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Home Front Festival Starts Tonight - Media Coverage Intensifies

The Home Front Festival starts tonight with a sold out Gala Fundraising Dinner for Rosie the Riveter Trust in the historical Ford Building Craneway. Public Festivities continue tomorrow through Sunday. Click here for a full schedule of events.    

To view the video shown on ABC Channel 7 on September 27, Click here.

New National Park To Honor WWII Workers

KGO By Willie Monroe

- The city of Richmond is preparing for a weekend celebration of those who worked on the home front during World War II. At the center of that were millions of women who entered the workforce for the war effort who came to be known as 'Rosie The Riveter' or 'Rosies'.

During the war, millions of women worked traditionally men's jobs.

"I was a welder. I went to work there in 1942 shortly after Pearl Harbor, soon as they started hiring women." says Agnes Moore.

Agnes Moore built ships at the Kaiser shipyards in Richmond. It was hard work.

"Oh my! I've worked all my life, and still working hard. So it was interesting."

Betty Reid Soskin now works with the park service. Back then, she worked in the segregated Union Hall.

"At that point, the unions were still racially segregated, so African Americans could not work in the unions," says Soskin.

Where the shipyards once stood is now the Rosie The Riveter World War II National Historical Park. Rosies, now in their 80's, will gather there for a reunion this weekend.

"It's a story that is not only about women, and opportunities for women that opened up during world war two, but the power of the people to make a difference to our nation's future during world war two," says Martha Lee, park superintendent.

The celebration honors women, and also the men who worked alongside them.

"I think it's nice. I think it's deserving, but not any more than anybody else that worked," Marian Wynn, "Rosie".

The memorial itself stretches the length of a victory ship, more than 400-feet.

Concrete panels along the way tell the story of the war effort with quotations from those who worked the home front. A quotation at the very end says it all -- "You must tell your children, putting modesty aside, that without us, without women, there would have been no spring in 1945.

For more information on weekend events for the new national park activities, click here.

For more information on the individuals who worked in the Bay Area during WWII, read the Back Story

 

 

Richmond’s Home Front Festival By-the-Bay Promises Fun in a Big Way  

 

The City of Richmond will celebrate its rich history on September 29th & 30th with the first annual Home Front Festival By-the-Bay. The festival will be held at three separate locations: Marina Bay Park, the Ford Building and Shipyard #3.

A traditional USO dance will be held on Saturday night, September 29th.

Marina Bay Park will be the site of the traditional two-day festival with music, entertainment, food, arts and crafts vendors and an Arts Pavilion. Other special activities planned include a Home Front workers reunion, 5K/10K Fun Run/Walk sponsored by the YMCA, both on Sunday; demonstrations and activities by the Richmond Sea Scouts on both days, and, on Saturday, the annual PAL Battle of the Bikes Motorcycle Poker Run.

The weekend kick-off is a Rosie Trust Gala fund raiser in the newly opened Craneway section of the Ford Building on Friday, September 28th. As a special attraction for the weekend, the Henry J. Kaiser "Think Big" exhibit will be on display in the Craneway.

In honor of the WWII Home Front theme, a traditional USO dance will be held at the Craneway on Saturday night. The event will recreate the atmosphere of a 1940s style USO dance and show complete with big band and swing music provided by the Junius Courtney Orchestra and Muir Station Jazz Band.

Admission to the dance is free to anyone in military uniform or with a past or present military ID. Cost for civilians is $20 per person and $15 for seniors in advance, or $25 and $20 at the door, if space is available.

Two separate vehicle shows will be featured over the weekend. On Saturday, vintage military vehicles will be on display at Shipyard #3. On Sunday, the Kiwanis Vintage Car Show will display American automobiles at least 35 years old with an emphasis on vehicles of the 1930s through 1950s at Marina Bay Park.

One of the most important and exciting of the special events planned is the "Launch" of the Rosie the Riveter WWII Home Front National Historical Park on Saturday at 11 a.m. at Shipyard #3, with all its attendant activities – entertainment, food, visiting dignitaries and the actual launch of a ship created for the occasion. The USS Red Oak Victory Ship, berthed at Shipyard #3, will hold a Pancake Breakfast before the launch and will be open for tours both days.

On Sunday, the USS Potomac, which served as the floating white house during the Franklin Delano Roosevelt presidency, will be docked in Marina Bay. Docents will be available for tours and to describe what life was like aboard the historic vessel. The trawler Delphinus and the tall ship Alma will sail on historic tours around the Inner Harbor. (There will be a charge of $10 on each ship.)

The Home Front Festival By-the-Bay not only marks the official unveiling of the Rosie the Riveter WWII Home Front National Historical Park and the 10,000 square foot Craneway of the historic Ford Building, but also 0.3 miles of new Bay Trail along the Harbour Way frontage of the Ford Building. At completion, the new addition to the Bay Trail extending to Hall Avenue will link the shoreline trail to Lucretia Edwards Park and run in front of the Craneway. The newly opened Craneway at the waterfront will eventually house the Rosie the Riveter WWII Home Front National Historical Park Visitors Center, as well as provide public space that will house future restaurant, entertainment and retail establishments.

For details on all these events or more information regarding the Home Front Festival By-the-Bay, visit www.homefrontfestival.com or call 510-234-3512.

 

Home Front Festival By-the-Bay

September 29 & 30, 2007

Marina Bay Park Richmond, California

 

Schedule of Performances

Saturday, September 29, 2007

Mariachi Aquilas de Contra Costa 11:30

Opening Ceremony -- Welcome (City Officials) 12:20

Ben Oni Orchestra 12:30

Dave Crimmen 1:20

Amigos Band 2:05

Alvon & His Allstars Band 3:05

Pan-Estacy Caribbean Band 4:05

Caravan of Allstars 5:05

Sunday, September 30, 2007

Muir Station Jazz Band 12:00

Rhonda Benin Band 1:05

GTS Band 2:05

Little Wolf & the Hellcats 3:05

Mystique 4:05

 

Richmond Community Redevelopment Agency

Office of Economic Development

(510) 307-8140 Richmondca4business.com

The “floating white house,” USS Potomac, will be available for tours at Marina Bay on Sunday, September 30th.

 

NPS Digest:  NPS Gateway for Partners, Friends and Alumni

ROSIE THE RIVETER WWII HOME FRONT NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK
Park To Be “Launched” At Home Front Festival

[

Launched in 1944, the SS Red Oak Victory is the only vessel built by Richmond’s famed Kaiser Shipyards that has been restored to its original condition.

The National Park Service will “launch” Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park this coming Saturday at the historic Kaiser Shipyard No. 3 in Richmond, California.  The ceremony will recreate a World War II ship launch against the backdrop of the huge Art Deco Kaiser General Warehouse, the S.S. Red Oak Victory, and stunning views of San Francisco Bay. Nationally recognized vocalist Linda Tillery will sing the national anthem.

Established in 2000 in collaboration with the city of Richmond and other partners, the park celebrates the role of countless Americans in Richmond and across the nation who made contributions and sacrifices to achieve victory on the home front.

The launch is one of several National Park activities that are part of the Richmond Home Front Festival by-the-Bay, which will take place over this coming weekend. Other activities on Saturday at Shipyard No. 3 include tours of the historic shipyard buildings, the ten-story tall Whirley crane, and vintage military vehicles. The Red Oak Victory will host a pancake breakfast aboard ship, and during the day will give tours and show films in the museum.

On Sunday, the National Park Service’s big event will be the Home Front Reunion at the Ford Assembly Building, the future home of the park’s visitor center. Old and young alike will have the opportunity to learn history from the people who lived it, listen to speakers and music, sing along to songs from the old days, and participate in hands-on activities. Home front workers may contribute their stories and memorabilia to the National Park Service collection.

At the Ford Building on Saturday and Sunday, visitors can see the “Think Big” exhibit, showing how Henry J. Kaiser transformed the country's shipbuilding industry and see an incredible collection of World War II vintage books on shipbuilding, shipping, and naval actions from the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park.

On Saturday night, the Richmond Chamber of Commerce is hosting a USO Dance at the Ford Building.

Marina Bay Park visitors can explore a variety of festival exhibits and activities on Saturday and Sunday. Marina Bay is a beautifully redeveloped residential area that occupies former Shipyard No. 2 – in fascinating contrast to Shipyard No. 3, which continues some of its historic functions as a contemporary working port. Visitors can visit the National Park Service and Rosie the Riveter Trust tent and find out more about the park and participate with a park ranger on a stroll along the Bay Trail to read wayside exhibits and explore the Rosie the Riveter Memorial, a park site dedicated to women who worked on the home front – all while enjoying spectacular views across San Francisco Bay. Next to the memorial, the art pavilion will exhibit art by children cared for in ground-breaking child care centers established for working families during World War II.

On Saturday, the Alma, a schooner from San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, will arrive at the Richmond Marina at Marina Bay with Bay Area girl scouts. During the day, the Rotary club will be signing up festival-goers for free water tours to see the sites between Marina Bay and Shipyard No. 3.

For more information about National Park and Home Front Festival-by-the-Bay activities and events, visit www.homefrontfestival.com or contact the National Park Service at 510-232-5050.

Contact Information
Name: Martha Lee, Park Superintendent

 

When Rosie was in bloom: 'Home Front' festival re-creates WWII era

By Chris Treadway

STAFF WRITER

The story of Richmond during World War II has been told many times, in many ways. None of it, of course, could match the experience of being there.

This weekend, however, offers perhaps the next best thing. T
Contra Costa Times

Article Launched:09/27/2007 03:04:56 AM PDTThe story of Richmond during World War II has been told many times, in many ways. None of it, of course, could match the experience of being there.

This weekend, however, offers perhaps the next best thing. The Home Front Festival by-the-bay is a chance to see where history was made, meet people who made it and gain an appreciation for what happened here more than 60 years ago at sites in the Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park.

"It will be very participatory," said Carla Koop, outreach coordinator for the National Park Service, from the chance to try on bandannas and welding gear to listening to and singing the songs of the era to hearing from those who experienced the home front.

Think of the festival as an interactive Ken Burns segment, with entertainment, food, children's attractions, a fun run and all the other accouterments expected of a grand celebration.

The city, the National Park Service, the Richmond Chamber of Commerce, the Richmond Museum of History and a host of other organizations are throwing the festival to "launch the park," much like the record 747 Liberty and Victory ships were launched in Richmond's Kaiser shipyards during the war.

The event also will mark the public opening of the craneway at the Ford Assembly Building, which will ultimately become the visitors center for the park.

Organizers say the timing couldn't be better, with Burns' extensive television documentary "The War" airing this week on PBS.

"The Ken Burns series has created quite an interest in our park," said Judy Morgan, president of the Richmond Chamber of Commerce. "People don't realize that of all the cities in the country, Richmond was chosen to represent the home front during this time. It's just dawning on people now."

Koop said the park and festival offer terrific learning opportunities.

"We hope a lot of people watching the Ken Burns World War II program will be piqued by all the grass-roots, personal stories of what people experienced," she said. "They can learn a lot about that here.

"We're going to be featuring people with stories to tell at the launching," Koop said, and attendees who were there will be invited to share their own memories. "It is a big way of gathering attention on this incredible community treasure that represents a little-explored aspect of national history."

The festival will be at Marina Bay Park (formerly Kaiser Shipyard No. 2), home of the Rosie the Riveter Memorial. This is the place for festival exhibits, live entertainment and activities, a display of vintage cars and an expanded Kids Zone.

An arts pavilion next to the Rosie memorial will display children's art from the historic World War II child care centers in Richmond and host talks and panel discussions. Area artists will display and offer their works.

The schooner Alma will offer free water tours Saturday of sites between Marina Bay and Shipyard No. 3.

There are attractions at two other locations as well, and Morgan suggests doing a little advance planning so as not to get overwhelmed.

Visitors are advised to wear comfortable walking shoes; shuttle buses will be available Saturday between Marina Bay and Shipyard No. 3, as well as to take visitors to and from the Richmond and El Cerrito Del Norte BART stations.

Sunday will be highlighted by the Home Front Reunion in the Ford Assembly Building, featuring live music of the era, talks by historians, actors performing home front memories on stage, a reunion photo and a chance to share your own memories.

"We're calling it a reunion, but it's really a time for connections between people of that era and for younger people to come and listen to their stories, watch the performances, learn about their history," Koop said. "It's not history just by old people, for old people, it's for making connections between generations."

Reach Chris Treadway at 510-262-2784 or ctreadway@ bayareanewsgroup.com.

If you go

The Home Front Festival-by-the-bay launching the Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park takes place from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday at Marina Bay Park. Admission is $5; $3 for seniors and children ages 6 to 12. Attractions also will be open at the Ford Assembly Building and the former Shipyard No. 3, now in the Port of Richmond. For directions, tickets and a complete list of events and attractions, visit http://www.homefrontfestival.com or call 510-234-3512. Here are some of the highlights:

SATURDAY

Shipyard No. 3

  9 to 11 a.m. -- Red Oak Victory Pancake Breakfast

  10 a.m. to 3 p.m. -- Red Oak Victory events/tours

  10 a.m. to 3 p.m. -- Vintage Military Vehicle Show

  11 a.m. -- "Launch of the National Park" featuring Linda Tillery

Marina Bay/RosIe the Riveter Memorial

  11 a.m. to 6 p.m. -- Arts and crafts, food, music and entertainment

  11 a.m. to 6 p.m. -- Sea Scouts/SSS Northland Demonstrations

  1 p.m. -- Festival Grand Opening Ceremony

Ford Building Craneway

  7 to 11 p.m. -- USO Dance, hosted by the Richmond Chamber of Commerce, $20 advance admission, $25 at the door, $15 seniors

SUNDAY

Shipyard No. 3

  10 a.m. to 3 p.m. -- Red Oak Victory events/tours/museum White Elephant Sale

Marina Bay/Rosie the Riveter Memorial

  11 a.m. to 5 p.m. -- Arts and crafts, food, music and entertainment

  11 a.m. to 5 p.m. -- Sea Scouts/SSS Northland Demonstrations

  11 a.m. to 5 p.m. -- Vintage Car Show

Ford Building Craneway

  10 a.m. (8:30 a.m. registration) -- YMCA Home Front Run (at Lucretia Edwards Park outside the Ford Assembly Building

  11 a.m. to 3 p.m. -- Rosie Reunions: Home Front Workers

  11 a.m. to 3 p.m. -- "Think Big" -- Story of Henry J. Kaiser

 

Festival in Richmond to celebrate home front

By Chris Treadway

STAFF WRITER
Contra Costa Times

Article Launched:09/26/2007 03:04:03 AM PDTRICHMOND -- The sights, sites, sounds and people that made history in the city during World War II will be celebrated this weekend at the Home Front Festival by-the-Bay, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday at Marina Bay Park.

Admission is $5 to the festival, which will feature exhibits, live entertainment and activities, a display of vintage cars and an expanded Kids Zone both days.

Other events and attractions are being held in conjunction with the festival, including a ceremony launching the Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park at 11 a.m. Saturday next to the S.S. Red Oak Victory at the former Kaiser Shipyard No. 3. Tours will be given of the Red Oak Victory and historic buildings at the shipyard.

Also open will be the craneway in the historic Ford Assembly Building on Harbour Way South, which will have "Think Big," an acclaimed Oakland Museum exhibit on Henry J. Kaiser, on display. Admission to the craneway, the future site of the national park visitors center, is free.

The craneway will be the site of a USO Dance and Show from 6 to 10 p.m. Saturday. Tickets to the dance are $20 in advance, $25 at the door, $15 for seniors and free to anyone with a past or current military ID.

On Sunday, a Home Front Reunion will be held from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Ford Assembly Building, featuring live music of the era, talks by historians, actors performing home front memories on stage, a reunion photo and a chance to share your own memories.

Reach Chris Treadway at 510-262-2784 or ctreadway@bayareanewsgroup.com.

IF YOU GO

For directions, tickets and a complete list of events and attractions, visit http://www.homefrontfestival.com or call 510-234-3512.

 

‘An Inadvertent Revolution’ Women on the World War II Home Front

By Geneviève Duboscq, Special to the Planet (09-25-07)


After her mother’s death in 1999, journalist Emily Yellin came across the wartime diary and hundreds of letters her mother had written home from the Pacific while working with the Red Cross. Within days, Yellin could see that “My mother’s story served as a window through which to see the story of all the women in World War II.”

Yellin, who wrote for the New York Times for 10 years, tells that broader story in her book Our Mothers’ War: American Women at Home and at the Front During World War II. She will speak at a gala event on Friday, Sept. 28, at Richmond’s Marina Bay to kick off the Home Front Festival by the Bay. The festival celebrates both the city’s role during World War II and the Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park.

Reached by phone at her home in Memphis, Yellin spoke about the women who moved into the workforce to take the place of the 16 million men—farm laborers, mailmen, milkmen, movie ushers, salesmen, and many more—who volunteered or were drafted into the service after the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor.

To counteract the sudden shortage of manpower, the federal government went into action to convince reluctant Americans that the nation needed women of all classes to enter the workforce.

According to Yellin, “We went from the Depression to World War II, and during the Depression, women did not work. The women who did work were usually in the financially lower rungs of the working world.

“For those women, World War II raised up the opportunity, so someone who had been working as a housecleaner was able to work in a factory and make a lot more money. In fact, there’s a quote in the book by an African American woman who said, ‘It was Hitler who got us out of the white man’s kitchen.’”

Before 1940, 11.5 million women already worked for pay. And 6.5 million women joined them in the war years. More than 2.5 million women took war production jobs, working with ships, airplanes, tanks, Jeeps, or munitions.

Yellin interviewed Bessie Stokes of Pennsylvania, a white woman who had gone from earning $2 a week cleaning houses before the war to well over $30 a week inspecting bombshells in a factory beginning in 1941. She worked there until 1946, when her husband, Spike, returned from the service.

“I kept every one of my pay stubs from all my work. So when Spike came back from the war, the first day he was home, I put them in front of him. And I said, ‘Don’t you ever tell me I have to depend on you for a living.’” Spike’s response was to look at his wife proudly and say, “Oh girl, you proved it.”

“I think it was a revolution for women’s role in our society,” said Yellin, “but it was inadvertent. It wasn’t like 20 to 30 years later, with the women’s liberation movement; that was very deliberate. This was very much an inadvertent revolution, so these women stepped in and did what was asked of them and what they were allowed to do.”

The revolution took place all over the United States, according to Yellin, as women moved into work previously reserved for men. But most in society assumed that this was only a temporary arrangement.

“Every region of the country was affected by the war,” said Yellin. Shipbuilding took place along the east and west coasts and the Gulf of Mexico. Auto plants in the Midwest and elsewhere stopped building cars in 1942, converting their shops to build engines and parts for military vehicles. Richmond’s Ford assembly plant outfitted Jeep and tank bodies. The South and the east were home to munitions plants. And the west coast was the home of airplane manufacturing.

Even before the U.S. entered the war, industrialist Henry J. Kaiser landed a government contract to build ships for Great Britain. Despite having no experience in shipbuilding, he opened his Richmond business in late 1940.

Richmond’s population boomed from about 23,000 at the start of the war to over 100,000 people by the war’s end.

According to Donna Graves of the National Park Service, author of a 2004 report titled “Mapping Richmond’s World War II Home Front,” “Recruitment of workers for the four Kaiser shipyards … changed the city’s ethnic composition, increasing the African American community by a factor of ten,” and bringing in more Latinos and Chinese Americans.

The shipyards ran day and night. Kaiser shipbuilders crafted Liberty and Victory ships, once completing a Liberty ship in just under 5 days. The Red Oak Victory ship, now under restoration, will be open for viewing during the Home Front Festival.

According to Donald Bastin, director of the Richmond Museum of History and author of the book Richmond, “Kaiser wanted to eliminate all barriers to production” for his 90,000 workers, 27 percent of whom were women, “and that included transport, health care, and child care.”

Housing was scarce, and services could not keep up with the influx of workers arriving from all over the United States, some without a network of family who could care for their children.

Federal funds from the 1942 Lanham Act made possible the opening of five child care centers in Richmond in 1943.

Said Yellin, “Day care was a new concept essentially because people weren’t used to leaving their children with someone else. That was women’s responsibility, the children, the home, and women didn’t go outside of the home.”

By the end of the war, Richmond had 14 child care centers and had taken care of about 1,400 children, said Joseph Fischer, curator of an exhibit of art by children at the centers that is now showing at the Richmond Museum of History. A selection will be on display at the Home Front Festival.

Kaiser’s other innovation, and the reason most people now know his name, was providing group health care for his workers. The Richmond Field Hospital treated sick and injured workers near the job site, and the Permanente Hospital in Oakland provided additional service.

Yellin added, “I think we forget how [war] permeated every aspect of people’s lives. So when we say ‘the home front,’ it sounds like a cozy place, but it really wasn’t, just as the battle front was not a cozy place.” Everyone lived with the thought that beloved family members on the front might be wounded or die at any time.

“The effect of this war was so prevalent that wherever you looked, you couldn’t really get away from it, that is what living on the home front was.”

The Home Front Festival will host the “Think Big” exhibit, with information about Kaiser’s life and work. Additional events include a Rosie Reunion for former shipyard workers, a USO dance and show, music performances, arts and crafts, historic tours of the bay, and visits of the tall ship Alma and FDR’s yacht the Potomac.

For tickets, call 235-1315. Emily Yellin will also sign copies of her book on Sunday at the Ford building beginning at 11:30 a.m.



Home Front Festival By the Bay

The festival kicks off on Friday, Sept. 28 with a 9 a.m.-2 p.m. rally at the park headquarters at the Ford Building Craneway on the Richmond Waterfront, followed by a Rosie the Riveter Trust Fund dinner from 6 to 10 p.m.

Saturday will see activities at four separate locations, representing the spread-out nature of the Rosie the Riveter Park.

Music and other entertainment, food and arts and crafts booths, and a children’s zone will be presented from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Rosie the Riveter Memorial at Marina Bay. Entrance fee to the Marina Bay event is $5 for adults, $3 for seniors and children 6-12.

At Shipyard No. 3, a pancake breakfast will be held at the Red Oak Victory World War II era restored cargo ship, with ceremonies at 11 a.m. launching the national park featuring nationally known performance artist Linda Tillery. A Vintage Military Vehicle Show will be held at the shipyard from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., and interpretive tours from noon to 3 p.m.

At the Harbor Master's Dock, historic tours of the bay will be held on the historic schooner “Alma” from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

And at the Ford Building Craneway, a USO Dance and Show will be held from 7-10 p.m.

On Sunday the festival events at the Rosie the Riveter Memorial at Marina Bay will be repeated. At the Ford Building Craneway, a presentation on the story of Henry K. Kaiser and reunions for former World War II home front workers will be held from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. At the Harbor Master’s Dock, historic bay tours will be held 11 a.m.-3 p.m. on the trawler Delphinus, as well as tours of the moored presidential yacht Potomac that was once used by Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

A full schedule of homefront festival events are available on the Rosie the Riveter Park website at http://www.homefrontfestival.com/what.htm.

Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park:

www.nps.gov/rori

To submit a story for the oral history project, call (800) 497-6743.

Emily Yellin’s book, Our Mothers’ War:

www.ourmotherswar.com

Donna Graves, “Mapping Richmond’s World War II Home Front,” NPS, July 2004:

www.tombutt.com/forum/2007/070820.htm

Bay Area World War II sites:

www.nps.gov/history/nr/travel/wwIIbayarea/index.htm