A
History of the Richmond Shipyards
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information on the History of the Shipyards >>
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the Shipyard Rehabilitation
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The
Rosie the Riveter/Home Front World War II National
Historical Park was established to commemorate and
interpret the role of the WW II home front in winning
World War II. This was a significant chapter in
American history that engaged Americans in a way
that has been unequaled since. 
The
changes to society and industry had sweeping and
lasting impacts on the entire nation.
The
issues of women going to work in great numbers;
resettlement and immigration and the struggle to
provide housing and basic services overnight; women
carrying the family responsibilities; children going
to day care; early health care for workers and families;
integration of the work force and intervention by
government to support that integration; and finally
this new work force being returned to unemployment
or underemployment, and the impact on these families
remaining in a community like Richmond, all combine
to create a supremely significant story in American
history.
The
associated story of the cooperation of government,
private industry, and the unions to mobilize the
work force, and the creation of innovative plants
and production methods designed to rapidly supply
the war effort, is also a significant story in the
history of our country.
Something
extraordinary happened in Richmond, California 60
years ago. As World War II approached, Richmond
was a 
sleepy town of some 20,000 residents. Beginning
in early 1941, however, Richmond underwent a radical
and wrenching transformation. Access to the deep
water of the Bay and miles of previously undeveloped
shoreline made Richmond the location of choice for
a wartime industrial complex dominated by the largest
and most productive shipyards in the entire world.
Population boomed to over 100,000 to support the
war effort with work never stopping-three shifts
a day, seven days a week. Hayfields were rapidly
converted to the largest public housing project
ever constructed in the United States. With millions
of men in uniform and out of the workforce for the
duration, tens of thousands of women were recruited
to do what had been previously considered "men's
work." They soon became collectively known as "Rosie
the Riveter." A network of schools and childcare
centers was thrown up overnight to care for and
educate the children of these working women.
The
nation's first HMO, now Kaiser Permanente, was founded
to keep the shipyard workers healthy. Needing still
more workers, Henry Kaiser scoured the country for
recruits, finding thousands of willing volunteers
in the rural African-American population of the
South. Coming to Richmond by the trainload, farm
workers and sharecroppers were rapidly retrained
as welders and equipment operators. In a matter
of days, they were building Liberty and Victory
ships. 747 ships were built in Richmond, coming
off the ways at a clip of one a week toward the
end of the war. One Liberty Ship, the Robert E.
Peary was built in just over four days, setting
a record that has, to this day, never been surpassed.
The
Richmond shipyards produced more ships, faster,
and better than had ever been done in any time in
the history of the world. In 1945, the shipyards
shut down as fast as they had started up four years
earlier. Tens of thousands of shipyard workers,
many of whom had relocated permanently to California,
were thrown out of work. With returning servicemen
reentering the workforce, women and minorities were
no longer welcome.
Richmond
entered into a period of economic decline and stagnation
that lasted nearly 50 years. It is only now, at
the dawn of a new century, that Richmond, buoyed
by the Bay Area's technology boom, is fully recovering
from World War II. Because of the economic devastation
following its World War II triumph, Richmond's rich
history of that magnificent era was largely ignored
by its residents and seldom mentioned to newcomers.
As
the "Greatest Generation" starts to pass into history,
a younger generation has rediscovered and has now
begun to celebrate the accomplishments of their
parents and grandparents in building Roosevelt's
"Arsenal of Democracy" that provided the ships,
planes and guns to win the war.
The people of Richmond
are now fully committed to saving what is left of
this incredible industrial complex in a way that
will preserve for future generations the rich historical
tapestry of sacrifice, patriotism, technology, organization,
leadership, civil rights and social interaction
that made it all possible.
The
specific sites historic site included in the National
Park legislation include an outstanding collection
of related sites that were built for the war effort
that remain intact.
