This entitled blacks to industrial citizenship, which placed them right next to whites. Hazardous to white employment, the white laborers, employees, and especially the white unemployed knew they would have to racially discriminate against the black community in an attempt to keep the blacks from taking their jobs. Blacks found job hunting to be a challenge because of this. Blacks had to take the jobs that the whites did not want, which usually were the undesirable jobs. Although President Roosevelt made an effort to end racial discrimination with Executive Order 8802 and the Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC), which aimed at an end to prejudice in employment, African Americans did not gain the upgraded jobs and equal wages that the "fair" order promised.# Blacks were still held down. Blacks were also excluded and unable to join the Marines, the Coast Guard, and the Army Air Corps.# The main, respectable jobs in the army corps were unavailable to them. They were limited to dirty work. .
Although many thought that racial inequality in labor had left with slavery, it was evident that it was here to stay. Qualifications meant nothing to employers, white employers in particular. A Black man could have more experience than the white man in the field he was applying for and the white man would most likely still receive the job. .
Numerous white employees were becoming upset with the fact that a black man could steal a job that he could have had. A woman, by the name of Mildred Keith, exemplifies this type of injustice in her letter to a Mr. Thomas Jackson, which is in regards to her getting a job. Mildred painted a picture of the racial discrimination that was going on at the time of World War II. Being a senior typist for the W.P.A., she appeared well qualified for any typist job, but everywhere she went she was denied.# She was even asked "Just where do you think a colored person could get a job as a typist?".