Many southern African Americans migrated north because of the racial unrest and to help fill labor needs. It was during this time that W.E.B. Du Bois mobilized the NAACP and demanded that African Americans receive equal treatment (78.02.02: Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. DuBois: The Problem of Negro Leadership. (n.d.). Another key figure during this time was Booker T. Washington. Washington is remembered from his work with building the Tuskegee University. He often had a different viewpoint from Du Bois in that he believed equality demanded effort and not entitlement just because of the color of the skin (78.02.02: Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. DuBois: The Problem of Negro Leadership. (n.d.). It appears the aftermath of World War 1 was clearly the start of the Civil Rights movement in the United States as African Americans began organizing and fighting for equal rights. The war not only impacted African Americans, but women also. Prior to the war, most women’s lives centered around their farms and families, while the men did most of the outside work. Women would take the harvested crops and preserve them, and they also kept the inside of the living quarters intact. During this time, women had no political power, nor the right to …show more content…
Because of this, many women had to leave their farms and homes and began working “as streetcar conductors, radio operators, and in steel mills and logging camps during the war” (02.03.09: How War Changed the Role of Women in the United States. n.d.). Women also played other key supporting roles during the war such as growing food, washing clothes of the soldiers, sewing clothing for uniforms, and working in ammunition factories. Most of the time women were paid less than their male counterparts doing the same work ((02.03.09: How War Changed the Role of Women in the United States.