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Women also joined the armed forces. The army enlisted them for the first time but barred them from combat. Many army jobs were administrative and clerical. Filling these jobs with women freed more men for combat.
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Many African Americans left the South for jobs in war factories in the North and West. However, African Americans often faced suspicion and intolerance
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The federal government arranged for Mexican farmworkers to help harvest crops in the Southwest as part of the Bracero Program, which continued until 1964. More than 200,000 Mexicans came to work during the war.
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Under pressure from African American leaders, President Roosevelt ordered the armed services to recruit African Americans and to put them into combat
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Factories hired women, but they resisted hiring African Americans. Frustrated by the situation, A. Philip Randolph, the head of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters—a major union for African American railroad workers
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Opinions changed after France surrendered to Germany