HST 3103 America in Crisis: 1929-1945

1. Issues of Race & Ethnicity
During WWII
HST 3103 America in Crisis: 1929-1945
Kara Heitz

2. SMALL GROUP WORK
Reading: Wendy Wall, “The House I Live In: The Politics of Unity during WWII” (2008)
GROUP 1:
What were some of the specific methods were used by independent organizations (such as the ACJ ,
NCCJ, various unions) and the federal government to promote cultural pluralism and tolerance
during the war years? Name and describe two examples. Why did these organizations want to
promote these kinds of messages?
GROUP 2:
What were some of the perceived dangers posed by various “white ethnic” communities, especially
members of these groups who were more recent immigrants? What were some of the strategies
the federal government used to address the perceived potential disloyalty of these groups during
the war?
GROUP 3:
Wall argues there were “… potentially conservative implications of linking tolerance to national
unity during the war” (pg. 149). What were those “potentially conservative” implications? What was
discounted, silenced, or erased with this emphasis on “tolerance and brotherhood”?

3. Constructing the
“Melting Pot” during WWII

4. African Americans in the
US Military during WWII

5. The Double V Campaign