Impact on America’s Homefront

Population Shifts Over 15 million Americans moved during the war to fill open jobs Many moved into major industrial centers in the North, Midwest, and California, but more moved into the “Sunbelt” across the southern US Once again, millions of blacks left the South for northern and western cities, leading to racial tensions

Wage and Price Controls To control inflation, the government acted to freeze prices on consumer goods and to freeze workers’ wages These frozen wages had the potential to create labor disputes

Unions During the War Most unions pledged to not strike during the war but to instead seek mediation through the government’s War Labor Board Not all unions cooperated, and a 1943 strike by coal workers under John L. Lewis forced the government to intervene

Unions After the War Labor unrest and strikes became common immediately following the war, disrupting the post-war economy Another coal strike was so serious that President Truman ordered the mines seized by the government

Taft-Hartley Act In 1947, Congress passed sweeping labor reform which banned “closed shops” (where all employees had to be union members) and allowed employers to sue unions for damages in some cases

Automation Threatens Jobs As American factories increasingly modernized after the war, machines began to take the place of unskilled labor, costing jobs and hurting union membership

AFL-CIO Eventually, powerful new “super-unions” arose, such as the AFL-CIO, a merger between the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations in 1955, which represented over 15 million workers

Election of 1948 Democrats ran President Harry Truman while Republicans ran NY Governor Thomas Dewey Nearly everyone expected Dewey to win easily, but were surprised when Truman pulled off a narrow victory, becoming President in his own right rather than by default (death of FDR)

OOPS!

Truman’s “Fair Deal” Truman began to pursue a series of social reform programs he called his “Fair Deal” Included expansion of Social Security, increasing minimum wage, and funding low-income housing, among other things

The GI Bill Passed in 1944 Designed to help GIs transition back to civilian life Helped veterans by paying for college tuition, providing one year’s unemployment pay, and providing easy to get loans for purchasing housing or starting businesses

Growth of Middle Class As hundreds of thousands of GIs became better educated and able to acquire better jobs, the middle-class in America grew significantly during the 1950s This expanded middle-class increased the demand for consumer goods and single-family housing

“Baby Boom” Returning GIs were also anxious to marry and start families, leading to a dramatic surge in the birth rate from 1946 to 1964 This generation of children, the largest in US history, came to be known as the “baby boomers”

Why is this a problem TODAY?

Growth of Suburbs Growth of middle-class families led to a dramatic spike in demand for housing Since space was limited (and therefore expensive) in the cities, millions of Americans looked to the areas just outside of the cities to live and raise their families

William J. Levitt 1907 – 1994 Real estate developer who popularized building large developments of cheap “assembly line” style housing within commuting distance of major cities – “suburbs” Affordable housing allowed many soldiers returning from WWII to marry and start families First project was in Levittown, NY between 1947 -1951, where Levitt built over 17,000 single-family homes

Levittown