“I remember, when I was a little girl, I could lie in my room on Bissell Avenue on a foggy night and listen to music from the shipyards drifting in through the window.” - Inez Brooks-Meyer

4. AMERICANS ALL

   "Gather ‘round! As the war effort rolled on President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued a rallying cry: “We are fighting that the spirit of brotherhood which we prize in this country may be practiced here and by free men everywhere.”

   Real brotherhood was more difficult to find. Men looked askance at women in pants. City folk looked down on “Okies and Arkies,” while “People who came from Oklahoma, they were never used to being around Mexicans or blacks,” remembered Tony Avalos. Southern black families felt isolated and Mexican Americans had a hard time finding a decent enchilada outside their own kitchens.

  This “forced melting pot” labored together in shipyard crews. Workers transformed discord into harmony, braving discomfort and danger to toil together, three shifts a day. To boost morale, Kaiser management organized lunchtime entertainment. Hollywood stars brought glamour to bare wooden stages, costumed dancers whirled and shipyard musicians in overalls and hard hats played swing and bluegrass. When the work was done, ship launchings celebrated shared accomplishment.

   As patriotic anthems swelled and champagne sprayed over the new ship’s bow, each worker took pride in what they’d built, and could believe in the slogan “United we win.”