Prior to the Great Depression of 1929, white males dominated the skilled labor market. Minorities were relegated to unskilled labor and middle-class women did not work. Labor migration due to the Second World War permanently changed that dynamic.
In the 1930s Japanese aggression against China and the rise of Hitler in Germany caused worldwide alarm. In response, beginning in the mid-1930s, America began preparing defenses in case of war. This helped pull the country out of the Depression as skilled and unskilled labor started back to work. People began moving out of the mid-west and south to Puget Sound to take advantage of defense industry jobs that weren’t available where they lived.
In 1940 the Burke-Wadsworth Act created the United States’ first peacetime military draft; in the first year just under 1,000,000 men were drafted into the U.S. Army. Ramping up immediately after the Pearl Harbor attack on December 7, 1941, over 3,000,000 inductions occurred in 1942 and 1943. These men came directly from the labor force, crippling the ability of companies to meet their commitments to the defense of the country.
The War Manpower Commission was established in 1942 to fix the labor shortage by promoting jobs throughout the country. Patriotic posters encouraged everyone to support the war effort by working. The promise of a good-paying job and affordable housing was thought to be enough to fill the labor needs. That quickly proved inadequate. Free bus and train transportation to new work locations, meals while traveling, credit at local stores and cash advances against first paychecks were added.
Executive Order 8802 signed by President Roosevelt in June 1941, which called for “the full and equitable participation of all workers in defense industries, without discrimination because of race, creed, color, or national origin.” This anti-discrimination requirement for employers with government business helped open doors to minorities throughout the country.
In 1936, just 20 years after Boeing’s founding by William A. Boeing, the company won a contract to build the Model 299, better known as the B-17 Flying Fortress. From Boeing’s inception the company did not employ African Americans, and despite President Roosevelt’s executive order, the federal government did not consider discriminatory labor contracts when it awarded contracts.
With the award of the contract, Boeing allowed the International Association of Machinists Local 751 (IAM) to represent workers. The IAM also did not allow African Americans, other minorities or women to join the rank and file. For those not allowed the privilege of membership the union used a permit system. Permits cost African Americans $3.50 per month while other minorities and white women paid $1.50, both above what union dues would have been. Until 1942, Boeing and the IAM pointed fingers at each other for maintaining discriminatory hiring.
Outside demand and production requirements ultimately pushed Boeing to fully use the available labor force. In January 1942, Boeing hired stenographer Florise Spearman, its first African American employee. Dorothy Williams was hired in April as the first African American sheet metalworker. Within 18 months, Boeing had 329 African American employees of whom 86% were women. Women of all ethnicities made up about 40% of the workforce at war’s end.
African American employment at Boeing reached 1,600 employees, 5% of the 31,750 peak employment in Seattle. The African American population in Seattle at the time was about 1% compared to 8.9% in the United States overall.
Navy Yard Puget Sound (now called the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard) in Bremerton was the largest Navy facility on the West coast because it was the only one with dry docks large enough to handle major repairs to the battleships damaged at Pearl Harbor. The shipyard had grown throughout the 1930s in response to earlier noted world tensions. Non-discriminatory employment practices helped growth. African Americans made up 14% (4,600 people)of the workforce at peak in 1945.
Bremerton’s population in 1940 was 12,498 while the shipyard payroll was about 6,000. Over the war years employment peaked at 32,000 and the population ballooned to 82,000. By necessity most shipyard workers commuted from outlying areas by car, bus and on foot. Black Ball ferries ran six boats making more than 35 daily trips from Seattle. Commuting from Tacoma was difficult because the Tacoma Narrows Bridge had collapsed in 1940.
Long commutes were one of the reasons for high turnover in the shipyard with as many as 300 new hires every day. To help reduce turnover, the City of Bremerton Housing Authority constructed seven temporary housing areas with 5,910 prefabricated homes. Neighboring Port Orchard built 5,556 more. A walk-on ferry to the shipyard ran from Port Orchard. Dormitories housed thousands more unmarried workers.
Sinclair Park was one of Bremerton’s new housing areas with a difference: Sinclair Park was designated for African American residents. The 80-acre forested area was about three miles from the shipyard. There were 280 new 1, 2 and 3-bedroom houses, and a community center in the middle of the development. The first residents arrived in March 1943. Quincy Jones, Sr. arrived there from Chicago on July 4, 1943.
Typically with preplanned communities, life revolved around the community center. Here residents paid their monthly rent, received their mail, held dances, attended church services and other community events. Oral histories given by Sinclair Park residents all talk about the strength of the community and strong personal connections made in the three years of its existence.
One of the community center’s rooms housed an old upright piano that attracted a young Quincy Jones, Jr. He later said “there was a tiny stage in the room and on it was an old upright piano…That’s where I began to find peace. I was eleven. I knew it was for me. Forever.”
At the end of the war, women and minorities had proved their work skills and the need to remain employed and refused to go back to pre-war roles. The fight for employment and housing rights continued into the1960s civil right movement, a direct result of World War Two. Perhaps as a fitting end note, the Sinclair Park Community Center was torn down in 2003 and Boeing’s Plant 2 demolished in 2011.
Top image: The Signed Portrait of African American "Rosie the Riveters"/The Museum of Flight