During World War II while the men went off the fight the women stayed behind to work in wartime industries, to keep America running. While much has been written on the contributions of white women, Rosie the Riveter, little has been written about the experiences of African-American women during the war. This book, Double Victory by Cheryl Mullenbach, gives young adult readers, middle/high school, a brief look into how they contributed to the war effort. The book does not so much look at individual people as much as looking at the different categories they worked in; whether it was in the factories, volunteers, entertainers, or as political activists. As a young adult book it does not go into much detail, and as always it kind of washes over the more hard to stomach racism that was still prevalent back then.

“In August 1944, factories across the country were in dire need of workers to build guns, bombs, planes, and ships for the US military.”

While it purports that this help bring down race and gender barriers, there is little evidence that happened, segregation still continued until the civil rights marches and activism. While this era might have given a boost to the African-American confidence that they could bring about change that was still a long ways off. Decent for young adult readers, just not the best.

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