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Twin Cities Ordnance Plant: Integrating the WWII Workforce

Aerial photograph looking into the distance at several rows of identical concrete industrial, warehouse-like buildings with rail lines and roads winding through the spaces between them
Aerial photograph of the Twin Cities Ordnance Plant, 1947.

Courtesy of Hennepin County Library, Minneapolis Newspaper Photograph Collection.

The Twin Cities Ordnance Plant was established in 1941, specifically for World War II defense production. At its peak, the plant employed 26,000 Minnesotans, including record numbers of African Americans (both men and women) in an integrated setting.

Defense Production

The outbreak of World War II catalyzed defense production across the United States. The Lend-Lease Act authorized the government to hire private contractors to build and run government-owned ammunitions manufacturing plants. Workers converted existing factories for wartime uses and quickly erected new facilities, including the Twin Cities Ordnance Plant (TCOP) in New Brighton, Minnesota, located about ten miles north of Minneapolis and St. Paul. The plant originally consisted of 100 buildings, completed over a six-month period. It eventually expanded to 262 total buildings, occupying 2,400 acres.

The federal government contracted the Federal Cartridge Corporation (FCC) to operate the TCOP. Between February 1942 and September 1945, the plant manufactured military equipment and supplies, namely .30-caliber and .50 caliber ammunition. By 1945, workers began to produce metal parts for 105-mm and 155-mm artillery shells.

Two women stand on the far side of a production line. They hold long belts of ammunition over metal boxes. A third woman stands on the opposite side of the production line. She monitors the the casings as they emerge from a machine.
Women work on the production line at the Twin Cities Ordnance Plant, 1945.

Courtesy of Hennepin County Library, Minneapolis Newspaper Photograph Collection.

Wartime Opportunities

In addition to supplying troops overseas, the TCOP created new opportunities within the domestic workforce. At its peak in July 1943, the plant employed 26,000 people, equivalent to about 1% of Minnesota’s population at the time. Over half of these workers were women, known as Women Ordnance Workers (WOWs).

Many WOWs had not worked outside of the home before, let alone in industrial settings. The local press applauded women for stepping up and skillfully doing a “man’s job.” Although WOWs could take shifts at any hour of the day or night, they were still expected to keep up with their domestic duties. To help women balance their commitments to the home and workplace, the TCOP created a women’s consulting department. Women consultants onboarded new employees, advised on domestic issues, and recommended childcare services for working mothers.

The TCOP was fully integrated and employed over 1,200 African American men and women—over 20% of the state’s entire Black population. For many years, the Black press and the Minneapolis and St. Paul chapters of the National Urban League, a civil rights organization, campaigned for employers to hire African Americans into jobs that offered higher wages and opportunities to be promoted. They had limited success until World War II, when wartime labor shortages lowered racial barriers to jobs. In June 1941, Executive Order 8802 banned discrimination based on “race, creed, color, or national origin” in the defense industries. While many defense plants resisted or refused to enforce this policy, the TCOP led the way to provide equal opportunities for Black workers at all levels.

A white military officer inspects production as two Black male workers remove ammunition belts from boxes on a long table
A white US Marine officer inspects the production line as two Black defense workers unpack boxed ammunition belts, 1940s.

Courtesy of Hennepin County Library, Minneapolis Newspaper Photograph Collection.

Integrating the Workforce

The TCOP’s fair employment practices were pioneered by two members of the Minneapolis Urban League: Cecil E. Newman, a Black civic leader and newspaper publisher, and Charles L. Horn, the white president of the FCC. Horn refused to segregate Black workers or prevent them from becoming supervisors. According to Newman, Horn maintained that “Negro workers are citizens and thereby entitled to all the rights and privileges of taxpayers—which include the right to work and earn a living.”[1]

For African Americans, the TCOP offered higher wages and the opportunity to demonstrate that they deserved to keep their jobs after the war. Newman hoped “to prove his point that Negro men and women were capable of working hard at skilled trades and of doing that work shoulder to shoulder with white men and women.”[2] When Horn tapped him to advise on the hiring and placement of African Americans at the plant, Newman chose to forgo payment. He served in this position for eleven months before becoming Director of Negro Personnel.

When President Franklin D. Roosevelt visited the TCOP in 1942, he asked Horn about the unusually high number of women and people of color at the plant. After the visit, Roosevelt appointed Horn to the Fair Employment Practices Committee, which was tasked with the enforcement of Executive Order 8802 across the country.

In June 1943, the TCOP received the Army-Navy “E” Award, an honor that only two percent of defense plants earned for their exceptional work in munitions manufacturing. In addition to production, the award recognized factors such as “maintenance of fair labor standards” and “training of additional labor forces.”[3] Because the integration of Black workers helped the plant to achieve excellence in both production and fair employment, this accomplishment only bolstered African Americans’ case for racial equality.

Eight defense workers from different racial, ethnic, gender, and age groups walk arm-in-arm in front of large industrial building.
Newspaper photograph celebrating diversity within the TCOP's workforce, 1942.

Courtesy of Hennepin County Library, Minneapolis Newspaper Photograph Collection.

Life at the Plant

With its sprawling campus and large workforce, day-to-day operations at the TCOP relied on substantial infrastructure. The plant had its own hospital, fire department, and security guards. A bus system and rail terminal transported workers and materials between everything from temporary housing to an area for test-firing.

The TCOP maintained a high production rate, which could be demanding for workers. Efforts to prevent production disruptions and labor disputes included a no-strike agreement and committee of union and non-union members to address grievances. To boost morale, the plant also issued a newspaper, organized intramural sports teams, and formed a choir. Defense workers could hear music over the din of machinery at the start and end of their shifts, as management set the rate of production on an industrial jukebox.

Although the TCOP advanced some opportunities for African Americans, other activities that celebrated diversity at the plant tokenized workers. One feature in the Minneapolis Star-Journal depicted employees from different backgrounds walking arm-in-arm. The caption identified white employees by their occupation or age but referred to workers of color by only their race or ethnicity. In 1943, the TCOP also celebrated “I am an American Day.” Another newspaper feature recognized workers who immigrated from Poland, Russia, Greece, and the Philippines and became naturalized citizens. Both examples outwardly presented ideas of home front unity and patriotism, but also obscured that workers of color, particularly African Americans, did not experience the same opportunities or freedoms outside of the plant. Wartime activism linking the defeat of fascism abroad and racism at home—also known as the “Double V” campaign—continued after the war, laying the groundwork for the Civil Rights movement.

Group of soldiers in dress uniforms stand at attention in front of barracks building. In the foreground, two holding rifles flank two soldiers with American flag and TCOP flag. Three men and one woman stand to the side saluting flags.
Four immigrant workers salute the American flag and the TCOP flag to celebrate "I am an American" Day, 1943.

Courtesy of Hennepin County Library, Minneapolis Newspaper Photograph Collection.

Postwar Use

At the end of the war, the TCOP shifted gears to help the nation prepare for its next military conflict. The plant collected ammunition for testing and other machinery for storage. The facility was renamed the Twin Cities Arsenal in 1946 and later the Twin Cities Army Ammunition Plant in 1963.The plant cycled through periods of reactivation with US involvement in the Korean, Vietnam, and First Persian Gulf Wars. Labor strikes and anti-Vietnam War protests also disrupted periods of production.

By the 1980s, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) began to investigate the plant’s environmental impacts from dumping industrial waste. The EPA determined that toxic chemicals had seeped into the soil, sediment, and groundwater, contaminating the fresh water supply. In 1983, the agency established a 25-square mile Superfund site around the plant and nearby communities to prevent further human exposure. The US Army, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, and EPA eventually reached a Federal Facility Agreement—the nation’s first—in December 1987, requiring the military to clean up the site.

There have been several efforts to redevelop the site over the years. The plant was surveyed by the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) in 1984. HAER documents significant sites, structures, and processes related to engineering and industry. Even if those resources are demolished, HAER reports, measured and interpretive drawings, and photographs allow us to learn from the US’s engineering legacy.

The content for this article was researched and written by Jade Ryerson, Cultural Resources Office of Interpretation and Education.

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Last updated: October 12, 2022