REDS, WHITES, AND BLUES:

WORLD WAR II AND MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE

In the last light of evening on Sunday, 7 December 1941, a careful observer could have noticed a small but significant change in Memphis. At the Tennessee end of the Harahan Bridge, Memphis' only road link over the Mississippi River, four Memphis policemen stood guard. Armed with shotguns, the policemen patrolled the bridge from the Tennessee state line to the Memphis entrance while four searchlights illuminated the bridge pilings and traffic lanes. Across the river, Arkansas State Highway Police ensured the security of the western end of the bridge. Monday morning's edition of The Commercial Appeal carried Police Commissioner "Holy" Joe Boyle's announcement that the police stood ready to meet any emergency with "20 machine guns, of which 16 are new, 20 pump [shot]guns, four high-powered rifles, tear gas guns and ammunition."⁽¹⁾ The United States was at war, and Memphis was ready.

This small event in Memphis illustrates but one of the countless changes that occurred because of World War II. In many ways, it is representative of those changes as a whole, and of the signal way in which the war failed to alter Memphis. As one of the most segregated major cities in America at the onset of World War II, racial tension plagued the Memphis war effort and left bitter feelings among its African American citizens. Although World War II physically transformed Memphis, the societal changes it engendered are less obvious.

When war erupted in Europe in September 1939, Memphis found itself in a relatively stable economic condition. The worst of the Depression had passed, although slightly more than fourteen percent of the labor force was unemployed or receiving Works Progress Administration (WPA) assistance. The 1940 city population of 292,942 represented a 15.7 percent growth from the 1930 census figure of 253,143, even though the city did not annex any suburban areas during the decade.⁽²⁾ African Americans constituted 41.5 percent of the population. The remainder of the population, with the exception of thirty-eight persons of other races, was white.⁽³⁾

Memphis undertook sweeping changes in the 1930s to improve its tarnished national reputation as a dirty, violent, and bawdy city. Under the aegis of Edward Hull Crump, power broker of West Tennessee, an efficient cleanup campaign quickly produced impressive results. The city received first place in fire prevention from the National Fire Protection Association for three consecutive years, 1937-1939, earning one of the lowest fire insurance rates in the nation. The National Safety Council awarded Memphis first place in traffic safety in 1937, and again in 1941 when Memphis recorded only sixteen traffic fatalities.⁽⁴⁾ The American Public Health Association judged Memphis to have the most progressive health care system among American cities for 1940.⁽⁵⁾ Urban renewal razed many substandard neighborhoods, and by the end of 1940 over $15 million in housing projects were completed or under construction.⁽⁶⁾ Between 1936 and 1939, four new segregated public schools opened in Memphis, three "colored," one white.⁽⁷⁾ The notorious Beale Street casinos and brothels were closed in a massive raid early in 1940.⁽⁸⁾

In the years immediately before the war, the city engaged in an extensive advertising campaign to attract new industry, and residents, to Memphis. A 1940 publication, Memphis in Pictures, opened with four pages of photographs of the city's "$12,000,000 park and playground system."⁽⁹⁾ The Chamber of Commerce purchased full-page advertisements in New York and Chicago newspapers, promoting Memphis as the ideal business community.⁽¹⁰⁾ By the end of the year, tangible results of this effort could be seen in the city.

A report by the Tennessee Governor's Staff Division for Industrial Development revealed that the number of manufacturing concerns increased dramatically in Memphis during the war era, growing nearly forty percent from 329 in 1939 to 460 by 1947.⁽¹¹⁾ The economic impact of the war had similar effect throughout Tennessee. More than $430 million was spent in the state between July 1940 and June 1945 in manufacturing expansion, with over half devoted to ordnance plants. This sum excludes the vast expenditures of the Manhattan Project at Oak Ridge. Between 1939 and 1947, the number of Memphis production workers nearly doubled from 13,821 to 26,893.⁽¹²⁾

Cotton, the "king" of Memphis business, emerged from a long slump with the coming of the war. The federal government's support of cotton in the Depression resulted in an eleven-million bale surplus by 1939. That year saw the smallest export of cotton in over sixty years--some 3.4 million bales. Demand, generated by the war in Europe, caused this figure to almost double in 1940.⁽¹³⁾ During the war years, cotton acreage in the United States dropped from 25 million acres in 1940 to only 17.5 million acres by 1945, due to a shift to food crops. But with increased irrigation, cotton yields increased significantly, producing crops equal to those of the 1930s.⁽¹⁴⁾ Cotton prices held fairly steady during the war, averaging seventeen cents per pound in 1941 and around twenty cents per pound during the remainder of the war.⁽¹⁵⁾ The Memphis Cotton Exchange's role in the cotton industry increased dramatically during the war, with up to 41 percent of the nation's crop sold there.⁽¹⁶⁾ Official government policy discouraged cotton production, stressing the need for growing food products. One government-sponsored pamphlet went so far as to declare that the 1943 cotton crop could be dumped in the Gulf of Mexico without harming the war effort, thanks to the surplus. This claim was certainly a gross exaggeration. The pamphlet also noted that as a food source, the nutritional value of cottonseed oil was only one-third that of peanuts.⁽¹⁷⁾ Nevertheless, there was money to be made producing and selling cotton.

The war brought a temporary halt to the production of new automobiles as Detroit turned to producing military vehicles. In Memphis, it soon became a newsworthy event when new automobiles were available for sale.⁽¹⁸⁾ A far-sighted Memphian, Jimmy Dobbs, convinced his partner, Horace Hull, that the war presented a great opportunity for their business, Hull-Dobbs Ford. Borrowing $6.5 million, the company scoured the country for vehicles and parts. As the war ground on, the stored vehicles and parts were sold at considerable profit.⁽¹⁹⁾ Air transportation received a new addition in 1940 when Chicago & Southern Airlines moved its headquarters to Memphis. The Memphis Municipal Airport, served by three carriers, boasted thirty arrivals and departures per day.⁽²⁰⁾

As the United States prepared for war, the necessity of producing war matériel urgently required a reorganization of industry. The conversion of existing facilities from civilian to military production and the construction of new plants slowly gathered momentum, across the nation and in Memphis. In August 1940, the British government contracted with the Du Pont Company to build a smokeless powder plant at nearby Millington. By the end of the year, cotton-based powder began to flow to the beleaguered British. After the passage of the Lend-Lease Act in March 1941, the facility came under the jurisdiction of the United States Army. Officially designated as the Chickasaw Ordnance Works, the plant's output nevertheless continued to go to the British until the United States entered the war. The plant later produced two high explosives, TNT and DNT, in addition to smokeless powder. In a 1945 promotional publication, the plant received praise for its 2 percent injury rate--less than half the average for all ordnance establishments. While the publication expressed hope that the plant would be converted for post-war use, by 1946 its doors had closed for good.⁽²¹⁾

A part of the Civil War-era Navy Yard became the site of the largest shipbuilding facility in Memphis history. The Pidgeon-Thomas Iron Co., an old, well-established Memphis firm, handled a $20 million contract to produce assault vehicles for the Navy. The firm produced 193 LCTs (landing craft, tank) which were 112 feet in length and displaced 550 tons. These craft were designed to beach themselves in order to disgorge their deadly cargo.⁽²²⁾ The firm became one of four LCT shipyards to be awarded further Navy contracts in 1944 to ensure that an adequate supply of landing craft would be available in 1945, if needed.⁽²³⁾

Another ordnance plant at nearby Milan developed rapidly in 1941. Initial survey work began in January, and the first production line was in operation by September. Construction ended in late December, over two months ahead of schedule. The shell loading facility, known as the Wolf Creek Ordnance Plant, established a construction record for ordnance plants--moving from planning to completion in only ten months. The $28 million establishment, operated by the Procter & Gamble Defense Corporation, included over 400 buildings with housing facilities for over 1,000 employees. This huge complex boasted over ninety miles of blacktopped roads and sixty-seven miles of rail. Employing some 16,000 workers, the plant payroll exceeded $1,000,000 per week.⁽²⁴⁾

Two days after Pearl Harbor, a train called the Defense Special arrived in Memphis from Little Rock. One of three such trains dispatched by the Office of Production Management, the eight-car, red, white, and blue train carried exhibits from major manufacturers seeking subcontractors for numerous military items. Some 1,200 persons representing approximately 750 Memphis-area businesses toured the exhibits which included ordnance parts, gas masks, skis, radios, clothing, shoes, tents, aircraft parts, small tools, and many other items. The display achieved immediate results--the Navy placed an order with Memphis bag manufacturers for 975,000 sandbags. The Lewis Supply Company made arrangements with Westinghouse to produce gears requiring precision lathe work.⁽²⁵⁾ The Defense Special was scheduled to continue on through Tennessee to Nashville, Chattanooga, and Knoxville.⁽²⁶⁾

Established Memphis firms experienced some problems in converting to war production. The Ford Motor Company's plant closed for retooling in February 1942, laying off 1,100 workers "indefinitely."⁽²⁷⁾ A plant spokesman denied that Ford would be assembling jeeps and insisted that no orders for reopening had been received. The facility did reopen within two months but not to produce jeeps. Instead, the Ford facility produced over thirty-five precision-machined parts for Pratt & Whitney aircraft engines.⁽²⁸⁾

New businesses poured into Memphis: twenty in 1940 alone according to the Chamber of Commerce.⁽²⁹⁾ Most of these establishments only graced Memphis for the war's duration, closing soon after V-J Day. A notable exception, known as Memphis War Industries, survived the war. The firm manufactured a variety of items during the war, ranging from gun turret rings to aircraft gears to frozen food equipment. This last item proved to be the company's key to the future. Following the war, the company changed its name to the Frozen Food Locker Construction Co., Inc., manufacturing large walk-in freezer units.⁽³⁰⁾

Industrial expansion in Memphis was accompanied by significant expansion in military facilities. In a major reorganization, the War Department divided the United States into four areas, each with a field army. This resulted in the Second Army headquarters moving from Chicago to Memphis in late 1940.⁽³¹⁾ The mobilization of the National Guard and the introduction of Selective Service enormously swelled the ranks of the army in that year. The Second Army's mission was to bring its designated National Guard units up to Regular Army training standards and to take raw selectees from individual basic training through large-scale (corps and army level) tactical exercises.⁽³²⁾ Second Army established its headquarters at Second Street and Monroe Avenue in the former Marx and Bensdorf Building.⁽³³⁾ Many officers routinely wore civilian dress until Pearl Harbor, a surprising informality given the army commander's reputation.⁽³⁴⁾ In the summer of 1941, Lieutenant General Ben Lear made the front page of the New York Times in a petty incident involving some National Guard troops. These men "yoo-hooed" at several young women on a golf course where Lear was also present. He was outraged at this discourtesy and promptly punished the entire unit. As a result, Lear was ever after known as "Yoo-hoo" Lear.⁽³⁵⁾

The presence of Second Army headquarters in Memphis led to the development of another military installation in the area. The Army Air Force Directorate of Ground-Air Support planned a system of airfields to serve air units training with ground forces. The plan assumed that extensive facilities would be needed near each of the four army headquarters--New York, Memphis, San Antonio, and San Francisco. No facilities were built although leases for smaller bases were acquired at municipal airports in San Antonio and Memphis. In November 1942, the Army's Air Transport Command (ATC) established an air support base at the Memphis airport where $3 million was allocated for improvements. The base operated under the 4th Ferry Command, a title which belies its true significance. More than the mere delivery of aircraft and personnel, the ferrying commands of the ATC were responsible for the delivery of critically-needed items to every theater of the war.⁽³⁶⁾

In December 1940, the War Department considered Memphis for a large supply depot. By March 1941, a $17 million Quartermaster Supply Depot was announced for Memphis where twelve possible sites were under consideration. The chosen site, the Goodman tract, provided easy access to the Frisco Railroad Switching Yards and the municipal airport. Construction began in June 1941 under auspices of the Construction Quartermaster, but on 24 December the construction passed to the Corps of Engineers. The depot was officially activated on 1 January 1942, although construction was not completed until May. The depot underwent several name changes, emerging from the war as the Memphis Army Service Forces Depot. The 640-acre site offered more than ten million square feet of storage space.⁽³⁷⁾

In anticipation of war casualties, the War Department planned a large-scale hospital building program. Ultimately, the program consisted of sixty-six general hospitals scattered across the United States. Memphis learned in January 1942 that a large army hospital would be built in the city. The hospital, named for Brigadier General James M. Kennedy, was located in southeast Memphis off Shotwell Road. This inappropriate name was soon changed to Getwell Road. Originally envisioned as a 1,500-bed hospital, Kennedy General grew to an authorized bed capacity of 4,387 by April 1945, making it the second largest of the army's general hospitals. Kennedy General specialized in neurology, orthopedic surgery, thoracic surgery, neurosurgery, and psychiatry. Among the many individuals and organizations which provided services to the hospitalized soldiers, the Duration Club, formed in January 1945, offered monthly parties and convalescent weekends in members' homes. Their support continued well after the official end of the war; in 1948 the club was invited to continue its activities at Kennedy General after that institution passed to the Veterans Administration.⁽³⁸⁾

A number of other military facilities and organizations operated in the Memphis area during the war. The Army Air Forces maintained a supply depot at a 200-acre site on Jackson Avenue. The depot maintained stores of 80,000 items for shipment anywhere the Army Air Forces flew.⁽³⁹⁾ The United States Navy also developed extensive facilities in the Memphis vicinity. In 1942, the Navy secured the army's Park Field property near Millington for the use of naval aviation. Three separate naval activities were conducted on the property: the Naval Air Technical Training Center, producing aircraft mechanics; the Naval Air Station, conducting actual air operations; and the Naval Hospital, treating war casualties.⁽⁴⁰⁾ The United States Marine Corps also maintained units in the area, including the 5th Transport Battalion.⁽⁴¹⁾ The Memphis District of the Corps of Engineers found its flood control work severely curtailed by the war and in 1943 resorted to using volunteer German prisoners-of-war to fight levee breaches within the district.⁽⁴²⁾ The 43rd Detachment, Army Air Forces College Training Program (Air Crew) received instruction and housing at Memphis State Teachers College. In addition, the college participated in liaison training courses for military personnel.⁽⁴³⁾

Memphians expressed considerable pride in two particular bits of the country's military forces, a B-17 bomber named Memphis Belle, and the Navy's light cruiser USS Memphis. These namesakes provided a touchstone which enabled every Memphian to feel some connection to the war.

The Memphis Belle, named in honor of the pilot's girlfriend, Margaret Polk, attracted national attention when the crew became the first to complete the twenty-five missions required for rotation out of combat. In anticipation of the event, a color film under the direction of William Wyler captured the last mission--the bombardment of the submarine pens at Wilhelmshaven, Germany on 17 May 1943. The crew then returned to the United States with the Memphis Belle to lead a war bond drive. The famed romance became a casualty of the war bond tour, and the pilot married a woman from Asheville, North Carolina, instead. According to Ms. Polk, "all that wine, women, and song" put too much strain on the relationship.⁽⁴⁴⁾ In 1946 the city purchased the Memphis Belle from an aircraft salvage yard in Altus, Oklahoma, for $350.00. This famous aircraft now resides in a permanent display at Memphis' Mud Island Theme Park and Museum.⁽⁴⁵⁾

Of the five vessels to bear the name Memphis, four have been warships. The last of these warships, an Omaha-class light cruiser armed with twelve six-inch naval rifles, entered service as CL-13 on February 4, 1925. Two years later the USS Memphis retrieved Charles A. Lindbergh and the Spirit of St. Louis from France. In January 1943, the ship carried the flag of President Roosevelt during the Casablanca Conference. During most of the war the ship served in the South Atlantic, on patrol against blockade runners. Unlike the Memphis Belle, the USS Memphis did not survive. The vessel was decommissioned in December 1945, and sold for scrap.⁽⁴⁶⁾

Unlike most major cities, Memphis quickly grew accustomed to the sight of military personnel and equipment. In addition to the presence of the Second Army headquarters, 1940 saw the citizen-soldiers of Memphis' National Guard units don uniforms. Elements of the 115th Field Artillery Regiment, Tennessee National Guard, mobilized on 16 September. The Memphis guardsmen were part of the first increment of the National Guard to be called into federal service in World War II.⁽⁴⁷⁾ The unit, part of the 55th Field Artillery Brigade attached to the 30th Infantry Division, camped at the Mid-South Fairgrounds before departing for Fort Jackson, South Carolina.⁽⁴⁸⁾ On that same day, the Selective Service and Training Act became law. The first fifty selectees from Memphis received warm encouragement from the American Legion when a banquet was held in their honor shortly before their departure for basic training.⁽⁴⁹⁾ Following Pearl Harbor, Memphis recruiting offices went on a 24-hour schedule to process the flood of volunteers. A battalion of the 129th Infantry Regiment arrived in Memphis from Camp Forrest, Tennessee, for guard duty at various locations around the city.⁽⁵⁰⁾ The Commercial Appeal reported on 11 December that army guards and machine guns were guarding various elements of the Memphis utility systems. Army guards also assumed stations at the airport and the Harahan Bridge.⁽⁵¹⁾ Concern for the Harahan Bridge's safety apparently grew in the early months of the war. Officials of the Arkansas and Memphis Railway Bridge & Terminal Company and operators of the Harahan Bridge and Frisco (railway) Bridge told The Commercial Appeal that there were twenty to twenty-five guards on the two structures. The Memphis police were still stationed at the east end of the Harahan Bridge. Army officers who inspected the security arrangements deemed the measures ample.⁽⁵²⁾

Mayor Walter Chandler called for 1,500 ex-servicemen to join a "Veterans Emergency Regiment" sponsored by the American Legion. The volunteers would serve as air raid wardens in the unlikely event of an enemy air attack.⁽⁵³⁾ Air raid precautions were taken seriously, however; over 1,000 aircraft listening posts were established in Tennessee, and newspapers ran aircraft identification aids.⁽⁵⁴⁾ Although a blackout was planned for early 1942, it did not occur until 9 June.⁽⁵⁵⁾

The war affected almost every facet of life in Memphis. Almost immediately after Pearl Harbor, local dairies canceled Sunday deliveries, and by March 1943 had been reduced to every other day.⁽⁵⁶⁾ The population growth experienced by Memphis also put heavy strains on such basic city services as garbage removal. Some 450 tons of waste was being added daily to open dumps--until a new incinerator entered service in April 1945.⁽⁵⁷⁾

Housing shortages, a problem area before the war, reached what even the Chamber of Commerce admitted to be "critical" proportions by 1944. With the influx of some 30,000 to 40,000 people between Pearl Harbor and the end of 1943 and the almost total ban on new construction, the situation remained untenable until after the war.⁽⁵⁸⁾ While some military personnel managed to purchase homes in the area, many officers were forced into hotels during their stay in Memphis. The Peabody Hotel boasted of having no vacancies for the war's duration.⁽⁵⁹⁾ One program tried to curb the demand for housing by devising a "Live-at-Home" competition and securing pledges to remain at home from the rural public.⁽⁶⁰⁾

Even Memphis' children were officially enlisted in the war effort.⁽⁶¹⁾ Each of the twenty-one playgrounds for white children and the ten playgrounds for African American children sported a tin can collection center. The cans were collected each week and a $25.00 war bond awarded once a month to the child who collected the most. In addition, the children bought war stamps to reach their playground's goal--to "purchase" a piece of military equipment for the troops.⁽⁶²⁾

For the women of Memphis, the war offered unprecedented opportunity to move beyond traditional roles. But traditional roles were not neglected. Soon after Pearl Harbor, a dance was arranged for all uniformed soldiers in Memphis at the time. In announcing the gala event, The Commercial Appeal noted that the "Prettiest Girls In Memphis" would attend, including members of the Cotillion Club and sorority members from Southwestern College.⁽⁶³⁾ Memphis women also worked as volunteers at the Cotton Carnival Servicemen's Hall which served 133,519 military personnel from its opening 12 November 1942 until it closed 13 January 1946.⁽⁶⁴⁾ Women's clubs across Memphis organized war bond drives and tea-party fundraisers to provide candy bars for servicemen stationed at the Mid-South Fairgrounds.⁽⁶⁵⁾ Thousands of Memphis women found employment during the war. Most employees at the Chickasaw Ordnance Works were women, and women could be found throughout Memphis' industry. The Memphis Street Railway Company employed women as streetcar operators and bus drivers. Additionally, many women found employment with the federal government.⁽⁶⁶⁾ That same government actively encouraged women to leave the work place to open positions for returning veterans.

For the many Memphians of German heritage, patriotism became a point of pride during the war. One veteran of the World War I German Army, Richard Schuon, predicted Hitler's quick defeat. "There are many fine things about German civilization," he told The Commercial Appeal, but admitted that there was another side to it, too. Shuon noted that his son was serving in the United States Navy.⁽⁶⁷⁾ After Pearl Harbor, three German nationals were arrested by Memphis agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. When asked why more enemy aliens had not been arrested in Memphis, Special Agent E. E. Kuhnel replied that the Memphis area "simply does not have the radical foreign element" found elsewhere.⁽⁶⁸⁾ Surely Memphis area citizens of German heritage must have worried that they might be interred.

For the African American population of Memphis, the war years were tinged with irony. As early as May 1940, the national head of the Council on Americanism, Dr. James Wiley Bodley of Memphis, announced that "There are 2,000 known Communists in Memphis who are working to obtain support of negro sharecroppers by promising them social equality and distribution of property."⁽⁶⁹⁾ Dr. Bodley, a surgeon active in the local leadership of the American Legion, personally organized the Council on Americanism including branches in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Little Rock and Jonesboro, Arkansas. According to the Press-Scimitar, Bodley "was continually asking the police to investigate someone whose loyalty he questioned, or because he feared a Nazi `Bund' was being formed."⁽⁷⁰⁾

In spite of strictly enforced segregation, little access to employment other than menial labor, less than equal pay, verbal and often physical abuse, African American leaders in Memphis rallied to the flag. As the Reverend Arthur W. Womack told over 1,000 members of his Collins Chapel C.M.E. Church, "Now that our peace, our way of serving our God, our democracy and our bit of freedom are threatened, we must forget all past treatment and face our enemies, Japan, Italy and Germany, and beat them into the ground."⁽⁷¹⁾ In a related story, The Commercial Appeal noted that Beale Street had traded the blues for the red, white and blue. The article described the patriotic ceremonies to be held at the annual Blues Bowl football game, organized by Lieutenant George Washington Lee, the renowned novelist and African American leader. Among the featured events, W.C. Handy, "father of the blues," was scheduled to play The Star-Spangled Banner. The article concluded by noting that "a special section" would be reserved for whites.⁽⁷²⁾

The blues were not forgotten by Memphis African Americans during the war, and a tangible proof was delivered to the Army Air Force in the form of a Consolidated B-24 Liberator bomber named The Spirit of Beale Street. A war bond drive by the Colored Division of the Shelby County War Savings Staff, headed by Lieutenant Lee, collected $300,000 from the Memphis African American community to "purchase" the aircraft.⁽⁷³⁾

If one person's story can serve to illustrate the racial problem which blighted America's conduct in what Studs Terkel termed "the good war," then that story must be Jesse Turner's. This future executive vice president of the Tri-State Bank of Memphis received his draft notice in 1941. Even though he scored unusually well on army placement tests, Turner received orders for baker's school, "the only job for black soldiers at that time." He determined to face a general court martial rather than submit. Eventually, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant and posted to the 758th Light Tank Battalion, the first African American armored unit.⁽⁷⁴⁾ Often travelling from the Armored Command at Fort Knox to Memphis and Dallas, Turner recalled that "There was hardly a time when I came through Memphis that I was not stopped by a military policeman or civilian officer for impersonating an officer."⁽⁷⁵⁾

When V-J Day brought an end to World War II, the African American community in Memphis celebrated on Beale Street. Having received permission to violate Memphis' strict anti-noise regulations, automobile horns blared away on Beale Street. "Why... no sober-minded person could truthfully tell."⁽⁷⁶⁾

Following the official Japanese surrender on September 2, 1945, an editorial in the African American semi-weekly Memphis World boldly stated the plight of the African American community in the post-war world:

Negroes, thrown out of war jobs by the surrender of Japan are right back where they were in 1939 and 1940--faced with a complexion which by custom, makes them the first fired and the last hired. They face the added difficulty of being returned to the most menial and lowest paying jobs, plus few if any jobs at all.

The sixty million jobs expounded by Henry A. Wallace and labor hold about two million for Negroes. However, even these shall be hard to get and only at rates of pay reduced considerably from those of war time. In substance, it looks like the standards of living enjoyed the past four or five years, is going to be reduced and those Negroes who have heeded frequently given advice to save while they earned, while better off than the free-spenders, ought to hold closely to their savings in the face of impending unemployment and more bread lines.⁽⁷⁷⁾

The 1940 Census reported the presence of five persons of Japanese descent in Memphis, three foreign-born males, one foreign-born female, and one native-born minor female.⁽⁷⁸⁾ In a population of nearly 300,000, it is doubtful that many Memphians were aware of their presence. But Pearl Harbor elicited quick antagonism to anyone or anything Japanese. Two days after the attack, The Commercial Appeal noted that "The shadow of Japan ha[d] blighted the unclouded escutcheon of the negro Rising Sun Baptist Church." The two local congregations were urged to change the name of their churches. The Reverend Joseph Gedridge told the newspaper that the sect's churches in New Orleans were considering a name change but stressed that the local churches were "dyed-in-the-wool . . . with no foreign `tangleyments.'"⁽⁷⁹⁾

The next day, the newspaper reported that two city policemen were guarding the Japanese-owned Kuni Wada Bakery at 1310 Madison Avenue. An agent of the federal Alcohol Tax Unit was slated to replace one of the two patrolmen. The newspaper further stated that the bank accounts of the bakery's two owners and operators had been seized by order of the Federal Reserve Bank.⁽⁸⁰⁾

The chairman of the city park commission, John Vesey, announced the destruction of the Japanese Gardens in Overton Park on 2 January 1942. Vesey further stated that the commission would also vote on filling in the Japanese Lake to form a sunken garden.⁽⁸¹⁾ In an editorial, The Commercial Appeal asked:

Seriously, if the city government considered the Japanese Garden offensive, why didn't it call it a Chinese Garden? After all, the architecture of the two nations is the same [sic], and any genuine Japanese ornaments could have been substituted by Chinese. Better that than destroy a beauty spot, and Chinese heroism deserves a monument.⁽⁸²⁾

The Memphis Ministerial Association unanimously approved a resolution condemning "all movements which . . . seek to foster the spirit of hatred of our fellowmen in this time of conflict." One member of the association described the city's actions as "childish."⁽⁸³⁾ Vesey responded to the criticism by insisting that the determination to fill in the lake was made long before the war, in order to help control mosquitoes. The decision to "quietly take up the few Japanese objects" was characterized as a spur-of-the-moment inspiration when work began on filling the lake. He also noted that many citizens found Japanese objects objectionable.⁽⁸⁴⁾

A most unflattering portrait of Memphis appeared at the height of the war, in the pages of the London Economist. The anonymous article raged against the political machine of Edward H. "Boss" Crump, asserting that "Memphis is the scene of a defeat--defeat of the cause in which the United Nations fight, the cause of liberty and democracy." The article characterized the Memphis machine as a totalitarian government comparable to the regimes of Mussolini and Hitler. The author further lambasted the people of Memphis for abandoning their "right to take part in public affairs for light and transient causes."⁽⁸⁵⁾

Shields McIlwaine, a graduate of Memphis' Southwestern College, framed what many would consider the most important question to be answered by Memphians in the post-war era. "Will the returning soldiers of World War II throw out Crump and his Boys? Not if they behave like their doughboy fathers who had also fought for democracy. Some of Mr. Ed's best Boys are fervent legionnaires." McIlwaine sourly noted that Memphians got better than they deserved in Crump. "Italy has had to pay hard for Il Duce's drained marshes, model towns and farms. Can Memphis avoid paying for abandoning its political duty?"⁽⁸⁶⁾

McIlwaine's question was partially answered in 1948 when the Crump machine's candidate lost a senatorial election to Estes Kefauver. This first defeat in a state-wide race signalled the waning of Crump's influence in the last years of his life. Whether one can blame Memphis' turbulent post-war history on machine politics is a matter for debate. But clearly Memphis failed to address the inequities of its racial attitudes, a failure that had definite repercussions on the city's future.

1. "Police Department Has Guard at Bridge," Memphis Commercial Appeal, 8 December 1941, 17.

2. Robert A. Sigafoos, Cotton Row to Beale Street: A Business History of Memphis (Memphis: Memphis State University Press, 1979), 201, 205.

3. United States, Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Sixteenth Census of the United States: 1940 Population, Vol. 2, Characteristics of the Population: Part 6, Pennsylvania-Texas (Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1943), 709-710.

4. Memphis Chamber of Commerce, Memphis: A Short Historical Sketch with a Summary of Important Dates (n.p., [1950]), 12.

5. Shields McIlwaine, Memphis: Down in Dixie (New York: E.P. Dutton and Company, Inc., 1948), 359.

6. Chamber of Commerce, 12.

7. David Moss Hilliard, "The Development of Public Education in Memphis Tennessee, 1848-1945," (Ph.D. diss., University of Chicago, 1946), 61.

8. Linton Weeks, Memphis: A Folk History (Little Rock: Parkhurst Publishers, 1982), 116.

9. George C. Bridges, Memphis in Pictures: The Thirties (n.p., 1940; reprint, n.p.: Don Lancaster Company, 1985), [2].

10. Sigafoos, 205.

11. A manufacturing establishment was defined as making products valued at over $5,000 in a year.

12. Tennessee Governor's Staff Division for Industrial Development, Tennessee Industrial Economy, by Ronald E. Carrier, Karen S. Johnson, and William R. Schriver (Memphis: Bureau of Business and Economic Research, Memphis State University, 1966), 12.

13. David L. Cohn, The Life and Times of King Cotton (New York: Oxford University Press, 1956; reprint, Westport, CN: Greenwood Press, 1973), 258.

14. James H. Street, The New Revolution in the Cotton Economy (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1957), 69.

15. Walter W. Wilcox, The Farmer in the Second World War (Ames, IA: The Iowa State College Press, 1947), 218-219.

16. Sigafoos, 349.

17. Iowa State College, Wartime Farm and Food Policy: Pamphlets 1-11 (Ames, IA: The Iowa State College Press, 1943-45; reprint, New York: Arno Press, 1976), Pamphlet No. 1, 11.

18. Memphis/Shelby County Public Library and Information Center, Memphis and Shelby County Room [hereinafter MSCR] clippings file, "50 Years Ago," Memphis Commercial Appeal, 28 October 1992. The article noted the delivery of seventy new 1942 model vehicles to Memphis from the federal rationing pool.

19. Helen M. Coppock and Charles W. Crawford, eds., Paul R. Coppock's Mid-South (Memphis: West Tennessee Historical Society, 1985), 187-188.

20. Chamber of Commerce, 12; Bridges, [14-15].

21. Harry C. Thomson and Lida Mayo, The Ordnance Department: Procurement and Supply. United States Army in World War II, The Technical Services, gen. ed. Kent Roberts Greenfield (Washington, D.C.: Department of the Army, 1960), 110-111; Helen M. Coppock and Charles W. Crawford, eds., Paul R. Coppock's Mid-South, Vol. II: 1971-1975 (Memphis: Paul R. Coppock Publication Trust, 1992), 8-10; Memphis Press-Scimitar, There Won't Be Any Letdown in Memphis When It's Over: Memphis Industries Are Ready for Peace (Memphis: Memphis Press-Scimitar, 1945), 20.

22. Helen M. Coppock and Charles W. Crawford, eds., Paul R. Coppock's Mid-South (Memphis: West Tennessee Historical Society, 1985), 40; Samuel Eliot Morison, The Two-Ocean War: A Short History of the United States Navy in the Second World War (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1963), 248.

23. Press-Scimitar, Letdown, 5.

24. "Shell Plant to Pass to Army Wednesday," Memphis Commercial Appeal, 29 December 1941, 9.

25. "The Defense Special," Memphis Commercial Appeal, 8 December 1941, 8; "Manufacturers Glean Ideas Aboard Defense Train Here," Memphis Commercial Appeal, 9 December 1941, 18; "Hundreds Study War's Needs at Memphis Defense Clinic," Memphis Commercial Appeal, 10 December 1941, 11.

26. "Defense Exhibition Planned in Memphis," Memphis Commercial Appeal, 8 December 1941, 19.

27. "Memphis Ford Plant Closed Indefinitely," Memphis Commercial Appeal, 2 February 1942, 9.

28. Press-Scimitar, Letdown, 26.

29. Chamber of Commerce, 12.

30. Press-Scimitar, Letdown, 18. This pamphlet details twenty-six Memphis-area manufacturers and their post-war plans. Of these firms, twenty-two still operated in Memphis in 1948. Polk's Memphis (Shelby County, Tenn.) City Directory: 1948, St. Louis: R.L. Polk & Co, 1948.

31. Second Army headquarters was in Memphis from 5 December 1940 to 11 June 1946 when another reorganization resulted in its removal to Baltimore. Its commander, Lieutenant General Ben Lear, retired to Memphis after the war and in 1958 unveiled a granite and bronze memorial commemorating the Second Army's World War II service. Memphis State University, Mississippi Valley Collection [hereinafter MVC] Press-Scimitar morgue, Memphis Press-Scimitar, 8 November 1958; MSCR clippings file, Memphis Commercial Appeal, 9 November 1958.

32. Kent Roberts Greenfield, Robert R. Palmer, and Bell I. Wiley, The Organization of Ground Combat Troops, The United States Army in World War II, The Army Ground Forces, gen. ed. Kent Roberts Greenfield (Washington, D.C.: Department of the Army, 1947), 74. Second Army eventually trained over 500,000 troops. MSCR clippings file, Paul R. Coppock, "The Big War Brought Big Changes to Memphis," Memphis Commercial Appeal, 19 February 1976.

33. Ibid. In addition, a lease was later taken for use of the Mid-South Fairgrounds.

34. "Army officers Here Will Wear Uniforms," Memphis Commercial Appeal, 8 December 1941, 4.

35. New York Times, 8 July 1941, 1; Jim Dan Hill, The Minuteman in Peace and War: A History of the National Guard, With a Forward by George Fielding Eliot, (Harrisburg, PA: The Stackpole Company, 1964), 392. The National Guardsmen were members of the 110th Motor Transport Battalion, attached to the 35th Infantry Division stationed at Camp Joseph T. Robinson in North Little Rock, Arkansas. The unit returned to the Arkansas camp where it was immediately ordered back to Memphis. After the battalion's officers and NCOs (non-commissioned officers) were dressed down by Lear, the unit was required to pass through Memphis in correct military fashion.

36. Wesley Frank Craven and James Lea Cate, eds., The Army Air Forces in World War II. Vol 6, Men and Planes (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1955), 158, 160; Chamber of Commerce, 13.

37. United States, Department of Defense, Defense Supply Agency, A Pocketbook of Facts About Defense Depot Memphis (n.p., [1965]), [1].

38. Clarence McKittrick Smith, The Medical Department: Hospitalization and Evacuation, Zone of the Interior, United States Army in World War II, The Technical Services, gen. ed. Kent Roberts Greenfield (Washington, D.C.: Department of the Army, 1956), 304-313; Michele Fagan, "Kennedy General Hospital: The War Years, 1941-1945," Tennessee Historical Quarterly 51 (Summer 1992): 114; Duration Club Incorporated, [Directory and Report] (Memphis: Duration Club Incorporated, 1965), 38-39.

39. MSCR clippings file, Coppock, "Big War." The depot continued to serve the Air Force after it became an independent branch in 1947. In 1957, the Air Force ordered the depot phased out by 1962.

40. Ibid.; Coppock, Vol. II, 158-159.

41. MSCR clippings file. Unfortunately, the article was found to be missing from the collection.

42. Floyd M. Clay, A Century on the Mississippi: A History of the Memphis District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 1876-1976 (n.p.: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Memphis District, 1976), 176-177.

43. Otis H. Jones, Memphis State University: First Half Century (Memphis: Privately printed, 1962), 271, 273. Memphis State Teachers College is now the University of Memphis, effective 1 July 1994.

44. Margaret Polk, "History of the Memphis Belle," interview by Susan Carlisle Elliott, 24 October 1989, TD, Oral History Research Office, Memphis State University, 1989, 17.

45. Edward Jablonski, Flying Fortress: The Illustrated Biography of the B-17 and the Men Who Flew Them (Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1965), 121; Stephen Pepper, comp., The Memphis Belle: A Collection of the Memphis and Shelby County Room (Memphis: Memphis/Shelby County Public Library and Information Center, 1986), 2. The pilot of the Memphis Belle, Robert K. Morgan, became the first B-29 pilot to bomb Tokyo.

46. United States, Department of the Navy, Naval History Division, Dictionary of American Fighting Ships, vol. 4 (Washington, D.C.: Department of the Navy, 1969), 317-320; Francis E. McMurtrie, ed., Jane's Fighting Ships: 1939 (n.p.: Sampson Low Marston, 1939; reprint, Devon, England: David & Charles Limited, 1971), 498; Emory Grinnell, "Ships Bearing Memphis' Name Have Served Nation 83 Years," Memphis Commercial Appeal, 28 December 1941, 8. The fifth vessel bearing the name Memphis was an oil tanker built in 1944 as Esso Memphis, acquired by the Navy in 1956 and renamed Memphis.

47. MSCR clippings file, Memphis Commercial Appeal, 17 September 1940: Franklin D. Roosevelt, The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Vol. 9, War--And Aid to Democracies, 1940 (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1941; reprint, New York: Russell & Russell, 1969), 357-359. The unit was federalized by Executive Order No. 8530.

48. Shelby L. Stanton, Order of Battle: U.S. Army, World War II (Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 1984), 378.

49. MSCR clippings file, "Tramp, Tramp! First Draftees on the Way," Memphis Commercial Appeal, 4 December 1940.

50. Bruce Tucker, "Hearts Pound As Young, Old Flock To Colors While City Girds Its Loins For Battle," Memphis Commercial Appeal, 9 December 1941, 1, 7.

51. "Big Industries Here Policed By Sentries," Memphis Commercial Appeal, 11 December 1941, 21.

52. "More Guards Placed At Two Spans Here," Memphis Commercial Appeal, 1 February 1942, 9.

53. "Mayor Issues Call For City Defenders," Memphis Commercial Appeal, 3 February 1942, 1-2.

54. "Air Raid Precautions," Memphis Commercial Appeal, 16 December 1941, 8; Memphis Commercial Appeal, 1 February 1942, sec. 4, p. 9.

55. "Memphis to Undergo First Blackout Soon," Memphis Commercial Appeal, 14 December 1941; Sigafoos, 207.

56. "Dairies Stop Sunday Rounds, Memphis Takes It in Stride," Memphis Commercial Appeal, 1 February 1942, 6; MSCR clippings file, "50 Years Ago," Memphis Commercial Appeal, 2 March 1993.

57. T. E. Maxson, "New Incinerator Solves a Wartime Problem," The American City 60 (May 1945): 81.

58. Chamber of Commerce, 13; Sigafoos, 208.

59. "Officer Buys a Home Here for His Family," Memphis Commercial Appeal, 1 February 1942,sec. 3, p. 4; Mary Ann Strong Connell, "The Peabody Hotel," (M.A. thesis, University of Mississippi, 1959), 70.

60. "P. to P. Enrolment Off to Brisk Start," Memphis Commercial Appeal, 1 February 1942, 17. The "Live-at-Home" program complemented the "Food for Freedom" and "Plant to Prosper" programs. All were sponsored by the Department of Agriculture.

61. The Treasury Department issued guidelines to encourage the purchase of war stamps by children.

62. Martha Macon Byrnes, "A Clinking and a Clanking Down in Memphis!." Recreation 37 (August 1943): 257-258, 299.

63. "Prettiest Girls in Memphis to Attend Soldiers' Dance," Memphis Commercial Appeal, 29 December 1941, 9. Southwestern College is now Rhodes College.

64. MSCR clippings file, "It's Goodbye--And Thanks!," Memphis Commercial Appeal, 13 January 1946.

65. "Local Women Named to Aid Bond Sales," Memphis Commercial Appeal, 9 December 1941, 18; "Club Women Mobilize to Aid in Furthering War Effort," Memphis Commercial Appeal, 1 February 1942, sec. 5, p. 4.

66. Sigafoos, 207.

67. Ward Archer, "Fought Four Years for Kaiser, Now His Son is in U.S. Navy," Memphis Commercial Appeal, 17 May 1940, 17.

68. "Two Germans Taken By FBI in Memphis," Memphis Commercial Appeal, 13 December 1941, 1; "Third German Alien Arrested in Memphis," Memphis Commercial Appeal, 15 December 1941, 11.

69. "`2000 Reds Busy Here' -- Bodley," Memphis Press-Scimitar, 18 May 1940, 2.

70. MSCR clippings file, "Dr. Jas. Bodley Dies in Navy Day Parade," Memphis Press-Scimitar, 28 October 1942; MSCR clippings file, "He Died as He Would Have Wished It," Memphis Commercial Appeal, 28 October 1942. Dr. Bodley became commander of the Tennessee Department of the American Legion on 10 August 1942. In addition, he was appointed brigadier general of the Tennessee State Guards (the replacement force for the federalized National Guard) in command of the 1st Brigade. Ironically, he died of a heart attack while marching in the 1942 Navy Day parade in Memphis.

71. "Negro Calls for Unity," Memphis Commercial Appeal, 15 December 1941, 15.

72. "Beale Street Swaps `Blues' for the Red, White and Blue," Memphis Commercial Appeal, 15 December 1941, 15.

73. "`Spirit of Beale Street' Chosen as Bomber Plane Name," Memphis World, 15 January 1943, 1; Kitty Plunkett, Memphis: A Pictorial History (Norfolk, VA: The Donning Company, 1976), 189.

74. Stanton, 301. The 758th departed the Hampton Roads Port of Embarkation 22 October 1944 and arrived in Italy on 17 November. The unit participated in the North Apennines and Po Valley Campaigns. It was deactivated in Bassina, Italy, on 25 September 1945.

75. Patricia F. Morris, "Jesse Turner: A Man Meeting the Challenge," Black Heritage: Memphis and the Mid-South, Memphis Commercial Appeal Newspaper in the Classroom Program (Memphis: Memphis Publishing Co., 1981), 25-26. Turner's account is echoed by Harry Duplessis, a second lieutenant with the 758th. Mary Penick Motley, ed., The Invisible Soldier: The Experience of the Black Soldier, World War II (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1975), 327-334.

76. "Beale Street Goes Wild on V-J Day -- Why Ask the Wise," Memphis World, 17 August 1945, 2. The article noted with some bitterness that "After all, Beale Street is a colored man's street."

77. "Job Hunting Again," Memphis World, 7 September 1945, 8.

78. Census, Characteristics, 710.

79. "Rising Sun Church Blighted by Japan," Memphis Commercial Appeal, 9 December 1941, 9.

80. "F.D.R. Sees Invasion Threat, Orders Axis Nationals Seized--Memphis Acts," Memphis Commercial Appeal, 10 December 1941, 1.

81. MSCR clippings file, "Japanese Gardens Destroyed by City," Memphis Press-Scimitar, 2 January 1942.

82. Ibid., "Memphis Helps, Too!," Memphis Commercial Appeal, 3 January 1942.

83. Ibid., "`Childish Act,' Ministers Say," Memphis Press-Scimitar, 5 January 1942.

84. Ibid., "City Commission Dooms Overton's Japanese Lake," Memphis Press-Scimitar, 7 January 1942. A clear change of attitude is evident with the passage of time. The annual Memphis in May International Festival, honoring another country, was dedicated to Japan in 1977. MVC pamphlet collection, "Memphis in May International Festival Honoring Japan: Major Events," Memphis: Memphis Area Chamber of Commerce, [1977?].

85. London Economist, 1943, quoted in Gerald M. Capers, Jr, "Memphis: Satrapy of a Benevolent Despot," chap. in The Biography of a River Town: Memphis - Its Heroic Age, 2d ed., (n.p.: By the author, 1966), 314.

86. Shields McIlwaine, Memphis: Down in Dixie (New York: E.P. Dutton and Company, Inc., 1948), 386.

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