<P> Fascist Italy was an official enemy, and citizens of Italy were also forced away from "strategic" coastal areas in California . Altogether, 58,000 Italians were forced to relocate . They relocated on their own and were not put in camps . Known spokesmen for Benito Mussolini were arrested and held in prison . The restrictions were dropped in October 1942, and Italy switched sides in 1943 and became an American ally . In the east, however, the large Italian populations of the northeast, especially in munitions - producing centers such as Bridgeport and New Haven, faced no restrictions and contributed just as much to the war effort as other Americans . </P> <P> The Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC) was a federal executive order requiring companies with government contracts not to discriminate on the basis of race or religion . It assisted African Americans in obtaining jobs in industry . Under pressure from A. Philip Randolph's growing March on Washington Movement, on June 25, 1941, President Roosevelt created the Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC) by signing Executive Order 8802 . It said "there shall be no discrimination in the employment of workers in defense industries or government because of race, creed, color, or national origin". In 1943 Roosevelt greatly strengthened FEPC with a new executive order, #9346 . It required that all government contracts have a non-discrimination clause . FEPC was the most significant breakthrough ever for Blacks and women on the job front . During the war the federal government operated airfields, shipyards, supply centers, ammunition plants, and other facilities that employed millions . FEPC rules applied and guaranteed equality of employment rights . These facilities shut down when the war ended . In the private sector the FEPC was generally successful in enforcing non-discrimination in the North, it did not attempt to challenge segregation in the South, and in the border region its intervention led to hate strikes by angry white workers . </P> <P> The African American community in the United States resolved on a Double V campaign: victory over fascism abroad, and victory over discrimination at home . Large numbers migrated from poor Southern farms to munitions centers . Racial tensions were high in overcrowded cities like Chicago; Detroit and New York experienced race riots in 1943 . Black newspapers created the Double V campaign to build black morale and head off radical action . </P> <P> Most Black women had been farm laborers or domestics before the war . Despite discrimination and segregated facilities throughout the South, many left agricultural work, migrated north and west, and took blue - collar jobs in the cities . Working with the federal Fair Employment Practices Committee, the NAACP, and CIO unions, these Black women fought a "Double V" campaign--against the Axis abroad and against restrictive hiring practices at home . Their efforts redefined citizenship, equating their patriotism with war work, and seeking equal employment opportunities, government entitlements, and better working conditions as conditions appropriate for full citizens . In the South black women worked in segregated jobs; in the West and most of the North they were integrated, but wildcat strikes erupted in Detroit, Baltimore, and Evansville, Indiana where white migrants from the South refused to work alongside black women . </P>

How did better pay and armed service benefits affect american life during world war ii