(H)our History Lesson: Innovation and Employment in WWII Oak Ridge, TN

Workers at Oak Ridge carrying coal, 1945.

Photo by Edward Westcott. Courtesy of US Department of Energy via Oak Ridge Public Library.

Introduction

This lesson is part of a series teaching about the WWII home front. The subject is Oak Ridge, Tennessee, which is an American World War II Heritage City. The lesson contains photographs, one background reading, and two primary source readings to contribute to learners’ understandings of the Manhattan Project in Oak Ridge during World War II. It was written by educator Sarah Nestor Lane.

Objectives

1. Understand the significance of Oak Ridge's role during World War II, specifically its contribution to the Manhattan Project and the production of enriched uranium.
2. Recognize challenges workers at Oak Ridge faced, including women and African Americans, and their important contributions to the war effort.
3. Describe scientific innovation and engineering achievements, as shown by the achievements at Oak Ridge, in addressing global crises and shaping historical outcomes.

Materials for Students

1. Photos 1 - 6 (displayed in photo album below)
2. Background reading (Reading 1 below)
3. Two primary source readings (Readings 2 & 3 below)
4. Recommended: map of the Oak Ridge, Tennessee area to plot locations
5. Extensions: 1 & 2 (at bottom of page)

Essential Question

How did the contributions of workers at Oak Ridge during World War II impact the success of the Manhattan Project and the outcome of the war?

---

Read to Connect

Reading 1: What was the role of Oak Ridge in World War II?

Excerpt by Sarah Nestor Lane

Oak Ridge, Tennessee played a pivotal role in World War II, serving as a crucial site for the Manhattan Project, the top-secret research and development initiative that produced the atomic bomb. Oak Ridge emerged as a bustling city dedicated to the production of enriched uranium, a key component for the creation of nuclear weapons. Its contribution to the war effort was highly significant and an example of scientific and engineering achievements of the time.

Purpose of Oak Ridge

Prior to the war, Oak Ridge was a small rural community with a population of just a few thousand. Everything changed in 1942, when the United States government selected the site to house three major facilities involved in uranium enrichment: the X-10 Graphite Reactor, the Y-12 electromagnetic separation plant, and the K-25 gaseous diffusion plant. These facilities were tasked with the enormous challenge of producing enough enriched uranium to fuel the atomic bomb.

The X-10 Graphite Reactor, located at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, was the world's first continuously operated nuclear reactor. It played a vital role in demonstrating the feasibility of producing plutonium, an alternative to enriched uranium. The Y-12 electromagnetic separation plant separated uranium isotopes by using powerful magnets. Its work was crucial in obtaining the highly enriched uranium needed for the bomb. The K-25 gaseous diffusion plant, one of the largest buildings in the world at the time (a mile long, four stories high, and over 5.2 million square feet of floor space), employed a complex method to separate uranium isotopes through a series of barriers, allowing for large-scale production.

Workers at Oak Ridge

The scale of operations at Oak Ridge was immense. By 1945, the site had grown to accommodate over 75,000 people, making it the fifth-largest city in Tennessee at the time. Its population was a mix of scientists, engineers, military personnel, and support staff. The city was kept strictly secret, with barbed wire fences and armed guards patrolling its boundaries. Workers lived in temporary and segregated housing, and recreational facilities were limited. Despite these challenges, the inhabitants of Oak Ridge worked tirelessly to meet the project's objectives.

The demand for workers was high, and many women joined the workforce, taking on various roles to support the production of enriched uranium. Many workers did not know the details of the project they were working on: an atomic bomb. They worked as scientists, technicians, clerks, and more. Their contributions were essential to the success of the project, and they proved women could excel in fields that were historically male dominated. One example was the "Calutron Girls," young women who operated the calutron machines at Oak Ridge during World War II. These machines were the ones used to separate isotopes of uranium to produce enriched uranium.

African Americans made valuable contributions to Oak Ridge despite the racial segregation prevalent at the time. Many African American workers were limited in their employment to construction, maintenance, and other support roles due to discrimination. They faced challenges such as segregated facilities and living arrangements and had limited opportunities for advancement or technical roles. Their dedication and hard work were crucial to the overall operation, and their contributions were instrumental in achieving the project's goals.

The Impact of Oak Ridge

The efforts at Oak Ridge culminated in the successful production of enriched uranium, which played a pivotal role in ending the war. The atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, with uranium-235 obtained from Oak Ridge, were devastating. They led to Japan's surrender and ultimately brought an end to World War II.

Today, Oak Ridge continues to be an important center for scientific research and development. The Oak Ridge National Laboratory remains an institution for scientific inquiry, with a focus on energy, materials, and national security. The city's role in World War II serves as a reminder of the feats that can be achieved when scientific innovation is harnessed for a specific purpose; however, it also leads to reflection of the war’s harmful toll on human life.

Reading 2: Worker Interview (Mary Boswell)

Teacher Tip: On August 4, 2018, Mrs. Boswell recounted what she could remember, many years after working at Oak Ridge. Students should apply Reading 1 to this reading for greater understanding of the role of workers like Ms. Boswell at Oak Ridge.]

Full interview available here: Boswell, Mary - COROH - ORPL Digital Collections (oclc.org)

MRS. BOSWELL: . .. I went to Knoxville with my friends because her (friend’s) sister was giving us a free beauty course. So we went from there, after we left from Knoxville, we decided to go get an interview in Oak Ridge because we had some friends that were working in Oak Ridge. So, I went there in 1943.

MR. SMITH: Do you remember the month?

MRS. BOSWELL: No, I don’t.

MR. SMITH: That’s okay. Well, tell me about what your experience was when you got there. 

MRS. BOSWELL: Well, of course, we took training a while. We went to classes and they didn’t say, “Keep your mouth shut,” because they knew that wouldn’t do any good, but they did, when we were in our class, they did kind of give us a caution to be careful. From that, why we got interviewed and I got a job. So, I started working at Tennessee Eastman as a cubicle operator. The cubicle operators didn’t have a thing to do with the engineered part. What we did, the cubical operators was keep the stuff hot. You had to work on those cubicles all the time to keep it hot. Then we had to climb a ladder and they called it cleaning the slats. We had to go up and walk around that thing. So, that was my job. They called us the “Girls of Atomic City.” That’s what we did, but on the other hand, there were other parts of the place that I had no idea what was going on. I wasn’t in the engineering department or anything like that. So we all had separate jobs. So that’s just the way that worked out.

MR. SMITH: Do you remember what building you worked in?

MRS. BOSWELL: No, I don’t.

MR. SMITH: What do you remember about that machine, where you had to walk up on the top and walk around it? 

MRS. BOSWELL: Mm-hmm [affirmative].

MR. SMITH: What shape was it? 

MRS. BOSWELL: It was round.

MR. SMITH: Okay.

MRS. BOSWELL: Inside the cubicles, we were working keeping that hot, and the upstairs, way up high, was where the stuff went, that kept getting hotter and hotter. So, that part is what was being hid in Y-12 at that time.
 

By the numbers

• Employment at Oak Ridge’s height of operations was about 80,000 in summer 1945.

• Approximately 7,000 African American workers at Oak Ridge at peak employment in 1945.

Quotations to consider

“People would ask me... people who worked in the factory. What is that white powder? What is that yellow powder? What could you possibly be doing with it?... We weren’t as cautious as we should have been. As far as breathing uranium dust and all.”

 --Herman I. Summerfield interview, Library of Congress

“There are no individuals who will take all the credit for this job, although certain key individuals deserve lasting credit. . .The girl washing dishes in the cafeteria and the man building roads all did their part, and perhaps they deserve more credit than the man who knew what he was doing. A real cross-section of America did this job.”

--Colonel Kenneth D. Nichols (The Knoxville Journal; August 8, 1945)

Reading 3: Newspaper Excerpt

“10,000 More Workers are Needed Here” (Excerpt)
The Knoxville Journal (Knoxville, Tennessee) · Tue, Apr 18, 1944 · Page 1

[Note: Oak Ridge is referred to as Clinton Engineer Works, or the Clinton Project. “4-F" is a classification in the U.S. Selective Service System that identifies a person as unfit for military service.]

Area Director Robert L. Morrison, of the War Manpower Commission here, yesterday reported the Knoxville 48-hour minimum work week area was still in need of 10,000 more workers excluding the needs of the Clinton Engineer Works.

“The need is still tremendous,” Morrison said, “we need about 20 per cent more men for our local industries alone. This does not take in the needs of the Clinton project.”

“We are appealing to men in 4-F to go into war work. And it is the duty of every worker to fulfill the minimum 48-hour work week if it is humanly possible. Some people don’t seem to realize that the war is yet to be won. Many of us are spending a lot of time talking about postwar projects and are forgetting that this war is far from over.”

Student Activities

Review Readings 1 and 2 and view photos 1-4 in the above album. Answer the following questions:

1. What was Oak Ridge’s role during World War II?
2. What was the purpose of signs used in and outside of Oak Ridge, like in photo 1?
3. What roles and workers were needed for the development at Oak Ridge to be successful?
4. What challenges would workers face by being at Oak Ridge? Consider the challenges specifically for African American and women workers.
5. Based on Mrs. Boswell’s descriptions in Reading 2, what do you think some of her responsibilities were at Oak Ridge? What type of building would she have worked at?

Review Reading 3 and view photos 5 and 6 in the above album. Answer the following questions:

1. What caused the immense need for workers in the area? Why did Director Morrison only refer to a need for more men and not men and women? What were his intentions?
2. What drew people to Oak Ridge? What else may have brought them to work there?
3. What details do you notice in the mural, “Together, We Thrive?” How do these details connect to your learning about Oak Ridge?
4. Would you add or revise any features of the mural? Why, or why not?
5. Answer the Essential Question (above), using information and evidence from throughout the lesson: “How did the contributions of workers at Oak Ridge during World War II impact the success of the Manhattan Project and the outcome of the War?”
6. How do you think the employment at Oak Ridge, and other home front contributing employment, changed the working demographics of the U.S. over time?

Extension Activities

If time permits, teachers may offer the following optional activities.

Extension Activity 1: Employment at Oak Ridge today

Support your students’ understanding with two more visual, multimedia resources:

• Oak Ridge National Labs circa 1945 (Standard Definition) - YouTube

  • This B-roll archival footage can be used in clips to show Oak Ridge in 1945. Compare what is seen in parts of this video to the next video (today’s Oak Ridge).

• Oak Ridge Site 101 - YouTube (U.S. Department of Energy)

  • At about 1:26 you can view the landscape of the area. What area(s) seem familiar from the readings?

  • How do the number of employees and the Oak Ridge operations compare to the statistics of 1945? (See lessons By the Numbers)

  • You may also choose to explore their website: Oak Ridge | Department of Energy

Extension Activity 2: Personal stories of those who worked at Oak Ridge

Reading 2 highlighted an interview with one employee of Oak Ridge. There are many other interviews and personal narratives to explore. Break into small groups or partners and listen to another interview. Take notes and share out new details and connections from the individual’s story. Refer to Photo 7 in the above album, a document from the Army Corps of Engineering certifying the contribution of George Harvey Miles to the production of the atomic bomb.

Examples:

• Bill Wilcox [Source: Atomic Heritage Foundation, YouTube]

• Nina Ruth Steele Sherrill Collection | Library of Congress (loc.gov)

• Herman I. Summerfield Collection | Library of Congress (loc.gov)

• George Harvey Miles Collection | Library of Congress (loc.gov)

Additional Resources

The links below provide additional information about the Manhattan Project and Oak Ridge.

NPS Resources
The Calutron Girls
Manhattan Project Site Selection
Manhattan Project Science at Oak Ridge
Oak Ridge Secret Cities - Manhattan Project National Historical Park
Symbols of Peace in the Secret Cities of the Manhattan Project
Victory Gardens at Oak Ridge

Other Resources
Science Behind the Atom Bomb - Nuclear Museum (Atomic Heritage Foundation)

---

This lesson was written by Sarah Nestor Lane, an educator and consultant serving the National Park Service’s Cultural Resources Office of Interpretation and Education. This lesson was funded by the National Council on Public History's cooperative agreement with the National Park Service.