spring march 2017

News from Rosie the Riveter Trust supporting the Rosie the Riveter / WWII Home Front National Historical Park

F R O M T H E E X E C U T I V E D I R E C T O R

Last year, the Trust and its partners provided funding for bus transportation that

brought 38 underserved schools and more than 1100 students from Richmond and San Pablo to learn

crucial history lessons at Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park. Now, in 2017, the National Park Service has made the Every Kid in a Park program a five-year initiative. Thanks to our generous supporters, we are already paying for buses that will bring classes unable to afford transportation to visit the park.

At Rosie, we are privileged to explore the important interface between WWII’s challenges for American society, and some of the global challenges we face today, particularly climate change and its likely impacts on natural resources and on people’s health, wellbeing and ability to survive. With WWII’s enormous mobilization and a clear historical picture of what united human beings can accomplish as our backdrop, we seek to inspire these youngsters with a passionate desire to innovate, to take on daunting tasks, and to believe in their ability to make a difference in the world.

—Marsha Mather-Thrift

Spring 2017 In their Honor • • •

Join us to honor WWII Rosies & the Rosie spirit!

Where: Mira Vista Country Club, El CerritoWhen: 6:00 pm Cocktails - 7:00 pm DinnerAttire: Business casual - 40s wear encouraged

Tickets: www.rosietheriveter.org or (510) 507-2276Email: info@rosietheriveter.org

Enjoy gorgeous views of the San Francisco Bay,1940s ambience, cocktails, a huge silent auction and more!

Annual Benefit DinnerRosies Forever - April 8

One of the most remarkable achievements regarding the Bay Area’s World War II home front labor force was the almost

total absence of any serious disruptions in labor relations. Imagine: In Richmond alone, approximately 90,000 newly employed workers in Henry Kaiser’s four massive shipyards, all carrying union cards from 27 or more labor unions, and not a single major labor disruption between 1940 and the war’s end in 1945.

How was it possible? Labor historians offer no simple answer; rather, lots of complex ones. Certainly, the celebrated “unity of purpose” that prevailed across the American home front – the patriotic determination of workers to win the war at all costs – elevated the cause of national interests above narrower personal or organizational interests in the minds of most workers, including many union leaders and employers. But while unity of purpose was real at one level, it masked continued racial, sexist, and class disunity.

In effect, labor entered into a grand bargain with federal wartime manpower agencies in which they agreed to “labor stabilization” (meaning no strikes) among war-related industries like shipbuilding in exchange for the coveted closed shops (meaning all workers must join a union). For the shipyard unions, dominated by the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, which represented up to 70 percent of all West Coast shipyard workers, that meant tens of thousands of new dues-paying members to fill its coffers. Its national ranks swelled from 28,609 in 1938 to 352,000 in 1943, including more than 35,000 members at Richmond’s Local 513, which had not even existed before the war.

For the new workers, the vast majority of whom had never belonged to a union or held an industrial job, the benefits of the bargain (a job and decent pay) were mixed. The new jobs meant more stability, but gains for women and minorities were slow in coming. The Boilermakers opened its ranks to women in 1942 but other large unions denied membership and jobs to women and people of color until growing labor shortages, lawsuits, and federal government pressure forced them to open their ranks. Initially women and black workers were consigned to the lowest-paying jobs. And unions like the Boilermakers set up separate and unequal “auxiliary” unions for blacks, extending the Jim Crow attitudes of the era.

As UC Berkeley sociologist and author Katherine Archibald, who worked as a shop steward at Oakland’s Moore Shipyard during the war, has written: “With very few exceptions or qualifications, the account of the actual practices of the trade unions in the shipyard is a tale of narrowness and prejudice…”. It was not until after the war, as the result of war-time equal rights battles, government pressure, efforts like the Double V Campaign, and evolving awareness

R I C H M O N D S H I P Y A R D U N I O N S

Times of Unity/Times of Division

Jeffrey Dickemann Farm Cadet Victory Corps badge, Collection of RORI/NPS

New Traveling Exhibit Unveiled

At Rosie, we are dedicated to preserving the many diverse stories and artifacts associated with civilian American life

and efforts to support our country during WWII. Many of those stories are invisible in mainstream history, but the National Park Service works to uncover stories that paint a full picture of the many dedicated Americans who made, and still make, our country unique.

In December a three-year effort to uncover the stories of the LGBTQ community during the war, resulted in a new exhibit at the Visitor Education Center: LGBTQ Histories from the WWII Home Front. Donna Graves, a well-known public historian, one of the architects of the original Rosie the Riveter Memorial project, worked with lead ranger Elizabeth Tucker to produce the exhibit. Despite obstacles, they were able to find a remarkable array of photos and source material. Three exhibit panels reveal this hidden history and provide an unusual look into the fears and silence of LBGTQ people, during WWII and after.

The exhibit provides fascinating detail about the underground life of San Francisco and the Bay Area in the 1930s and 1940s, along with photos and drawings illustrating nightclub life at venues like Mona’s 440 and the Black Cat Café. It also includes details about the lives of women and men who served their country in the armed services, and those who left home to travel across the U.S., both to

support the war effort and to find a more tolerant social world.

Special thanks to those who contributed to this exhibit, including UC Berkeley’s Bancroft Library and Therese Ambrosi Smith. •

of the roles women and blacks had played in war-time workplaces, that unions, and our larger society, began to change such practices. Although progress has been slow, Boilermakers’ ranks now include a female President of Local 693 at the Ingalls Shipyard in Pascagoula, Mississippi, among others.

Unfortunately, according to Archibald, most of the tens of thousands of newly unionized shipyard workers, including semi-skilled white workers, had little interest or regard for their unions and fewer than 1 in 8 members bothered to vote in annual union elections, thus unions had no clear incentive to reform, despite the fact that in at least three of the trades in the Kaiser Shipyards — welders, sheet

A BIG Thank You to everyone who helped us to meet and exceed our challenge grant goal! A generous donor has matched funds from all gifts received before December 15th 2016, and we are very proud to say that we exceeded our $20,000 goal days before the deadline.

The matched funds will support Rosie Trust/ Park programs including Every Kid in a Park and our Ranger Betty Reid Soskin legacy film.

See Times of Unity/Times of Division on back page

John Allen - In honor of Betty Reid Soskin

Sarah Bossenbroek - In honor of Betty Reid Soskin

Mercedes Bryant-Williams - In honor of Gladys Samuels

Margaret Chase Stockwell - In memory of Aunt Millie

Ron and Janna Coverston - In memory of William J. Little

Ethan Coven - In honor of Ida Pollack

Martha Crusius - In honor of Mary Crusius & Patricia Lent

Dale Dunham -In honor of Sara Dunham

Pamela Eguchi -In honor of Betty Reid Soskin

Margaret Elizares - In memory of J.V. (Jack) Rosenberger. Kaiser Shipyard No. 3 1942-1943

Brian Fay - In honor of Marie Avila

Julie Fry - In honor of Betty Reid Soskin

Barbara Ganitch - In honor of Pearl Harbor Survivor USN QMOS RET.

Cathy Gardner - In honor of my grandmother Miriam Macdonald

Gretchen Gize Olbrich - In memory of Margaret Richter and Ruth Eichelberger

Jeffrey L. Grice, MD - In honor of Betty Reid Soskin

Loyal Martin Griffin, Jr.- In honor of Betty Reid Soskin

Diane Hedler – In memory of Dr. Edgar Schoen

Karen Huppertz - In honor of Geneva Smith Bell

Margaret E. Kaatz - In honor of Ruth Eppard

Karen Louis - In memory of Margaret Louis

Steve & Linda Lustig - In honor of Betty Reid Soskin

Timothy Luca - In honor of Angelina Luca

Patricia McAdoo - In honor of Michael McAdoo

Norman Milstein - In honor of Alex Milstein

Rosie the Riveter Trust - Honoring Howard Levitt in retirement after 40 years with NPS.

Jack & Cea Soares - In honor of Santana & Jonathan Curtis

Nancy Street - In memory of Frances Prochaska

Susan Vaillant - In honor of Max Vaillant

Karen VanZandt - In honor of Betty VanZandt

Lydia White - In honor of Agent Peggy Carter

News from Rosie the Riveter Trust supporting the Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park • spring 2017

NON-PROFIT ORGU.S. Postage

PAIDPermit NO. 1580

Oakland, CA

Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park

march/april 2017

Many Women, One Tomorrow calendars at the Visitor Center Gift Shop!

TRUSTRosie the Riveter TrustP.O. Box 71126Richmond, CA 94807-1126

Address Service Requested

Rosie the Riveter Trust is the nonprofit membership organization dedicated to building a community to preserve Park historic sites and to honor the women and men of all

backgrounds who labored on the Home Front, inspiring some of the most profound social changes in our history.510-507-2276 www.rosietheriveter.org

OUR PUBLIC AGENCY PARTNER…The National Park Service was created in 1916 to preserve America’s natural, cultural and scenic treasures and to provide for their enjoyment by future generations.

The Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park was established in 2000 as the flagship Park to tell the World War II Home Front story.510-232-5050 ext 0 www.nps.gov/rori

We Can Do It…Today!

BOARD OF DIRECTORSDiane M. Hedler, President. Jane BartkeTom ButtMark CameronCathy Durfee, Vice PresidentWarren R. Harber, TreasurerLynne Horiuchi, SecretaryLetitia D. MooreVera RowseyNicholas Targ

ROSIE THE RIVETER TRUST STAFFMarsha Mather-Thrift, Executive DirectorPhilip B. Young, Pro Bono Legal Counsel Rachel Torrey, Development Associate Stephanie Imah, Membership & Gift Store AssistantJon Stewart, Volunteer Newsletter Editorinfo@rosietheriveter.org | www.rosietheriveter.org | 510-507-2276 Rosie Forever photo from Rosie Rally 2016 courtesy of Jack Soares. All other photos by NPS/RORI. Newsletter Design by Spokewise. Printing by Autumn Press. Printed with soy-based inks on recycled paper.

RORI National Park Visitor Education CenterOpen EVERY DAY 10:00 am to 5:00 pm(Closed Thanksgiving, December 25th, & New Years Day)1414 Harbour Way South, Ste. 3000 (Oil House)Richmond CA 94804 • 510-232-5050

Maritime Child Development Center 1014 Florida Ave, Richmond, CA 94804

Craneway Pavilion 1414 Harbour Way South, Richmond, CA 94804

Rosie the Riveter Memorial Marina Bay Park, Richmond, CA 94804

metal workers and pipe fitters — more than 85-90 percent of workers were unskilled new hires, who gained great new skill. Henry Kaiser was actually of more interest to workers than their unions, because he provided generous services, including highly innovative childcare, health insurance, and housing. No such benefits came from most of the unions until after the war, but when they did come, they were welcome and more widespread then in-house corporate support for families and childcare. After the war, thanks to support for Kaiser’s early health insurance initiative from the International Longshore Workers, the Boilermakers and the Retail Clerks, today’s Kaiser Permanente was born.

In the end, Archibald believes, the great worker mobilization of World War II resulted in a great victory for the United States on the war front and a missed opportunity on the part of both the average worker AND the unions to expand and enlarge labor’s horizons. It was not until after the war, that those seeds of change planted by necessity, began to blossom into more inclusive and family-friendly union benefits, led by the Boilermakers and other unions, as American society as a whole began to absorb lessons from WWII. •

Times of Unity/Times of DivisionContinued from Inside page

Coming off of our centennial celebration we are excited to continue some of the programs

and events we launched in 2016. We will again be welcoming nearly 40 fourth grade classes from Richmond and San Pablo, as we continue our Every Kid in a Park program in 2017. Over 1,100 students participated last year and we hope to continue this program for years to come, in our effort to make this National Park something that everyone in the community can enjoy and learn from. We will also be repeating our Rosie Rally and Home Front Festival – again trying to break the world record for the most people dressed as Rosie the Riveter in one place. Mark your calendars for August 12th so that you, too, can dress as a Rosie and help us break the record – Again! If you have not been to the Visitor Center lately, please stop in periodically and enjoy one of our special programs or be inspired by one of our rotating exhibits. We continue to uncover more untold stories of WW II and we hope to share (and uncover) more in the years to come. Thank you for your continued support and interest in the park.

F R O M T H E P A R K S U P E R I N T E N D E N T

—Tom Leatherman

Visit the Park’s website for up-to-date event schedules: www.nps.gov/rori/planyourvisit/calendar.htm

Call the Visitor Center to confirm for special programs: (510) 232-5050 x0

*For all Betty Reid Soskin programs: Tickets are available 1-hour before the start time. Those without tickets will not be admitted per fire code regulations

MONDAYS

The Port Chicago Disaster and AftermathDATE TBD (see NPS website) @ 2:00 PM (30 minutes) What kinds of questions were sailors and civilians asking after ten million pounds of explosives blew up in Concord in 1944?

Games and Toys for Girls and Boys4/10 @ 2:00 PM (60 minutes)Wartime was deadly serious for grown-ups, but for kids, it was a time for adventure. Let’s explore how children had fun during the war years: costumes, comics, board games, toy: ships, planes, trains and more!

TUESDAYS

“Of Lost Conversations” (First Come – First Served Seating*)

3/7, 3/14, 3/21, 3/28, 4/4, 4/11, 418, 4/25 @ 2:00 PM (1 Hour) Park Ranger Betty Soskin discusses her experience as a young African American woman during WWII.

WEDNESDAYS

Warbling through the War Years3/1 @ 2:30 PM (45 minutes) Dancing the jitterbug, laughing to silly tunes—and mending broken hearts: music during World War II helped us get through fearful times. We’ll see and hear how we listened through samples from radio, records, and the movies.

What We Wore During the War3/8, 3/29, 4/5 @ 2:30 PM (30 minutes)The war changed everything including fashions, which changed to meet new needs: leather, wool, and nylon were needed by our fighting forces, so we made do on the Home Front. We’ll have a look at the clothing worn by working men and women, children, and even Hollywood stars!

Games and Toys for Girls and Boys3/22 @ 2:30 PM (60 minutes)Wartime was deadly serious for grown-ups, but for kids, it was a time for adventure. Let’s explore how children had fun during the war years: costumes, comics, board games, toy: ships, planes, trains and more!

Richmond Bus Tour with a Park Ranger3/29, 4/26 @ 10:30 AM (2 Hours) Hop aboard with a park ranger for an overview of the park sites located throughout the City of Richmond. A short tour of the Maritime Child Development Center is included. Space is limited. – RESERVATIONS REQUIRED – Call (510) 232-5050 x0

THURSDAYS

“Of Lost Conversations” (First Come – First Served Seating*)3/2, 3/9, 3/16, 3/23, 3/30, 4/6, 4/13, 4/20, 4/27 @ 11:00 AM (1 Hour) Park Ranger Betty Soskin discusses her experience as a young African American woman during WWII.

Blossoms and Thorns3/2, 3/9, 3/16, 3/23, 3/30, 4/6, 4/13, 4/20, 4/27 @ 2:00 PM (45 minutes) A docent from the Japanese American Citizens’ League screens the documentary, Blossoms and Thorns, about Richmond’s pre-and post-war community of flower growers and nursery owners, and shares from their experiences in a WWII internment camp.

FRIDAYS

Rosie Meet and Greet3/3, 3/10, 3/17, 3/24, 3/31, 4/7, 4/14, 4/21, 4/2810:00 AM - 12:00 PM (2 hours) & 1:00 - 2:00 PM Most Fridays, a group of civilian WWII docents share their stories in an informal setting at the Visitor Center. Here is your chance to ask the experts about life and work in the Richmond Shipyards.

Rationing on the Home Front3/17, 4/14 @ 12:30 PM (30 minutes)During WWII, Americans were asked to sacrifice in support of the troops, and this was evident daily at the dinner table. Listen to stories about the Federal Government’s rationing program and how it affected families on the Home Front.

SATURDAYS

“Of Lost Conversations” (First Come – First Served Seating*)3/4, 3/11, 3/18, 3/25, 4/1, 4/8, 4/15, 4/22, 4/29 @ 2:00 PM (1 Hour) Park Ranger Betty Soskin discusses her experience as a young African American woman during WWII.

Henry J. Kaiser: “Build Em' by the Mile and Cut Em' off by the Yard”3/25, 4/29 @ 3:30 PM (60 minutes) Join author Steve Gilford for a presentation about the extraordinary life of ship builder Henry J. Kaiser, an industrialist who was a loyal friend to (organized) labor.

Stories of The Greatest Generation That Lived3/25 @ 11:00 AM (90 minutes)Catherine Ladnier strives to tell the story of the generation that lived, loved and fought through WWII, through the letters they wrote to their kith and kin. From her hometown in East Los Angeles to her alma mater, Mills College. Catherine learns of the unjust imprisonment of Mills students and their resilience as well as the great story of Guy Galbadon, Hero of the Battle of Saipan. – RESERVATIONS REQUIRED – Call (510) 232-5050 x0

The Golden Shore with David Helvarg4/15 @ 11:00 am (90 minutes )David Helvarg, founder and executive director of Blue Frontier, discusses the new paperback version of his non-fiction book. The Golden Shore tells the tale of the history, culture, and changing nature of California's coasts and ocean. Explore the state’s 1,100 mile coast line with a focus on Richmond’s WWII history, and discover the spirit of the California coast. – RESERVATIONS REQUIRED – Call (510) 232-5050 x0

SUNDAYS

A Future Day of Radiant Peace3/26 @ 11:00 AM (90 minutes)Catherine Ladnier has written a play to showcase the story of the experience of Japanese American Mills College students during WWII through letters to college president Aurelia Henry Reinhardt. Reinhardt and her staff defied the prejudice and hysteria of the time to support their Japanese students from internment camps. Mills theater students will perform the roles of their Mills sisters. – RESERVATIONS REQUIRED – Call (510) 232-5050 x0

Rosie the Riveter Memorial – A Closer Look4/23 @ 11:30 AM to 12:30 PM (1 hour - Rain Cancels)Drop by Marina Bay Park (Melville Square) to visit the Rosie the Riveter Memorial—a very thoughtful public art sculpture of a World War II cargo ship under construction. A docent will be available to answer questions and introduce the memorial.