The Military Channel

**Harlan (Deceased)** · 09-09-2009 11:31 PM

I don't watch much TV at all and when I do I usually watch The Military Channel or The History Channel, etc.
Many programs are repeated over and over so I'll not watch them again, but tonight I viewed a very interesting program called 'American Arsenal' that covered the transit strike in Philadelphia in 1944.

The transit system needed workers because by 1944 there were few men available, so they tried to use a couple of black men as streetcar conductors. One union leader rallied everyone together and said doing so would hurt white people's natural supremacy. The union striked and all the transit was shut down preventing the majority of war production workers from getting to work. Production was cut by 70% and Philadelphia was one of the huge wartime manufacturers . President Truman called in the U.S. army to keep things from getting out of hand. Blacks were being beaten, businesses torn up, and the union was ready for a race war. The citizens were happy to have the army there to take care of them and most of them wanted to go back to work to make war goods.

The union held it's ground and wouldn't budge. The general leading the army group advised the striking workers that if they weren't back on the job the following Monday, all their deferment would be removed and each of them would be drafted into the wartime fighting army and their draft would be expedited. He told them, "If you aren't at work Monday, you'll be in boot camp on Tuesday" (They all went back to work!)

I didn't think this program would be interesting, but it was one of the most interesting programs I've seen on the Military Channel. Most all of the program showed period footage.

I just thought you guys would find it interesting if you can catch this program so I looked up the schedule for the next couple of days. This program isn't played often like "Future Weapons" etc, and probably won't be on their schedule very long, but to me it's one of the best programs they have had in a while.

Military Channel :: TV Listings :: American Arsenal

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