With so many white workers joining the military, employers on the home front needed new workers to fill the jobs. Black men and women welcomed the opportunities and the regular wages. They often traveled long distances across the nation for work.

Executive Order 8802 forbade racial discrimination in hiring, but the reality was otherwise. Once hired, black employees faced segregation on the job, lower pay, menial work, and lack of advancement.

Sometimes, white workers actively protested the employment of blacks alongside them. In 1943, 25,000 white workers at the Packard Motors plant in Detroit walked off the job to protest the promotion of three black employees.

Source: During the War: The Home Front
The National WWII Museum of New Orleans