World War II provided a turning point for the United States of America’s political and economic landscape. It provided the industrial workers with the opportunity to seek redress about their working conditions. They formed organized groups and unions to fight for recognition.
In his book, Himes Chester narrates a fictional story of a man called Robert Bob Jones (Himes 33). The man moves from Ohio with a college education. He settles in Los Angeles. He was an African American trying to settle down. In Los Angeles, he secured a job as a shipyard worker during World War 2. The story spans about four days into the life of Bob Jones but sparks the fears and experiences of the black people in America (Himes 25).
During this time, the black people had acquired a newfound authority as supervisors, and this makes him attain the position of a crew leader in the naval Atlas Shipyard. They earned decent wages due to the agitations of the workers’ unions. He soon realized that the job was supposed to enable him to facilitate the cooperation of black workers in the war-time effort (Himes 35). It wasn’t to enable him to earn status. Racism reigns in the workplace as resentment for the blacks becomes apparent. He becomes angry because of the ill-treatment of the white people around him.
Bob Jones feels that his dreams, passion, and aspirations are under attack. He reacts with negative emotions to the white people. He tries to control himself against the possibility of revenge through killing or fighting. He feels insecure in a white-dominated world. His co-worker, Madge Perkins, is a white female who infuriates him because of her racial remarks. In an attempt to get back at her and the whites, Bob Jones wants to punish her (Himes 40). But soon he withdraws from that action when he realizes that she wants to use it as bait. His girlfriend, a light-skinned Alice Harrison, advises him against reacting with anger since he could not solve the problem that way. Alice and her parents want him to accept his condition and work with the whites. The employer demotes Bob Jones for using unacceptable language against his co-worker and superior.
He has to fight anti-communist paranoia, deal with the class divisions among the whites and blacks, and color differentiation among African-Americans (Himes 40). His elevation to leadership was a result of the struggles others had gone through previously. But the changes did not solve the racial tensions in the society.
The position only gave him prestige but not influence. His supervisor, Madge did not even want to work with him and used sexual advances only to lure him to make a mistake (Himes 50). As a result, his expectations do not materialize. His desire to have a job and improve his life does not work out due to circumstances at work. He has to join the army because of his mistakes. His anger and revenge plans put him in trouble.
George Lipsitz’s Rainbow at Midnight outlines the events of World War 2 and work relations (Lipsitz and Lipsitz 25). People get accustomed to their way of life if nothing is disrupting that normalcy. But the kind of life the African-Americans led before, during, and after the war made them realize that their white counterparts did not see them as respectable people. It resulted in a transformative era due to the agitations of the black people (Lipsitz and Lipsitz 65).
Rainbow at Midnight narrates the struggle that African Americans underwent when they fought to gain status at a time when the country was also fighting a world war. The major strikes they organized during and after the war brought about change. It caused the government to rethink its strategies about the working conditions (Lipsitz and Lipsitz 75). Even after the constitutional implementations, a black man named Walter Jackson faces hostility in a bid to occupy the federally funded housing project. The Sojourner Truth Project was one of the results of the struggles to provide suitable housing for workers.
The hatred the blacks developed against the white majority was because of the bad treatment they received at work and social joints. They lived in a society that did not value them as equals. The whites practiced racial discrimination in churches, homes, workplaces, and political parties. The blacks could not field a candidate and support such candidate to win an election due to barriers placed there to prevent them (Lipsitz and Lipsitz 60). Job promotions were not on merit as well.
Hank Williams was a white singer who originated from the South. He had grown up watching how the world treated the blacks. He sang songs and promoted black musicians in the streets. He invited them to play and paid them for their work.
After the war, many of the successes that the blacks had attained before the war became futile. The union organizers, with the help of the employers, tightened the rules for the workers. They did not allow the workers to rise or voice their concerns. It led to major strikes and street protests. Due to their well-organized attempts, the government had to hear some of their concerns and provide guidelines for the new changes. It resulted in the Second New Deal Works Progress Administration legislation.
Works Cited
Himes, Chester B. If He Hollers Let Him Go. New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 1986. Print.
Lipsitz, George, and George Lipsitz. Rainbow at Midnight. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1994. Print.