You only wanted a job. You needed a little spending money, a way
to put food on the table, something to do that meant something
or made a difference. So you applied for positions that sounded
good and paid well, or seemed interesting and came with
opportunity. Humans, it's believed, are wired for work. We need
to contribute somehow, in some meaningful way. But as you'll see
in the new book "Double Victory" by Cheryl Mullenbach, some jobs
don't come without a double battle. Shortly after the U.S.
entered World War II in 1941, a desperate call went out for
workers because America's men were going to war. White women
were encouraged to do the jobs their men had left behind. Black
women wanted to do their part, too. They saw a chance to help
win the war and to make better money: many of them were getting
$2 a week as domestics, while factory jobs might pay 20 times
that. Time and time again, however, they were turned away --
even though President Franklin Roosevelt had signed Executive
Order 8802, which encourage