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Dist Columbia, District of Columbia in the 1940s: 1 through 3 of 3

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  1. A Defensive Policy Unheeded
    date January 1, 1940 to December 31, 1945map Jefferson, Alabama, Dist Columbia, District of Columbiatags Unions, Black Workers, Roosevelt, Labor Unions, Discrimination, Franklin D. Roosevelt, FDR

      Very infrequently do presidential policies go unnoticed around the world, and especially not so within the United States itself.  However, during the greater part of the Second World War, Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s positions on racial issues in the workplace were heard and often times not upheld.  Black workers were barred from facilities producing wartime goods throughout the country.  Munitions,...

  2. Esquire v. Walker: The Varga girl trial
    date October 1, 1943 to November 29, 1943map Dist Columbia, District of Columbiatags Law, Censorship, Pin-up, Varga

    This trial has everyone paying attention.  It is no wonder; the right to display pin-up art in men’s magazines is on trial.  Post Master General Walker is in Supreme Court against Arnold Gingrich and various brilliant lawyers of Esquire.  The prosecutor Walker assembles four assistant post masters to prove that Esquire’s Varga pin-ups “had gone too far in exploiting the female form”.  The...

  3. Monuments Men Recover Nazi Stolen Art
    date June 23, 1943 to June 8, 1946map Dist Columbia, District of Columbiatags Crime, War, Art/Leisure

      One month before the end of WWII, the American soldiers discovered a salt mine full of gold and paintings that had been looted and abandoned by the Nazis. On April 12, 1945, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, General Omar Bradley, and General George Patton ventured down into the Merkers salt mine to inspect the treasures found that day. Snapped in a photograph owned by the National Archives, the three...