THE AMERICAN STATE AND THE MANAGEMENT OF RACE CONFLICT IN THE WORKPLACE AND IN THE ARMY, 1941-1945

The American mobilization for World War II produced widespread interra cial conflict in factories in the urban north and in army camps in the rural south. In responding to racial friction, this article shows, th e Roosevelt Administration was guided more by concerns for the war eff ort, tempered by local and party coalitional concerns, than by the goa l of interracial reform. This strategy, the author concludes, successf ully defused the racial crisis and insulated the President from social conflict that might have debilitated the nation's warmaking capacity and undermined his political support.