Liberty Ships and Jim Crow Shipyards: Racial Discrimination in Kaiser's Portland Shipyards, 1940–1945

Abstract

During World War II, the Black population Portland-Vancouver region in Oregon grew tenfold. New arrivals sought work in war industries, particularly in the three large Kaiser Company shipyards where a majority of skilled jobs were under the jurisdiction of the Local 72 of the Boilermakers Union, which refused to admit Black members. John Linder describes how during a time when shipyards needed skilled workers, “qualified Black workers were consigned to laboring jobs or forced to join a segregated and powerless ‘auxiliary local'.” Linder's article sheds light on some of that systemic discrimination reinforced by corporations and ignored by the federal government that has had lasting effects into the present. It also highlights that “significant victories were won by Black workers and organizers who relied on mass action rather than the promises and proclamations of government and company officials.