American Home Front WWII Primary Sources | Catledge, Turner

Excerpt from "Behind Our Menacing Race Problem"

Written by Turner Catledge.

Published in the New York Times Magazine, August 8, 1943.

"Whatever description may eventually be affixed to the riots that flared in Harlem … they did one thing for certain. They helped further to uncover one of the most embarrassing and most dangerous conditions in the United States today."

In 1942 and early 1943 U.S. industries moved into full war mobilization, and the unemployment rate dropped almost to zero. Anyone who wanted to work could find some sort of employment. Millions of men had left the labor force to join the military, so job opportunities opened up for black men and women that had not existed before the war. Approximately seven hundred thousand blacks relocated to large industrial centers during the war, hoping to find high-paying positions in the war industries. They journeyed to...