Word: menials
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Reconstruction. But the South had "had its fill of arms and glory." There were 400 soldiers' widows in one county of De Forest's military district; 600 in another. The planters were almost destitute. There were heiresses doing menial labor, great ladies without stockings. The planters wondered how they could keep the Negroes in the fields if they were not slaves. So they drew up elaborate contracts, forbidding them to leave the plantations without permission, setting fines for rudeness...
...accused were members of a company of 99 Negro WACs stationed at Lovell General Hospital, Fort Devens, Mass. The four and 56 others, most of whom served as orderlies, had gone on a sit-down strike, complaining that they were given menial jobs and were treated badly because of their color. After Negro and white officers (including a major general) had talked to them, the 56 had gone back to their jobs. But not the disgruntled four: Privates Anna Morrison, Mary Green, Alice Young and Johnnie Murphy steadfastly refused to work...
...seasoned veterans and green replacements. While awaiting transfer to France, they will continue what they consider a happy assignment - though they would "rather be in action." They work, in battle dress, eight hours a day, have evenings off, do not have to bother with time-killing hikes and menial chores. More thoughtful soldiers also regard the project as a worthy contribution to Allied unity...
...largest carbarn (without audible protest from the company). Up on a toolbox jumped burly, bull-voiced James Henry McMenamin, 43, to take command. He shouted: "It's white against black!" He well knew that the company's 600 Negro employes had hitherto worked peacefully (in menial jobs) beside other workers. But now, he pointed out, as motormen, they could sit on the same benches as whites. Cried McMenamin: "The colored people have bedbugs...
...reason for the Southern credence given such yarns is that most intelligent, hard-working Negroes have swarmed off to war work, leaving the irresponsibles and incompetents of their race to do the domestic and menial jobs. The resulting resentment among whites, and the breaking up of individual employer-employe loyalties, will not make the South's great postwar racial adjustment problem any easier...