Built in six months’ time by the US “war machine,” Charlotte’s 2,300-acre Shell Assembly Plant operated around the clock under strict safety rules to offset the danger it posed to over 10,000 employees. The plant received the Naval “E” for Excellence award three times, despite the threat of fire that came to fruition in June of 1944. On the third anniversary of Pearl Harbor, the plant attempted to beat its own production record to capitalize on the Allied momentum and win the war.

FDR’s Executive Order 8802 banned racial discrimination within the U.S. Defense Industry. Thanks to the “loose lips sink ships” mindset and post-war era of secrecy that followed, there are few recorded employment statistics for the Shell Plant. However, many estimate up to 90% of workers were women and many were women of color, attracted by the ability to make ten times their weekly wages as domestic workers. White and Black women rode the same buses to work and enjoyed the same starting wages.

WWII was a time when our nation’s freedom was at risk, and the nation responded to that challenge. But during those same war years, there briefly existed an ironic personal wage freedom for many of society’s marginalized.