Girl in a picket line before Mid-City Realty Company in south Chicago

In 1941, in response to a planned March on Washington by 100,000 African Americans demanding "the right to work and fight for our country," President Roosevelt mandated a national policy of non-discriminatory hiring in defense industries and government work. Although he instituted the Fair Employment Practices, the commission was less effective than had been hoped. However, the much-celebrated victory encouraged activism such as that shown in John Vachon's 1941 pictures of picketers against unfair housing and employment practices at the Mid-City Realty Company and as Bowman Dairy.