Recently I have begun to study America's 50 states, and their contribution to the war effort, and ultimately how the war changed the states. The state I have recently read about quite a bit, is Georgia. I will reference what the state was like, before, during, and after WW2, and from there you can decide if the war benefited the Peach state or not. If there are any Georgian's out there, hope you enjoy this thread and learn some new things, because I certainly have learned a lot more about my neighbour to the east. Georgia Pre-WW2 Georgia before WW2 was not in the greatest spot economically, this wasn't new however, as Georgia's economy had been relatively awful since the Civil War, and the Stock Market crash of 29 only made things worse. 80 years after the Civil War, Georgia was still largely dependent on agriculture to provide the states income. Georgia's main exports in the summer of 1941 remained cotton, peanuts, pecans, corn, peaches, blueberries, and a multitude of other farmed goods. Politically, Georgia was still a segregated state by the Jim Crow laws. Most of Georgia, with the exceptions of Atlanta and Columbus, was a rural and small community bound state. Georgia WW2 Even before the United States entered WW2, Georgia's economy began to benefit from the conflict. With the enactment of Lend-Lease in March of 1941, the U.S had to significantly ramp up factory production. Along with being an agriculture powerhouse, Georgia soon installed and expanded factories throughout the state. This in turn lowered unemployment percentages by almost 8%, 73% of Average Georgian's worked with Agriculture before the war, that soon went down to 53% by war's end. Small town populations grew as a result of factories, in some towns by 150% (Marietta went from 8,600 residents, to 20,200). Along with factories, shipyards began to pop up around the coast of Georgia as well, one of the biggest in Brunswick. Along with factories, military bases and training facilities grew as a result of the war. Fort Benning was the largest infantry training base in the world in 1945, and Navy Pilots were trained at the University of Georgia in Athens. Italian and German POW's from Camp Gordon and Stewart helped labor for farmers during harvests. Politically, Blacks made up more than 60% of the workforce in Georgia during the war, but most were paid significantly less than their white counterparts. Georgia Post WW2 After the War, some parts of Georgia were completely transformed from agricultural to industrial centers. Small towns had grown in some cases 3 times larger. 2,679 Georgians died in WW2, mostly in the Army. Unfortunately, segregation was still a predominant thing in Georgia after the war, and was around until 1968. Thousands also lost their jobs directly after the war since the need for factory workers and labor was not highly demanded. Georgia's economy would slow back down, but never reached the levels of poverty and poorness that was experienced before the war.
I was thinking that overtime I will do this for all 50 states, when I get to Pennsylvania, I will definitely use that article. Thank you Lou!
Id like to see some conclusions and comparisons as you go...With each state for example...did the war benefit this state? Short medium and long term...? Which state/s contributed the most? In terms of military personnel, training, factories/production - Steel or war bonds? Which state had to deal with the most deaths/casualties? It might be possible to number them in order of value to the war effort... This would be to NOT highlight the states who did the least...but highlight those states that made the greatest sacrifice and positive effect to the war effort.
FDR funneled New Deal money into Southern states for military infrastructure to prop up their economies. Sen. Richard Russell made sure Georgia got its share. The South was a natural location for air bases for the training command, 3rd AF and service command due to it's mostly favorable weather. Georgia had numerous airfields for both the AAF and the navy. Atlanta Army Air Field became Candler Field post-war and then Hartsfield-Jackson Airport. NAS Atlanta became Dekalb-Peachtree Airport which handles much of Atlanta's corporate jet traffic. Marietta Army Airfield serviced the Bell Aircraft B-29 plant which is now Lockheed-Martin and Dobbins Joint Air Reserve Base. Macon, Rome, Savannah, Valdosta and numerous other smaller towns had either AAF or Navy bases.
The reason I didn't blatantly state benefits is because I wanted the readers to determine themselves if the war made things better or worse, like for the black community in Georgia, segregation would go on for another 23 years after the war. It's also a little hard to rank the states because of size, and population if that makes sense? I would if they were all relatively similar in size and population but that is not the case. Georgia was the main southern state when it came to bases of all sorts, it had the capability of housing Naval, Air, and Army bases because it bordered the ocean and as you said had relatively good weather.
Georgia 1940's Jim Crow segregated water Fountain circa 1942 Fort Benning Camp Gordon 1945 Camp Gordon Today Atlanta 1940 Atlanta Today
The unofficial WW2 face of the U.S. Army was from Dublin, Georgia. Born in 1912, Lt. Kelso Horne also had the distinction of being one of the oldest paratroopers to land in Normandy. Kelso's picture on the cover of LIFE was widely circulated in other publications and soon earned him a nickname of Cover Boy, which continued into old age and retirement. His jump-qualified grandson Kelso III is currently a colonel in the chemical warfare service and was the CO of Pine Bluff Arsenal. It seems there is a Kelso IV who might also be fitted for a parachute someday. Kelso C. Horne
Funny how 32 years old is considered old in WW2........thank you for sharing EKB, I never heard of Mr. Kelso till now.
