Enough Energy

Energy.
It is one of our most finite resources. And it is in the news a lot lately. From fuel for trucks that carry our goods from coast to coast, to the electricity that keeps a child's nightlight on to scare away the monsters, it runs our daily lives more than we even realize. But I'm not going to be talking today about that type of energy. Nope, I'm talking about *your* energy as one single human being.

You, too, have finite energy. Though we all awake each day with seemingly limitless possibilities we must be careful how we allocate this most precious resource. As a small business owner I am very aware that there is only so much I can accomplish in any given day. So I must be attentive to how I spend my time, and therefore energy. I want to spend my energy on things that will best benefit myself, my employees, and my family. Anything less is an injustice to myself and them.

Sometimes this makes decisions about what to do a little difficult. Every day I ask myself, "What is most important today?". Whether it is calling clients that are late on payments, working on a new label or brochure design, or simply caring for my daughter when she has a cold, there is always something that rises to the top of the pile. There are some activities that are just not worth my energy anymore, as well. I have to try and spend my energy on tasks that only I can do for the business. Anything that can be handed off to employees must be.

In some cases this is actually harder than it seems. After all, I started a business because I like to create. Sometimes it is difficult for me to spend my time on the finances instead of experimenting on a new soap or scent recipe. But we will never reach our collective goals if I can't manage my energy and time well. So for the sake of the company it is sometimes best if I keep myself on the computer instead of in the studio. (sad but true!)

Another factor of energy is the studio's collective energy. I am the steward to everyone here. Each employee brings their own energy to the studio and, potentially, conflicts if not managed properly. I am responsible for choosing the right employees, training them well, and communicating our business goals and methods to them so that they can embody those goals in everything they do here. Effective communication is key, and I have to try to maintain those open avenues so that our workplace remains positive instead of toxic.

Toxic work environments is one of the main reasons I felt inspired to create my own business in the first place. When there is discord in the workplace it diminishes the energy of the whole team. After all, energy spent complaining or bickering is that much less energy that can be spent towards actually accomplishing something. It is the job of each employer/employee team to make sure that a job fit is good.

Not everyone will be suitable to work for Irie Star. Some people (oddly enough) gain pleasure out of conflict and seem to want to foster it for their own excitement. Some people just aren't *really* interested in doing anything. Sure they might need a job, but don't care about the work. None of these would be individuals I would want on my team. I want our business to benefit as many people as possible, but allowing a negative or stagnant individual to be present on our team would damage that goal. I also spend 80 or more hours a week on my business, and as such couldn't stand to be around anyone nonproductive for that much time.

Some people are energy vampires - you've probly heard that phrase before. They take and take, without giving anything back. I can't be around people like that. I also can't be around people that gain joy from energy sabotage - saying belittling things and spending a lot of time trying to seem superior. Something I've found over time is that my energy to contribute to a job is very sensitive to my surroundings. When others around me are excited and active, that excites me! I can give twice as much when surrounded by good people. In that way the collective energy of a business can be exponentially more when a team is constructed of positive people, all feeding each other.

I also definitely believe that every person has a right to employment that really feeds their spirit. No one on earth should have to do work that beats them down inside. Your working hours make up a huge percentage of your life. I was never one that could think of a job as "just a job". If it wasn't really what I wanted to do I spent the entire time dreaming of the other things I wished I was doing. Very dissatisfying. Each person has their own calling, which is what is truly marvelous! Together we can all function as a society if people really find their calling. Whether that calling is communications, construction, agriculture, or research there should be places for all of us to thrive.

This last weekend when I was at my local Whole Foods Market doing a demo for our new BLENDS perfumes I was asked "as the owner of the company, is this really what you should be spending your time doing?" I could honestly say, "yes!" with great enthusiasm. Maybe not all the time, but I had carefully considered how my energy was benefiting us. That day it was the right choice.

Here is hoping that anyone reading this finds the tasks that are truly worth your energy. It is our most important and lifelong pursuit.

If you would like to read more words on this same topic, a friend of mine, Elizabeth of Elizabeth House has a blog also. She wrote some really lovely thoughts on how business owners and dreamers are like gardeners. I encourage you to read her thoughts for yourself. It is clear that she has many individuals contributing to her personal energy through their admiring words and cheerleading, whether from near or far. I hope I am also one of those people, as it was partly having been familiar with her wonderful writing that spurred me to begin a blog of my own. Thank you Elizabeth!

And thanks to you all for reading. I know I've gotten a bit off schedule at times with posting, but I'm doing my best to keep it all going. I've also decided to enable comments, so please let me know what you think!! I'm excited to hear your thoughts as well.

Love, Julie Longyear

Green Birthday the Earth Day Way

This was one busy weekend.
We threw a birthday party for our darling 4 year old girl on Saturday and then Sunday I exhibited with our local Green store Home Eco at their booth at St. Louis Earth Day in Forest Park. Whew! Let's just say I'm feelin' my age, despite the fact that I'm not all that old.

Party details? Well, I'm supremely proud that we managed to throw a birthday party with a minimal amount of waste. Birthday parties are almost synonymous with piles of plastic toy swag from the cheap favor aisles at Target or other discount stores. Bouncy balls, plastic rings, and other toys that get played with for about 30 minutes, and then end up in a pile of mixed up plastic junk that no kid really needs that badly. We have whole drawers full of it that has accumulated from other events. I decided that an affordable and fun solution was to make a few giant batches of Homemade Play Dough. You can make it with flour, water, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and oil. Completely biodegradable, completely natural, and tons of fun. Yes it was messy to make and took about 40 minutes per batch to mix and cook, but Tru has already played with it twice, making it at least doubly as useful as the plastic junk, and it is still plenty squishy for many more hours of fun.

See the recipe I used and make some yourself!

I recommend mixing any colorants in BEFORE cooking, and use a handheld mixer to whip up the flour and water mixture, otherwise you'll have trouble getting rid of all the lumps.

We also picked up biodegradable disposable cutlery. It only came in mixed boxes of forks, spoons, and knives so we've got lots of leftover knives, but I still feel way better about this than the ubiquitous plastic utensils that appear at most events. The memories of the party will last forever, but the utensils shouldn't.

I also checked the cups at the store while shopping. Only 1 type of plastic cup was made of #1 plastic. Others were all #5 or #6, which is not recyclable in many or most places. Something to think about when buying cups.

I also made the cake at home. Hooray for no wasted cake trays, and no mystery ingredients and funny food colors. Me making the birthday dessert has become tradition. My desserts frequently look a little odd, but always taste great and have always featured organic and natural ingredients. This year Tru requested a Strawberry Cake so I intrepidly found a recipe online that seemed good and gave it a whirl. Many of the strawberry cakes involved a package of gelatin, which is not vegetarian friendly. I found this recipe online, the top one saying "strawberries and whipped cream cake", and made some alterations. I added a touch of nutmeg to the cake itself, and then make a pureed strawberry sauce to drizzle between layers. The Icing I can't recommend. Tastes great but turned out way runny. Maybe try whipping the heavy cream to stiffen BEFORE adding to the cream cheese. It didn't stiffen at all when I added the way the recipe says. And subbing powdered sugar instead of the regular sugar it says would probly make a difference too.

Anyway, so that is a kids party done a little more eco-friendly. Yes, it took a lot of extra time. I did take a couple days off work to put it all together. But Tru and I enjoyed the party prep together and I think she'll remember that we put the time in on something just for her. And time and the memories are way more important than all the loot in the world. :)

Happy Earth Day folks! Have fun finding your own little ways to make a difference.

Bug Free without the Bugs??

I missed last week in part due to some turmoil with our new product launch. As the "do it all" person around here my life kindof stops when there is a crisis, big or small.

My last post mentioned the new Bug-Free Bliss Sprayable Lotion that has been in the works to match our candle. Well, that hit a serious bump in the road about a week and a half ago just a day or so after my last post. In doing some research on how to finish off our verbage on the product label I ran across some information that made my stomach drop. Most of you may not be familiar with this info, as it's not like it is on the news all the time, or just average public knowledge.

The Environmental Protection Agency, in addition to its role as guardian of clean air, water, and other natural resources also presides over Pesticides. What is a pesticide? Any product designed to mitigate, control, or eliminate a pest. While one might commonly think of roach killers and rat poisons when thinking of pesticides, things like herbicides, antibacterial products, and yes, bug repellents also qualify under the EPA's pesticide definition and jurisdiction.

In an effort to be on the straight and narrow I contacted the EPA representative after doing hours of reading on their website. All the legal talk was making my head spin, and I wasn't sure which end was up. I found paperwork saying that products made from certain flower and vegetable oils may be determined to be of minimal risk and would qualify for exemption. After speaking with their rep I was referred to a list of ingredients that the EPA has decided are safe enough not to require extra field testing or registration. I would love to refer you to this exact page but no joke, their site is like a maze and I just don't have time to dig it up again. Instead I can refer you to this main page, and good luck! www.epa.gov

Included on this active ingredient exemption list are ingredients like geranium oil, cedarwood oil, and soybean oil. Also included are ingredients like putrescent eggs and dried blood. (if you are hoping for a People repellant, those would certainly work!) Then there is a huge list of approved inactives. In order to qualify for exemption your product must be made strictly from these actives and inactives. Any deviation and you are required to submit to a 2 year registration effort with hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees and field testing. Um, yeah. This is when my stomach was turning.

Not included on their list of approved actives and inactives were ingredients like Aloe, and Jojoba Oil. If I had wanted to put cat food in my product, hey, great! But no Aloe. Wow. And even if you do manage to qualify for Federal exemption each state has its own registration requirements. Only 12 states allow full exemptions, the rest require registration no matter what or your product is technically illegal. I made a valiant attempt at reformulation based only on their lists. My success was moderate, but nothing stunning and nothing as nice as the original recipe. Then I did the cost calculation, and discovered that the retail price of the product would have ended up at 1.5 times the original. That is when I gave up.

So what is a small business owner to do? In this case we have decided to relabel our original recipe. Officially our spray has nothing to do with Bugs. It is now called Backyard Bliss and you'll see nothing mentioning a bug anywhere on it. I can't officially tell you if it helps with bugs or not. According to us it is for sun stress rejuvenation, and has a fresh outdoorsy scent. Draw your own conclusions.

How, you ask, can there be so many small herbal companies making "bug b gone" type sprays? Well, the official answer is that they are illegal. Ridiculous to think that herbs that have been used for centuries safely must now be considered in violation of the law. But yes, they are. I guarantee that either these small manufacturers are not aware of the EPAs regulations, OR they are producing on such a small scale that they just don't get noticed. We are looking at selling our product on a national level, so can't afford to put ourselves in a situation where the product might cost us legal trouble. I'm sure you can understand.

So anyway, that is the scoop on a day in the life of a product formulator! My week dealing with that was a sincerely miserable few days. Couldn't end soon enough. Paperwork, legalese, and beaurocracy are not my favorite parts of running a small business. But, it must be done to get to the fun parts.

I'll have lots more fun news next week, but probly on Monday afternoon. ;) Sunday I'll be at Forest Park for St. Louis Earth Day, so will probly be too beat to write at night. Hope to see you there to celebrate our planet!

*Love
Julie Longyear

Out comes the Chemistry Geek!

Hello beautiful people!
Today's post is considerably lighter in tone than some previous. And I'm early getting it done. (gasp!)

I wanted to share my excitement about a new system that we will be using in our water-based body products in the future. The first product to use it is going to be our Bug-Free Bliss sprayable lotion, which is set to be coming out this May. Just in time for the buggies!

But anyway, we have been researching our options. I am tireless when it comes to research on ingredients. I spend a lot of time looking for good suppliers and unusual, quality choices. I found this system about 2 years ago and have been dying to use it ever since. The immediate problem at that time was that the minimum purchase from the manufacturer was way beyond what we could afford or consume in the shelf life of the product. So we had to wait. Now given that we have grown a bit that helps and they have lowered their purchase quantities to a reasonable level. Imagine my geeky excitement when I discovered we could switch! Hooray!

Now, this is the point at which my husband's eyes would begin to glaze over as I explain a bit of the chemistry. Bear with me for a few moments, dear reader, and you'll understand more of why I am so enthused about this product.

The system about which I am so enthused consists of 2 components: Glucose (sugar) and Glucoseoxidase and Lactoperoxidase (2 sugar enzymes that live on Glucose). This system acts to preserve water-based products from microbial growth and oxidation, but technically this system is not classified as a preservative at all. A preservative is an ingredient that exists and is added for the primary purpose of microbe control. These 2 components of glucose and enzymes separately do not exhibit any antimicrobial characteristics. A Cosmetics Products Directive exists listing all substances that are positively considered preservatives. Substances such as Potassium Sorbate and Sodium Benzoate would both be on this list as they have no function in a cosmetic product but to offer preservation. It is recognized that some substances do inhibit microbial growth though they are not on this positive list. Alcohol, essential oils, and this sugar enzyme system are all excluded from the positive list. Therefore as we reformulate our products they will all be considered "Preservative-Free".

The way in which these ingredients work mimics natural enzyme processes in tears, saliva, and milk. Basically what happens is that the ingredients are added to a cosmetic product. The system is only activated when exposed to oxygen. Oxygen is also what allows microbes to grow. Many different linked reactions occur, but we can sum it up like so: Glucose Oxidase metabolizes the Glucose, the by products fuel the Lactoperoxidase, and the byproducts of the Lactoperoxidase are antimicrobial. Ta da! Because this reaction also uses up all available oxygen from the surrounding environment it prevents oxidative degeneration of the ingredients in the cosmetic as well, meaning fresher, more active ingredients for your skin.

What were the other options? Well, I have tried a number of different essential oil based preservation systems and found them problematic. The odor from them was so pervasive that even 3 and 4% essential oils in the formula did not mask it. This sugar enzyme system has no odor of its own and does not alter our product consistency whatsoever. It is safe, and well tested. High profile lines such as Burts Bees also use it (which is how I discovered it actually - reading one of their labels and going, hmmm what is that?). While I can't say that we aspire to be like Burts Bees precisely I must say that my own research into this ingredient has made me feel very confident about it.

There have been drawbacks to virtually all other methods of natural preservation I have researched. Some natural companies are now using a high percentage of organic alcohol in their lotions and water-based products to inhibit growth. While some alcohol is fine, the level required to fully preserve a product even in conjunction with essential oils can be high enough to be drying to skin.

Potassium Sorbate is a very mild, and I believe safe ingredient, but is really only effective at combatting mold growth. Sodium Benzoate is then also generally used to inhibit bacteria. While Sodium Benzoate is even on the EU's accepted list for preservatives in organic products, we have received enough flack about it in our mists over time that we are working to eliminate it from our products. In acidic solutions such as Soda, Sodium Benzoate has been suspected of degrading to form Benzene. While some sodas are literally so acidic they can dissolve nails (yikes!) and our mists don't even come close to being like that I still felt it was best to avoid Sodium Benzoate in the future.

So, as we begin to switch over to this new system I just wanted you all to be aware of what it was as it appeared on our ingredients labels. Your trust is very important to us, and we believe an educated consumer is our best friend. After all, inquiring minds want to know! I know mine always does. ;)

Wishing you health!
*blessings
Julie

At Last! How post-war American life contributed to today's suffering cities

I'm here to finish this thing. Let's get it done folks! This is the point where things all start to tie together, where we really begin to see how federal policy, prejudice, and the "Dream" of 2 kids, a car, and a house with a yard contributed to the very sad decline of what once were fine cities in our American landscape.

According to a striking passage in Buzz Bissinger's book A Prayer for the City the Home Owner's Loan Corporation, a program started by President Roosevelt in the New Deal era, created color-coded maps that determined lending practices for home purchases. Starting in 1933 HOLC refinanced mortgages that were in Danger of default because of the Depression. (By the way, sound familiar to today at all? Federal aid to help mortgages from going into default? hmmm... ) According to Bissinger, in the 1920s a mortgage had a life of 5 to 10 years and was then subject to renewal. HOLC extended mortgages to 20 years, much more similar to today's 15 and 30 year mortgages. "But as a precaution, the federal agency established exhaustive appraisal procedures to determine which areas of a city or suburb were more suitable for lending than others." The color-coded maps they created marked areas First, Second, Third, and Fourth grade. First grade areas were virtually free of blacks and foreign-born whites and were well planned parts of a city. These areas received the most funding. Second grade was deemed OK for lending, but at a slightly decreased rate. Third grade areas "were characterized, according to HOLC literature, by 'age, obsolescence, and change of style; expiring restrictions or lack of them; infiltration of a lower grade population...' ". Fourth grade areas were qualified as infiltrated by a large degree of undesirable population and unsuitable for lending.

Bissinger goes on to analyze that based on the HOLC's assesments Philadelphia was at a considerable disadvantage (and we can transfer this thinking to St. Louis as well, as it has many similar characteristics to Philadelphia). Older housing stock and mixed black and immigrant populations were deemed undesirable. Bissinger states that of the 13 neighborhoods in Philadelphia that received the first grade designation, none had any black population. Less than 5 % of Philadelphia as a whole received the desirable Green first-grade color. The vast majority of the remainder of the city was deemed Fourth Grade. Buildings were deemed as deteriorating and Negros, Jews and other foreign working-class Americans were classified as unsuitable to receive lending.

Conversely the Suburban areas were deemed as first and second grade because of undeveloped land for expansion and ethnic and racial purity. The phrase " ' All Americans' " was used.

The Federal Government in the 1930's had adopted a new model of government intervention and stabilization of the private sector. Previous the the Depression the economy was primarily treated as Laissez-Faire, but as that model was suffering and banks were failing there was room and need for the government to step in and stabilize the economy. According to Kristin Crossney and David Bartelt in their paper The Legacy of the Home Owners Loan Corporation, the HOLC's primary function at the time of its inception was refinance of troubled mortages, not new purchase loans. Construction was also stalled due to the Depression, and was further inhibited in the early 40's by the concentration on the war effort. Crossney and Bartelt assert that the access of private individuals to these HOLC maps was limited, and that investment behavior in practice did not always match up directly with these maps. But the climate of the lending and social environment is pretty clear from the negative, divisive language that was simply a part of the American landscape at that time.

It should suprise noone that our country has had racial integration problems. Anyone that has seen Gangs of New York has a pretty clear picture of how immigrants were treated in the middle 19th century. Suprise! by the 1930s much of that bias against immigrants had still not disappeared, and, Suprise! we seem to still be having some problems with immigration today. Otherwise I don't think we'd be hearing discussions of a fence to mark the Texas/Mexico border.

Back to the 1940s.... by the end of WWII a lot of population of the USA was squeezed into aging city housing that hadn't received proper maintenance in years. With the completion of the war and return of the troops from abroad, families began to grow, there was a housing shortage, and the economy shifted to bring in a new prosperity. The GI Bill was signed into effect in 1944 and allowed veterans to access housing and provided education benefits. Instead of redevelopment and investment in the city landscape, the lending was slanted towards new construction in the suburbs. According to Barbara Kelly in her paper The Houses of Levittown in the Context of Postwar American Culture , the federal government deemed rewarding veterans for their service through housing and economic advantage essential to a transition to the peacetime economy. Otherwise veterans would become discontent and cause political problems. About the decisions the federal government made in relation to this issue, Kelly writes "When the debate was over, the directions of the housing programs was clear. Veterans housing regulated by the FHA and funded through the Veterans Administration, would be built in the form of the American Dream; a vine-covered cottage set on a small plot in a suburban setting." Home ownership was equated with strong social structure and a cornerstone remedy of societal ills.

The traditional city model had kept workers close to their places of employment. Without a car, ease of transportation to work meant long distance commutes were just not possible for most working and middle class families. The new prosperity and growth of the middle class also meant the purchase and use of automobiles, creating a new mobility. Living in the suburbs and driving further to work was no longer a problem.

Who did the GI Bill benefit? Well, largely white males and their spouses. As I discussed before, if my numbers are correct and only 6.25% of the entire military service was black, lending through the VA went mostly to whites. The access to education and housing helped the white working class step up and move out of their crowded urban surroundings. So that left less-educated, lower income blacks and "undesirable" immigrant populations in the cities in housing stock that already needed work. It also caused the tax base to shift elsewhere. Sound like a recipe for urban success??

Indeed, the status provided by the suburban cottage and the life it created was reinforced by the government, builders, and companies producing consumer goods. It was the very hallmark of social stability, and was even thought of as a cure for Communism! Certainly a real estate owner would have too much to do to keep his property tidy to be joining radical political parties. Suburban life kept citizens busy, gave them a source of pride, and was basically used as a form of social control.

From my family I hear that the neighborhood here in North St. Louis "began to change" and that many of the families living here didn't really want to move, but couldn't stand to be the only good families left in a deteriorating neighborhood. While they were simply cogs in the machinery of an entire society of skewed values it doesn't change the fact that White Flight basically demolished city revenue bases and became a self-fulfilling prophecy. Cities were seen as dirty, run-down, and full of undesirable populations. That is exactly what they have become and remain in the eyes of suburbia. Lack of reinvestment from the federal government and private individuals caused the beginning of a downward spiral that is still in progress in many places. In the St. Louis area the proliferation of suburban housing in outward areas such as St. Charles and Wentzville (as much as 1 1/2 hours from downtown by highway) has only been slowed recently by the collapse of the housing market. This is now one of the first times in the past several decades that bulldozed, construction-ready areas are just sitting idle.

We are on the verge of seeing just how far this American Dream and suburban expansion can be pushed. With gas prices projected to rise to $4 and $5 a gallon by summer this may be the first time the automobile culture generated in the 1940s may just be about to change direction. According to the national news from just the other day use of public transit is back up to levels it hasn't seen since the 1950s. Suburbia is about to see just how much it is willing to pay to retain the house and yard it prizes so highly. I'm sure we are all anxiously awaiting to see how the economy fares over the next year. Best of luck to us all.

Personally I'm excited to be part of the movement to revitalize my local urban neighborhood. I hope more people will do the same and contribute to theirs. It is not really about being charitable. It is about looking at the health of our entire communities and realizing that our society is only as good as its weakest members. While just one person can't change an entire city or an entire country, we each have a say. I intend to be proud of the interactions I have with members of my community that are different from myself. It only makes all of us better.

Phew! Well, that concludes my thoughts for now. My post next week will probly be a little lighter in tone. I don't think you'll blame me. ;) Until then, as our local KDHX DJ Papa Ray says, "Do good in your neighborhood."

*blessings,
Julie

Where'd ya go, Julie?

Well, I must apologize for my absence over not just 1 but 2 weeks! I had some business travel to do, and the preparation for the trip and the aftermath upon my return swallowed me up for a few weeks. Ah well, a missed blog date was bound to happen at some point, I'm just sorry it had to happen at such a crucial time in my exploration of St. Louis urban decay. After all, we were just about to get to the good stuff! Or, at least the stuff that leads to our present day life.

Where was I? I traveled to California to participate in the Natural Products Expo in Anaheim. I got to see some of the latest and greatest new products in natural bodycare and nutrition products. I spent an evening in LA with friends and enjoyed the 60 degree weather...ahh! While I didn't run into Alicia Silverstone or Leonardo DiCaprio (who BTW received samples of our new BLENDS Perfumes the very same weekend I was in LA along with Ellen Degeneres, Melissa Etheridge, Robert Redford, Sheryl Crow, Drew Barrymore, Tyra Banks and more!) I did meet many small business owners that I look forward to working with much more in the future.

It is truly exciting to see so many people working hard to improve the quality, safety, variety and efficacy of natural products available on the market. I spent some time talking to others about the long-term goals for Irie Star and how I want to see our operation benefit others. With any luck I'll be sharing some of those ideas with you in the coming months. They are BIG BIG BIG so I'm looking forward to networking and pulling together my local resources to manifest this destiny. For now though I need to sit on them and percolate a little before bringing them out in the open. Like Horton, I want people to be able to say that I "meant what I said, and said what I meant". Once I bring ideas out to the public I like to be faithful 100%. :)

Now, I must pull together my more serious post! Info on the final chapter of my discussion on St. Louis urban decay is coming up in about an hour or 2, so stay tuned! Glad to be back with you again...
*blessings
Julie Longyear

WWII Sets the Stage

WWII, the legendary juggernaut of a war that set the stage for America life as we know it. What would the American dream be without this in our past? How many movies, books, and personal stories can there be? Well, if one counted just the Americans that served in the military, approximately 16 million stories would emerge, less the 400,000 people that were killed in combat.

WWII drove the American economy into the boom of the 1950s, where the good life was possible and a piece could be had by all (theoretically). But the beneficiaries of this boom were largely white, and the structure of the economy skewed development in ways that would prove to exaggerate class distinctions and continue the great divide between black and white in our society.

Approximately 2.5 million black Americans registered for the service during WWII but only about 1 million actually served in combat. Even those that did serve were confined to fully segregated units. Many were relegated to service and support missions rather than actual combat. The Marine Corps initially refused to accept any black servicepeople at all. In 1942 based on mounting casualties in the Pacific and pressure from civil rights groups, they relented but mostly kept black recruits in non-combat jobs as well. The combat battalions did distinguish themselves well in battle, and fought as bravely and well as any white counterparts.

At home the war economy and civil situation was a unique time in American history. Small towns boomed under the influence of wartime industry, the country was drawn together by collective sacrifice and spirit, and yet these collective energies were denied to many minorities. Japanese Americans were sent to camps, giving up posessions, businesses, and homes. African Americans were still beset by Jim Crow laws, and were even denied employment in war industries despite laws that made that discrimination illegal.

In 1941 President Roosevelt signed into law Executive order 8802 which outlawed discrimination in war industries and provided recourse and a Fair Employment Practic es Commission to investigate complaints. But companies such as the Alabama Dry Dock and Shipbuilding Company in Mobile even went so far as to discontinue its mechanics apprenticeship program when blacks were prepared to enroll. According to the Ken Burns movie "The War" and their website, major fighting broke out at ADDSCO in Mobile in 1943 when a group of black workers was promoted to welding positions. Thousands of white workers turned on the black men who had been promoted, after rumors flew that many more black workers were on the way and that they would be working alongside the women employees. After the riot the black workers did return, and more were brought on to skilled positions, but they were forced to work in 4 separate shipways, and were never promoted to the position of foreman. In the remainder of the business blacks were kept to the unskilled positions they had held before the 8802 was issued.

So looking at the above factors, the benefits of the war economy were denied to most minorities. Good paying war industry jobs and benefits to service people were disproportionately awarded to the white population. Certainly it was great news for white women, who were finally allowed industry positions they would have never gotten if the men had been there to fill them. But blacks and other minorities were systematically shut out, maintaining the status quo and keeping blacks in menial labor jobs. If we look at just the blacks drafted into the army we have 1,000,000 out of 16,000,000 total. The US Census Bureau reports a total population of 131,669,275 for the entire country in 1940. 12,865,518 of these were black people. These numbers indicate that 11.3% of the white and other populations served in the military, while only 7% of the black population served. Only 6.25% of the entire military service was black.

According to "The War" website based on the Ken Burns documentary, "By the end of the war more than half of all industrial production in the world would take place in the United States." The economy was booming, the Depression was effectively disposed of, and once the war ended the stage was set for tremendous growth. But that growth would benefit only certain groups, and certain areas.

Next week I'll be delving a bit into the GI Bill, the Home Owners Loan Corporation, the automobile culture, and postwar government policies in relationship to housing. Complicated stuff, and I'm betting I won't post until Monday afternoon again. This sort of writing just doesn't take place so well at 11 pm on a Sunday night. ;) I'm a lot more likely to get my facts straight and write intelligibly if I'm not falling asleep at the laptop. Until then, be well and be inspired!

*blessings
Julie