(H)our History Lesson: Pascagoula, Mississippi: Comparing and Connecting WWII Home Front cities

"Line up of some of women welders including the women's welding champion of Ingalls [Shipbuilding Corp., Pascagoula, MS]."  1943.

Local Identifier: 86-WWT-85-35, National Archives Identifier: 522890.

About this Lesson

This lesson is part of a series teaching about the World War II home front, with Pascagoula, Mississippi designated as an American World War II Heritage City. The lesson contains photographs, two readings, optional documentary extension, and a culminating mastery project. The first reading shares excerpts of letters highlighting the heritage of Pascagoula and its connections today, and the second connects the region to the designation of a Heritage City. There is a media activity to watch local news clips highlighting the city’s designation. The culminating project contributes to learners’ understandings of the city as a WWII Heritage City, with the opportunity to combine lesson themes from the three other lessons in the Pascagoula lesson collection. This is to summarize the city’s contributions and encourage connections to the overall U.S. home front efforts.

To see other World War II lessons, visit Teaching with Historic Places.

Objectives:

In a culminating product:

1. Identify important World War II home front locations, industries, and organizations in Pascagoula, Mississippi and describe their historical significance

2. Summarize the contributions of Pascagoula civilians and service members to home front wartime efforts

3. Describe challenges faced by the city of Pascagoula and its wartime workforce

4. Optional: Describe similarities and differences of Pascagoula and other Heritage city(s) / World War II home front(s).

Materials for Students:

1. Photos

2. Readings 1, 2 & media activity links

3. Maps, project materials (as needed)

4. Student graphic organizers (See photo 5 at end of lesson, for reference)

Student Graphic Organizers

1. Create Comparison Matrices for your students to use. To compare two cities, create a one-page sheet with three columns and four rows.  Label the left column Theme/Topic and the other columns City 1 and City 2.  For a Comparison Matrix for three cities add an additional column. 

2. Create two Single-Point Rubrics to assist students’ self-assessment. One is for assessing proficiency in meeting teacher-selected standards. One is for assessing proficiency in meeting objectives. 

3. For the rubric on standards, create a one-page sheet with three columns and four rows of content. Label the first column “Areas for Improvement,” the second column, “Proficient (Meeting Standard),” and the third column, “Areas of Exceeding Standard.”  Leave the first and third columns blank.  In each row of the second column identify a Standard and indicate a space for noting the evidence for meeting the standard.  Include a space at the bottom of the page for assigning points for each column. 

4. For the rubric on objectives, create a one-page sheet with three columns and four rows of content. Label the first column “Areas for Improving toward Objective,” the second column, “Proficient (Meeting Objective),” and the third column, “Areas of Exceeding Objective.” Leave the first and third columns blank. In the four rows of the second column identify these four objectives:  

• Identify important World War II home front locations, industries, and organizations in Pascagoula, Mississippi and describe their historical significance 

• Summarize the contributions of Pascagoula civilians and service members to home front wartime efforts  

• Describe challenges faced by the city of Pascagoula and its wartime workforce 

• Optional: Describe similarities and differences of Pascagoula and other Heritage city(s) / World War II home front(s). 

 Include a space at the bottom of the page for assigning points for each column. See the last photo of this lesson for reference. 

Ad in the Pascagoula Chronicle-Star, October 24, 1941 (p.9).
Text: Free Training in the following occupations for National Defense. Learn to be a marine pipefitter, machinist, sheet metal worker or chipper. Courses operated under the auspices of Pascagoula City Schools for National Defense Training

The Pascagoula Chronicle-Star. Newspapers.com.

Getting Started: Essential Question

Why was Pascagoula chosen as an American World War II Heritage City, and what are its similarities and differences to other home front cities?

Media Activity

Heritage City Local News Coverage

Video 1: Watch this local news clip (2:38) about Pascagoula’s Heritage City designation.

• How was Elvis Presley’s family connected to Pascagoula and the shipyard?

• What type of ship did Martin Hegwood describe as an important contribution from the Ingalls Shipyard for the war?

Video 2: Watch the local news clip (1:54) sharing about the celebration of the designation. What details did you notice about events happening at the celebration and its attendees?

• Based on your observations from the videos and readings, how do you see the designation impacting the community?

Quotation to consider:

“The rich heritage of Pascagoula is inextricably linked with the city's important role in World War II. That legacy remains strong today, as Pascagoula produces more U.S. Navy warships than anywhere else in the nation.”

- from July 29, 2021 letter from US Senator Roger F. Wicker, in Pascagoula’s application to be Mississippi’s designated American WWII Heritage City

Read to Connect

Reading 1:  Pascagoula’s application to be Mississippi’s designated WWII Heritage City  

Teacher Tip: The full application can be referenced and contains topics with summaries of Pascagoula’s contributions. The following excerpts focus on the transformation of the home front city, and the connections to its heritage today. You may wish to divide students between the two parts and have students report findings. 

Part 1 

Excerpt from August 12, 2021 letter by Dr. Willis, Mayor of Pascagoula 

From the very start, Pascagoula embraced the war effort. We went into debt to build a shipyard when America was not yet at war. We opened our homes to the strangers flooding into town. We built streets, schools, utilities, and recreation facilities to handle the sevenfold explosion in population. 

We welcomed the soldiers and sailors. We kept diligent watch to keep the home front safe. We assumed non-traditional roles in which women became welders, sharecroppers traded hoes for pipe wrenches, and farm boys worked at steady jobs for good wages. And our efforts paid off for the entire country; the nearly one-hundred ships we launched played a major role in the Allied victory. 

 In doing all this, we became a changed city. In most towns, soldiers and sailors, WACs and WAVEs, returned home to comfortable and familiar surroundings. Not so in Pascagoula. In four years the little shrimping and boatbuilding town had become a major industrial power and today we are the nation’s premier military shipbuilding center. World War II transformed Pascagoula on a fundamental level and that is our true World War II heritage. 

Part 2 

Excerpt from August 10, 2021 letter by then members of congress, Steven M. Palazzo, Michael Guest, Trent Kelly, and Bennie Thompson. 

World War II transformed Pascagoula from a Depression era fishing village into the powerhouse it is today, and this transformation has had a powerful impact on the entire state of Mississippi. The shipyard built in 1938 by Robert Ingalls under the Mississippi’s Balance Agriculture with Industry Plan gave thousands of Mississippians – male, female, black, white, and Native American – their first real chance to move into the manufacturing sector of our economy, get a steady, good-paying job, and provide a good life for their families. These individuals came not only from the coast, but from all parts of the state and from all over the Nation. Once they arrived, Mississippi was never the same again. 

The effects of the Second World War resonate to the present day. From a pre-war population of 3,800, Pascagoula swelled to over 30,000 at its peak. Today, Pascagoula is one of the state’s largest cities and the growth continues as more and more jobs are being added to meet the nation’s naval military needs. This industrial base that sprang from the World War II era gives a young person graduating today from any Mississippi high school a chance to find a high paying job in the state. The jobs and tax revenues thus generated help all Mississippians, and this can be traced back to the wartime shipbuilding boom of 1939-1945. 

Pascagoula’s designation as an ‘American World War II Heritage City” would preserve the heritage and legacy of the city’s contributions to the war effort and serve as a reminder for future generations of Mississippians. 

Reading 2: Heritage City Designation 

Excerpt from: “House Report 115-998, “To Direct the Secretary of the Interior to Annually Designate at Least One City in The United States as An ‘American World War II Heritage City,’ and for other purposes” (October 30, 2018) 

“. . .PURPOSE OF THE BILL 

The purpose of H.R. 6118 is to direct the Secretary of the Interior to annually designate at least one city in the United States as an ``American World War II Heritage City''. 

                  BACKGROUND AND NEED FOR LEGISLATION 

    On December 7, 1941, military forces of the Empire of Japan attacked the U.S. Naval Fleet and ground bases at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. On December 8, 1941, one day after what President Roosevelt referred to as, ``a date which will live in infamy,'' the United States declared war against the Empire of Japan. Three days later, on December 11, 1941, Japan's ally, Germany, declared war on the United States. Sixteen million Americans, mostly young working-age men, served in the military during World War II, out of an overall United States population of 113 million. 

While an unprecedented number of Americans served in World War II, the country drastically increased its war production on the home front, serving not only the needs of the armed forces of the United States but her allies as well--in what President Franklin Roosevelt called ``The Arsenal of Democracy.'' The combination of millions serving in the military, during a period of necessary and drastic increases in production, led to significant social changes on the American home front. 

The World War II period resulted in the largest number of people migrating within the United States in the history of the country. Individuals and families relocated to industrial centers for good paying jobs out of a sense of patriotic duty. Many industrial centers became ``boomtowns,'' growing at phenomenal rates. One example, the City of Richmond, California, grew from a population of under 24,000 to over 100,000 during the war. . . .” 

AP Caption: "The cool waters of Pascagoula's famous "Singing River" recently gave the S. S., Exchequer, American Export Lines newest cargo-passenger ship constructed under the supervision of the U.S. Maritime commission as part of the national defense, her first bath..." July 3, 1940.

Press photo created by the Ingalls PR dept for the AP/UPI news services.

Student Activities:

Questions for Reading 1

1. How was the economic and social landscape of Mississippi impacted in World War II?

2. How did the wartime efforts impact the long-term identity and role of Pascagoula in the post-war period into today?

3. How might the designation as an American World War II Heritage City impact the understanding of history for future generations of Mississippians?

Questions for Reading 2

1. What was the purpose of the bill (H.R. 6118) according to the report?

2. Why do you think Pascagoula, Mississippi was designated as a World War II Heritage City? Use details from the bill and from the lesson(s) information.

3. Are there other cities you think of when considering home front contributions during wartime? Which, and why?

Single-Point Rubric (Standards; Blank) [Teacher selects priority standards for assessment.]

Courtesy of Sarah Nestor Lane

Culminating Activity/Mastery Product

To demonstrate student understanding, support students in creating a final product that meets the following objectives:

1. Identify important World War II home front locations, industries, and organizations in Pascagoula, Mississippi and describe their historical significance

2. Summarize the contributions of Pascagoula civilians and service members to home front wartime efforts

3. Describe challenges faced by the city of Pascagoula and its wartime workforce

4. Optional: Describe similarities and differences of Pascagoula and other Heritage city(s) / World War II home front(s).

Mastery products should be:

. . . student-led: Students work as individuals or in collaborative groups.

. . . student-directed: Students are offered a variety of choices for product type.

. . . student-organized: Teacher facilitates by providing students with the comparison matrices and/or resource links from throughout the series of lessons.

. . . student-assessed: Teacher supports student self-assessment and reflection by providing students single-point rubrics to assess for meeting standards and/or lesson objectives.

Note: Depending on time and scope, the comparison of Pascagoula to another WWII Heritage or home front city(s) within the mastery product (objectives) may be omitted. However, comparing cities is recommended, as it connects students to a deeper understanding of the WWII home front.

Examples of mastery product choices include, but are not limited to:

• Written: Letter (opinion or informative), essay, poem, narratives, biography, articles, class book or children’s book, speech or debate (then presented orally), blog / website, plaque or historical displays, pamphlets or rack cards

• Graphic Organizers: timeline, flowcharts, mind or concept content maps, Venn diagrams, comparison matrices, posters

• Artistic Expression: song, dance, theater (ex. skits), 3-D models, dioramas, photo journal, stamp and coin designs, visual art, architecture/building or monument, museum design

• Media design and creation: podcast, historical markers, social media content, interactive virtual maps or tours, infographics, video, comic strips or graphics, game design, slideshows, digital scrapbook

Please view Teaching with Historic Places for information and resources on other cities.

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