 mm
Gewicht	680 g
Themenwelt	Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Geschichte / Politik ► Regional- / Landesgeschichte
	Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► 1918 bis 1945
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
	Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Kulturgeschichte
	Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Militärgeschichte
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie
ISBN-10	0-19-765561-0 / 0197655610
ISBN-13	978-0-19-765561-0 / 9780197655610
Zustand	Neuware