The War: Nebraska Stories
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Minority Experiences:
African Americans

African American ammunition depot workers
in the mess hall at the Hastings Naval Ammunition Depot
in the early 1940s.
Courtesy National Archives and Records Administration.		 "It was something different to see minority people. . . . their presence was a little uncomfortable for some residents in the community."
—Elaine Hatten, Hastings, NE


Racism was a serious problem in World War II. The defense factories needed more workers than small towns in Nebraska could provide. When hundreds of diverse people arrived to help out, they were not always treated with respect. Willie Tripp wasn't born in Nebraska, but in this video, he tells how he moved to Hastings to work at the Hastings Naval Ammunition Depot.

Hastings Naval
Ammunition Depot
 Top: Willie Tripp, Yeoman, U.S. Navy,
Acting Lieutenant in Hastings, NE.
From NET Television program, Next Exit.
Bottom: Black servicemen working on a munitions assembly line at Hastings depot.
Courtesy Nebraska State Historical Society.

Click here to see the April 28, 1944 issue of The Powder Keg,
the Hastings Naval Ammunition Depot newsletter.

In contrast to the Navy having no record of Willie's accident,
this issue reports one where streets were named for those killed.

Left: Charles Lane Jr. and his plane, Meatball.
Lieutenant Colonel, Tuskegee Airman, 99th Fighter Squadron, U.S. Air Force, resident of Omaha, NE.
Courtesy Charles Lane Jr.
Right: Paul Adams in the cockpit. Lieutenant Colonel, Tuskegee Airman, 302nd Fighter Squadron,
resident of Lincoln, NE.
Courtesy Paul Adams. 		Before 1940, African Americans were barred from flying for the U.S. military. But in 1941, an Army Air Forces (formerly Army Air Corps) program was started in Tuskegee, Alabama to train African Americans to fly and maintain combat aircraft. In this video, Paul Adams and Charles Lane recall the racism they encountered on the ground in contrast to the freedom they felt in the sky.

Tuskegee:
Radical Experiment

By the end of the war, the Tuskegee Airmen had destroyed 261 enemy aircraft. The "Redtails", as they were known, flew 200 bomber escort missions against some of the most heavily defended targets in Axis territory and lost a very small number of friendly bombers to the enemy. But America wasn't waiting with open arms.
Heroes Not Welcome
Tuskegee mission briefing during WWII.
Courtesy Paul Adams.
For More Information within Nebraska Studies:
Arsenal for Democracy: Hastings Grows
Arsenal for Democracy: Rent - The Sky's the Limit
Arsenal for Democracy: Native Americans Help Build the Plant
Arsenal for Democracy: African Americans Face Discrimination