Cutting out, as you remember, africanamericans with the idea that africanamericans are corrupting the vote because they want handouts from the government. Theyre cutting out laborers because of the idea that organized labor also wants a handout from the government. Theyre not always even so sure about the robber barrens because theyre concerned they are the industrialists are switching the congress and legislatures to unfairly benefit them. Theres a lot of people like susan b. Anthony said that maybe shouldnt have a say, maybe they shouldnt they should be taken into consideration. Maybe class should be taken into consideration. Maybe education should be taken into consideration. But women are good wives and mothers. Theyre going to vote the right way, so long as they are wives and mothers. In 1890, the year after that, mind you, theres no direct correlation. Im just giving you the line here. The National Womens Suffrage Association, american National Womens Suffrage Association merge to become the National American womens Suffrage Association in 1890. What they do is focus on getting the suffrage, focus on getting the vote. This alienates a number of the people who had been part of a National Womens Suffrage Association and they make susan b. Anthony the president , the honorary president of this o organization. She was an elderly woman, and she sailed for europe shortly after. Its clear her moment has passed and the focus will be on suffrage. Crucially, there idea of suffrage and women having a say in American Society, by 1890, relies not only on the idea that everybody should have equal rights, but rather that some people belong in American Society because of the way they think or who they are. So i have talked about the rise of lynching after 1889 and the idea that certain africanamericans should not participate in American Society. I have talked about the government using the troops in both homestead and pullman against strikers. Women arent part of that. Women want the suffrage insist they should have the suffrage because theyre good wives and mothers. Theyre going to clean up American Society. Theyre not going to ask the government for any special favors. Theyre on the right team, if you will. And this is a powerful argument. So, for example, the first woman elected to congress from montana in 1917, is not the first to sit in congress, by the way. Youll hear about the first woman to sit in congress in a few weeks. But shes the first woman elected to congress. She was a member of this organization. This worked. The idea that people should get the vote because theyre wives and mothers. And i want to argue that when women get the vote, when they begin to push this idea, they do it very deliberately. So after 1890, after the mississippi constitution i talked about, which restricted the vote based on education or poll taxes in the south, the whole range of new constitutional conventions that led to new constitutions after 1890 in the south, bualso in the north, there are a number of new constitutions that take the vote away from africanamerican men, from poor men, from immigrants, at the very moment that women are getting the vote. Which is really interesting, and women get the vote in part because they argue they will purify American Society. Theyre not like those people trying to use the government for the wrong ends. They will use the government for Good American families. And i love these images because women not only wear white when theyre arguing for suffrage, but they also push their babies. Look at this image here of them dressed in white, pushing their babies. Not because they deserve to have equal because everybody deserves to have equal rights, but because women must participate in an American Society, but they must participate in a particular American Society. It is no longer an American Society based on the idea that every human being by definition should have a say in American Society. It is now the idea of an American Society in which certain people should have a say in American Society because they are defending the idea of a nuclear family, of a government that is not beholden to any special interests, that in fact will advance that idea that we talked about from lincoln through horacio alger, onto the late 19th century. A middle class idea, if you will, an ideal that the government should not respond to everybody. Should not be responding to those africanamericans who have been read out of the krucountry not responding to the organized labors who many accuse of trying to pervert American Society. It should respond to a group of people who claim not to want special interests, who claim not to want any help from the government. And paradoxically, because they dont want anything from the government, they are the very ones who should control it. And of course, they may be the ones who can control it, they will control it for their own interest. Its this moment, the rise of an articulated look at how women should participate in American Society, that we crystallize in the late 19th century, the idea of an american middle class. Are there any questions about this . All right. Lets pick it up on thursday with a long day. Dorothy richardson. Cspans Convention Coverage begins today live at 7 20 eastern. The final night speakers include marsha blackburn, oklahoma governor mary fallin, rnc chair reince priebus, Donald Trumps daughter ivanka, and finally, donald trump himself. Making america one again is the theme of the convention tonight. Our preconvention show starts at 5 30 eastern. Again, live coverage of the Rnc Convention begins tonight at 7 20 eastern. Next on lectures in history, Marshall University professor Kent Williams teaches a class about women and life on the homefront during world war ii. She describes the women aiding in factories and military auxiliary units and the rise of Womens Baseball Leagues during the time, including the allamerican girls professional baseball league, which operated from 1943 to 1954. Her class is about an hour ten minutes. All right, you guys ready to talk about world war ii on the home front . Last time you guys saw part of a documentary called total war and i know that some of those images were probably pretty gruesome. One of the reasons i show that to you is to give you a sense of what that concept, total war, means. War is never i dont care what war were talking about it is never simply about two armies fighting one another on a battlefield. It is all encompassing. I think that video probably helped to show that. It gives you an opportunity to see, and i think the news reels and things, the images on there, give you an opportunity to see what that was like. What the beginning of world war ii was like in europe, specifically, and of course in japan as well. At the beginning of the semester, i told you guys my mantra. I dont know if you remember that or not, but its all about perspective. Thats how i teach. Thats how i teach history. Thats my mantra when it comes to my own research and scholarship. Its all about perspective. When i talk to you about that at the beginning of the semester, i used world war ii as an example to illustrate that. Were going to come back to that now. The images you saw from the battlefield and from the bombings in europe, thats one perspective. If all you do is see that video, if all you do is hear the stories of the infantry men who were on the beaches in normandy. If all you do is talk about the impact of war on sailors, youre only getting one perspective and you really dont understand world war ii. You might understand one piece of that military history, but you dont really understand world war ii. As i said to you before, in order to really understand world war ii, you have to look at world war ii from all different perspectives. In order to understand it, yes, its important to look at it through the eyes of that 20yearold marine on normandy. But its also important to look at it through the eyes of japaneseamericans. Through the eyes of women and africanamericans. You simply cannot understand the full impact, the total war impact unless you do that. So what were going to do today is sort of flesh that out a little bit. The greatest effect that war has on the people involved is change. In war times, change occurs. And that seems like a very simple statement, but it doesnt just occur on a global scale or a national scale. It changes us individually. It changes the way we see the world. It changes the way we are in the world. Whether were talking about world war ii or whether were talking about vietnam or whether were talking about the war with iraq, people change as a result of war. And its not just the people pointing guns at one another. People change as a result of war. One of the most incredible changes, and one that i guarantee you, if you spend any time talking about or studying world war ii, i suspect this is not a change or not a piece of it that you have talked about. But one of the most incredible change changes is an identity. Individualual identity. The changes that happen to us as individuals. World war ii specifically, and i believe you can make this argument for about any war, but we happen to be talking about world war ii. World war ii specifically enabled people to learn about each other, about other cultures, different races, ethnicities, cultures. Genders. All of a sudden, were doing similar things out in the world. Were working in similar jobs. We had a common enemy. That change was huge. And it was felt long after world war ii. War in general and specifically world war ii for many women and africanamericans particularly was about gaining strength and mobility. From the beginning of this countrys history, women and first africans and then africanamericans, have always been limited in their mobility. War helped to change that. War was very much a doorway through which women ventured out of the homes where they had been, and for africanamericans, it was a way to overcome the racism, at least temporarily. Now im not trying to suggest that, ah, thank god there was a war because now africanamericans and women have an opportunity to bust out and gain some equality. It was just the effects of war. It was a byproduct of war. Keeping in mind this idea of it is all about perspective and this idea that in order for us to truly understand world war ii, to truly understand the impact the total war impact of the war, we have to look at individuals. Now, we could spend the entire semester doing this. We could spend weeks and weeks talking about the impact of world war ii on japanese americans and an entire semester talking about the impact of world war ii on africanamericans and certainly another semester talking about women. And were going to in a class period or two, we were going to be addressing the Civil Rights Movement, the modern Civil Rights Movement, and well talk more specifically about the connections between world war ii and the modern Civil Rights Movement then. Ill going to spend a little time talking about the impact on africanamericans, but there will be a lot more of it when we get to the Civil Rights Movement. Afric africanameric africanamericans, and i said this to you guys when we were talking about world war i. Africanamericans have served valiantly in every single war or conflict this country has ever been part of. And certainly, world war ii was no different. The figures for the numbers of africanamericans who served in world war ii are these. First of all, prior to, say, 1941, there were fewer than 4,000 africanamericans serving in the military. And only 12 12 africanamericans had become officers. By 1945, more than 1. 2 million africanamericans were serving in the United States military, in the pacific, in europe, and on the homefront. Yeah . In 1945. By 1945. We all have seen those images of what happened to recruiting stations after pearl harbor, havent we . After pearl harbor, after the United States was attacked by japan at pearl harbor, every young man, old man, middle age man, just about every man that could possibly do so went to a recruiting office and signed up. You dont get to attack us. Young men lied about their ages and got in. Old men lied about their ages and got in. Men who were probably physically not capable lied and got in. And the same was true of africanamerican men. This was not just white men. It was everyone. Including some of those Asian American men who were not taken to kindly. Africanamerican men joined the military in huge numbers. In huge numbers. Unfortunately, however, the segregation that was present in the United States at the time spilled over into military life. Africanamerican soldiers were given in many cases supplies that were maybe not up to snuff. They were given boots that didnt fit. Now, not always. Obviously im being very general here to make this point. Sometimes the uniform did not fit and we did not want them in combat. They were often expected to do things such as service duty, kitchen work, supply, maintenance, transportation. Now this was in the beginning of the war at least. Many drove supplies during dday. How many of you have seen the movie saving private ryan . I mentioned this to you before but its a perfect image of what im talking about. That 30 minutes, the first 30 minutes of saving private ryan, horribly, horribly bloody, and as i understand it, fairly accurate portrayal. Theres a scene, a shot at the very end of that 30 minutes and its a shot thats down the beach. Theres no one talking and there are bodies littered everywhere. The water is red from blood. And off in the distance for just a few seconds, you can see hot air balloons. Africanamerican men piloted hot air balloons over the beaches on dday. Im not sure which end of the gun to hold, but i could shoot that down. Those are incredibly dangerous jobs, by the way, not really a movie critic here but i will say that appeared to be the only nod to africanamericans in Steven Spielbergs movie. The efforts of africanamericans were second to none. The bravery second to none, but those are the kinds of jobs they were given. It was invaluable. The information they were able to radio back from being at that Vantage Point very valuable. But very, very dangerous. They also loaded and unloaded live ammunition. Still, we did not want them in, quote, combat. That started to change, as you can imagine, as the war continued. And we needed more and more men in battle. We started to include africanamericans in some of those battalions. One of the things that the Army Air Force did was start to recognize that we needed more pilots. We needed people to protect fighters. We needed pilots who would fly supply missions. So a group of africanamerican pilots that became known as the Tuskegee Airmen, many of you have heard of the Tuskegee Airmen . A couple of really good movies about the Tuskegee Airmen. [ inaudible ] im sorry . Can you spell that please . Tuskegee. The Tuskegee Airmen. The Tuskegee Airmen flew support missions. They protected bombers over southern italy. They flew more than 15,000 missions. Between may 1943 and 1945. 66 Tuskegee Airmen died in combat. Certainly the Tuskegee Airmen were not the only africanamerican men to serve valiantly during the war, but its the one that most of us have heard of. Africanamerican men continued to serve in every branch of the military. By the way, every branch of the military was segregated until 1948 when harry truman decided that was not appropriate. They served in segregated military units. They went off to war, they fought and they died for democracy. Yes. [ inaudible question ] 1948. They went off to war and they fought and they died for democracy. They fought and died for the United States yet they lived in a segregated world. Remember our conversations about jim crow from the cradle to the grave . They lived in that segregated world. A leader, one of the leaders of the black community, a man named a. Phillip randolph, the initial a. , phillip randolph. A. Phillip randolph was extremely important figure in the black community. And he said to africanamerican men, fight for freedom. If you go off and fight for freedom for this country, they simply cannot take away your freedom when you get home. He helped to institute something called the doublev campaign, v as in victory. The Double V Campaign basically said victory overseas and equality at home. You cannot expect the United States of america to give you your freedom, your equality. Earn it. The message was, victory overseas and equality at home. The doublev campaign was put into place to help encourage africanamerican men and women to do their part during the war. It was a. Phillip randolph who convinced fdr that he needed to stop Racial Discrimination in job programs, in new deal job programs. He also went to fdr and he said, this doublev campaign, understand were willing to fight for our country but we expect you to fight for us when we get back. Africanamerican men served tirelessly in the United States military. And africanamerican women did their part, too, believe me. Were going to talk about the impact of world war ii on women in this country and talk very specifically about some images that you have all seen, rosy the riveter, for example. But dont let these images fool you. Most of these images are of white women because those are the women that the propagandists wanted us to see. Black women were very much a part of the war effort. Well talk about that in a little bit. For women, life changed during world war ii like no other point in american history. Prior to world war ii if women worked outside the home, and many did its a misconception to think there was this perfect family of 2. 5 children and mom and dad and, you know, that was an image. Women often worked outside the home. And when they did, they worked in something called pink collar jobs. What is a pink collar job . What does that mean . Any ideas . Yeah . Something that would be suitable for a woman, quote unquote, for a woman to do. Exactly. Suitable womens work. Now if you had to define that, what would that be . Whats an example of a pink collar job . Im sorry . Cleaning. Cleaning, what else . Making clothes. Seamstress. Exactly. What else . Child care. Child care. Anything else . Nurses. Im sorry, go ahead. Waiting tables. Waiting tables. Service industry, acceptable womens work. What do you think is something all those jobs have in common aside from the fact theyre service jobs . Any ideas . Low pay. It was perfectly legal to pay women less money. Now may not be the time for me to have a conversation about pay equity today but it was certainly nowhere near equal in the 1940s. Womens work, its not career, its not a career. Its a job. One of those things women did before they got married. After they got married, chances are they were not going to work outside the home, or at least that was the popular image. Prior to world war ii, if women are working outside the home, and many were, they were working in these pink collar jobs. Certainly there were exceptions to that but not as many. After the war began, as you know, many, many women go to work in factories because so many men had gone off to war. We talked last week about the fact that it was fdrs move into war production that ultimately got us helped to get us out of the depression. That war production had to continue and especially after the United States had entered the war. So who is going to do that job . Well, some people suggested to the war department, what if we let women into the factories . What if we allow women to do those jobs . And the initial response was, oh, no. No, no, no. Women are not going to get out of bed in the morning and go do these awful, dirty jobs. Well, as you know, that was not the case. Women answered the call just like men did and there are a lot of different ways women participate in the United States efforts in world war ii. One of them factory workers and well talk about that first. Another is the fact that they were used images of women were used as propaganda. Well talk about that as well. And i have some images i want to show you. Women joined the army the Womens Army Corps and the womens army air corps. There were a lot of ways women participated in the war effort. The first one, as i said, the one most of us are familiar with and that is they went to work. They went to work in factories. Youve all seen this image, havent you . Rosy the riveter. This was a propaganda poster. We can do it. Propaganda was important in getting women to, quote, do their part. Many of you may even have grandparents or greatgrandparents who worked in the factories. Anybody have a Family Member who worked in the local factories . There were a number of those rosies who worked in this area. Most of these women who went off to work in the war industry at the beginning, anyway, were single women, often boyfriends or brothers or fathers or other Family Members had gone off to war. So industry, war industry, the shipping industry, all kinds of war industry reached out. They recruited women from everywhere. They sent out you know those posters, those uncle sam wants you, they did those kinds of posters directed at women. We need you to work. Go ahead, kaitlyn, and click to the next. Women answered the call in huge numbers. Think about this for a minute. These women and this is this really wonderful photograph of these women leaving i dont know what the factory is, but as you can tell theyre dressed like workers. These women had an opportunity for the first time in their lives. They left home. At this time women stayed home with their parents until they got married. And then they moved in, of course, with their husband. There were very few opportunities for women to live on their own. All of a sudden these women are coming from small towns all over the United States into Industrial Centers around the country and they can go to work dressed like that. There is an incredible sense of independence that these women have. They live in an apartment with, say, two or three or four other women. They go to work in coveralls and hard hats and bring lunch pails just like the men did. On a break, they sit outside and have their lunch and cigarette, and afterward, they stop at the local bar and have a beer. This sounds like no big deal to us, right . It was a huge deal. It was a sense of independence, but, also, a sense of im doing my part. Women had an opportunity with this to make their own money, to participate in the war effort. Yeah . Were they getting paid the same as men were . Oh, of course not. In fact, im glad you brought that up. The kinds of jobs women did in these factories varied. They could have they became welders, electricians, riveters, all kinds of things. Jobs that, believe me, were not pink collar jobs, and jobs that they would never have had access to before. But all was not equal. They worked in very dirty and unhealthy conditions. They worked long hours. And certainly their pay was nowhere near what it was for a man. And here is an example. If a woman had training and one Year Experience as a welder, she could make 31. 21 per week. If a man was trained as a welder and had one Year Experience, he made 54. 65 a week. Now, im not suggesting that women didnt complain about that, but i suspect they didnt a whole lot. Thats just the way it was done. Thats just what happened. Women, as i said, worked in all kinds of industry. Go ahead and click the next. This is another example of one of those war propaganda posters. Victory waits on your fingers. Women were also expected to do some of those jobs that were considered womens work, pink collar jobs, but do it in the war industry. These kinds of posters put pressure on women to do their part. Go ahead and do the next one. Do the job he left behind. Again, there was all kinds of recruitment. These posters were everywhere, they were in womens magazines. They were in posters in local small towns. Go ahead, kaitlyn. And then theres this. The propaganda against japaneseamericans, and this one is frightening but theres one coming up thats even more frightening, one of the things that we needed to do was to convince women, and men for that matter, but specifically women, we needed to convince them that theres a big, bad enemy out there. If you take a day off and, see, that was their biggest fear, that women were just not going to take this seriously and they were going to take too many days off. You know, they would sleep in and they just wouldnt be able to handle the rigors of a fulltime job. So the images of japaneseamericans are very animalistic. Its very clear what will happen if you dont do your job. Go ahead, kaitlyn. And again, beautiful women. Very feminine. Youve got to do your job. We understand that youre longing for your love. But in addition to working, make sure youre buying war bonds. There are also posters that are directed at women that encourage women to do things like grow victory gardens. Not all of them were about working in factories. Go ahead. And this one is the one i was talking about. One of the most disturbing images of all i told you women were often used the images of women were used during wartime as propaganda. This is an example of that. As you can see this japanese soldier, again, does not look human. He is he is a monster. And hes after these poor, defenseless women. There are several of these. One has the same sort of japanese soldier and he has this woman thrown over his shoulder as he goes skulking off with her. At the bottom it says, this is what were fighting for, to protect the virtue of our women. These images, again, were everywhere. Go ahead. This is one and you may have seen something similar to this when you saw the total war movie the other day this one is actually from britain. And one of the earlier images. Now women were strong workers in the war industry. Their images were used as propaganda. But women were also very willing to step up and do their part in the military as well. The Womens Army Corps or the w. W. A. C. Was established in the early 1940s. Now, again, much like it was with the Tuskegee Airmen, the thought was we need more men going off to battle, so we need to have some of these jobs that are taken care of by military, male military personnel, we need some of those to be done by women. So lets create a womens Army Auxiliary corps. This was huge for women. This was enormous. You could join the United States military. You had a uniform. You had a job. You had a purpose. You were part of the war effort. The wac took over jobs like file clerk, operators, cooks. That allowed the men who were in the military to then be trained for combat. But it wasnt just the wacs, it wasnt just the Womens Army Corps. It was also the waps. The womens army pilot service. The waps were like the Tuskegee Airmen. They had to make a claim that they would be useful. A woman named Jackie Cochrane who was a pilot and a florida native along with a test pilot named nancy love approached fdr at the beginning of the war and said, you know, there are a lot of women who could fly supply planes, a lot of women who could pull targets, who could transport planes factory to a base. And again, as the same response was the effort was first made to get women in to the war industry. No, no, no, we cant do that. We dont want women. We dont want women in those roles. Well, it didnt take long before it was clear, we needed someone to take over those roles. We needed someone to fly the planes from the factories to the bases. So in september of 1942, the w. A. S. P. S, the womens army service pilots, were headed to their first training. The initial training, some of it took place in texas, some of it in florida. These women had a pilots license, a commercial pilots license, and they learned to fly the army way. No, they were not trained in combat maneuvers because they were not allowed to, in any way, participate in combat. More than 25,000 women applied to be a w. A. S. P. Fewer than 1,900 were accepted. After the training, w. A. S. P. S were stationed in over 120 airbases across the u. S. They flew 60 million miles of operational flights from aircraft factories to bases. They also turned targets for target practice. Now is that a job you want . They posed as targets for the guys to use their surfacetoair missiles for target practice. They flew supply missions. By 1944, they had delivered over 12,000 aircraft of 78 different typ types. Yes. By 1944, they had delivered over 12,000 aircraft, 78 different types. And they were in every area where the United States was located during the war. 38 w. A. S. P. S lost their lives. Now listen to this. 38 lost their lives. And they were all over the wo d world. But when their bodies were sent back home, they were not allowed to be sent home in a flagdraped coffin. You know as well as i do, if youve never been part of a military family, and i have not been really. But if you have never been part of a military family and all youve ever done is watched the news, you know the significance of a fallen soldier being brought home in a casket covered by the United States flag. They were not allowed to have a u. S. Flag. From as early as 1943, efforts were made in congress to get them recognized. As early as 1943, people started to get them tried to get them the recognition that they deserved. But once the war was over and again, they were all over the world. Once the war was over, their superiors went to them, they took their wings, they took their uniforms, and they were told to find their own way home. Eventually, people continued to try to get the recognition. Does anybody know when the w. A. S. P. S were finally given the recognition that they were due as world war ii heroes . Anybody know when that might have happened . Take a guess. No . It has happened. President barack obama in 2000 2009 was the first president. The remaining the remaining members of the w. A. S. P. S, and there were only a handful, were brought on may 10, 2010, were brought to the capitol and jointly given the congressional gold medal. Still dont have the ability to be buried in arlington cemetery. Thats correct. They cannot be buried in Arlington National cemetery. It can be dangerous to compare well, more men died, and men had a harder time, or these women died had a harder time. Im not comparing. And we shouldnt compare. But what we should do is respect what they were able to do as pilots. So weve looked at women as propaganda. Weve looked at the ways in which women participated in the war effort as factory work eers. There are another couple of images. Im sorry, i got ahead of myself. These are just some training photographs. Again, more training photographs. The other thing that women did, they played baseball. In the allamerican girls professional baseball league. Now i guarantee you, if youve ever taken a class that talked about the history of world war ii and the importance of individuals or groups, rarely, if ever, have you ever had a conversation about baseball. How many of you have seen the movie a league of their own . Oh, yeah. And if if you havent, please dont tell me. In 1943, as i said to you before, men of all ages, of all shapes and sizes, headed to war. And that included professional baseball players. We all know, dont we, that baseball is americas past time. Chevrolet, apple pie, mom, baseball. That was the image of baseball in the 1940s. And it kind of still is. But as more and more ball players, both Major League Ball players and Minor League Ball players were leaving to go to war, a lot of the owners were concerned. Remember, we were just coming out of a depression. And still in an economic depression. Some of the best ball players had gone off to war. Some of the owners, including a man named Philip Wrigley b yo may have heard of Philip Wrigley. Chewing gum, and of course, if you are a baseball fan, Wrigley Field. Philip wrigley was concerned that baseball was going under. In fact, there was even a discussion about whether they should play baseball during the war. In a letter written by fdr to the commissioner of baseball that would become known as the green light letter, fdr said, no. Its important that we play. Its crucial that we play baseball. Thats what these guys are fighting for. Theyre fighting for the memory of that and what that means to this country. So Philip Wrigley, together with some other owners, came up with the idea, what if we start a Womens Baseball League . Now, funny little context here. You have to understand, womens softball in the midwest was extremely popular. Extremely popular. In fact, by 1939, womens softball brought in more fans than Minor League Baseball in the midwest. So wrigley said, what if we take some of these ball parks that are Minor League Ball parks. Theyre empty. Lets create a professional softball league. Womens softball league. It will get some attendance to some of these fields and make a little money, and it will also provide entertainment the to citizens during the war. Now, there are a couple of problems with this. First of all, female softball players had a bit of a bad image. As a former softball player, i can tell you, some of it was probably deserved. But, they were too masculine. Not feminine enough. So wrigley said, lets go out and recruit some of these softball players. But we have to be careful who we recruit. Only a certain kind of people. Well, for those of you that have seen the movie a league of their own, you know that those scenes where the scouts go off into the farms and stuff and theyre recruiting people in gyms, thats kind of the way it was. They recruited a bunch of softball players and they brought them to Wrigley Field. Spring training. The first spring training. May 17th, 1943. Hundreds of women were brought to Wrigley Field for tryouts. Ultimately, teams were chosen. Many of the women, of course, didnt make the cut. Initially there were four teams racine and kenosha, rockford, illinois, and south bend, indiana. On may 30th, 1943, the first games took place. Wrigley had no clue what to expect. Were these do i sell this as a novelty . This is a Group Photograph i believe thats the rockford peaches. But wrigley had to decide, do i sell this as a a novelty . Women in dresses playing ball . Well, it didnt take long for him to realize, no, these are ball players. These are good ball players. As you can see, this is a very popular photograph. These women played ball in dresses. But that didnt stop them. Theres one of the former ball players, nadal blair, whos 89 years old. She still she talks about, yeah, im still digging gravel out of my hip from all the sliding in the dresses. Thats what it was like to play baseball in a dress. Remember me telling you how women didnt have a lot of opportunities to work outside the home, and certainly not a lot of opportunities that challenged the societal norms. These women were given an opportunity to play professional baseball. Now the first season it was called the allamerican girls softball league. And then wrigley realized, these are good ball players and people came to watch them play ball. And so the size of the ball changed. And ultimately, it became the allamerican girls professional baseball league. These women were paid 45 to 85 a week. That was enormous, enormous amount of money. And they got to do it playing baseball. Something you would never have dreamed was possible. This is also one of my favorites, photographs. These women were very serious ball players. I spend a lot of time with these women, the ones who are still with us. And they will tell you, the single most important thing in their lives was that they had an opportunity to participate in the war effort by saving baseball. I asked one of the ball players, a woman named beans. They all go by nicknames. Trust me, its impossible to keep up with them. When i first met beans, my first reunion at of the ball players, very tall, lanky, very friendly woman from oklahoma. And she came up to me, somebody told her my name. She said, ah, kitkat. So i you became kitkat and continued to be kitkat until beans died just a few years ago. But when i first had a conversation with beans about what does it mean to you, what did this mean to you that you got to play baseball . And she just shook her head and she said, kat, it just means everything. It was my life. Its the best thing i ever did and the reason it was the best thing i ever did is because we helped to make sure that baseball stayed alive for those men who came back from war. But we also did something else. We created a foundation on which the young women of today can stand. We helped to bridge from the 1919 1940s and women playing professional baseball, to title 9. They understand their significance in the Bigger Picture of womens athletics. The league lasted 11 years. And in that 11 years, over 600 women were given an opportunity to play baseball. They traveled around the country. They played baseball in yankee stadium. They had spring training in 1947 in havana, cuba. There were, by the way, four cubans who played for the allamerican girls professional baseball league. Over 30 canadians played in the 11 years of the league. They had spring training in mississippi, and florida. They had an opportunity, some of those girls, to travel places around this country they had never seen before and would never have had an opportunity to travel. What that opportunity gave them was an opportunity to go to college. They saved some of that money. They sent themselves through college. They sent siblings through college. They became doctors and lawyers. One became the first female manager of any department at northrop airlines. They became principals. Surgeons. Politicians. Pilots. And they were able to do that because they had access to professional baseball. So when i asked them, what did it mean to you to play in the league, and they say, everything, thats exactly right. What did it mean for this country in the efforts of these women to help during war time . It meant everything. Ive asked a number of these women, so, what was it like to have to play baseball in a dress . And of course, their answers varied. Some of them i can repeat and some of them i cant. Basically, though, the message is we would have played naked. Whatever it took. We got to play baseball. And, we truly believed that we helped keep baseball alive during the war. As i said, the league ended in 1954. It lasted 11 years. The league expanded over that 11 years from 14 to 12 teams. Its possible that the expansion maybe happened too quickly. I think the fact that there was expansion in the league, the fact that w
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