---
title: A Step in the Right Direction!!
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/owi-alston-step-in-the-right-direction-1943/
description: A worker labelled 'Labor' hammers up a sign reading 'Workers Wanted Regardless of Color' while a man labelled 'Management' steadies it.
section: Collection
---

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3. A Step in the Right Direction!!

[![A Step in the Right Direction!!, 1943 US cartoon: A worker labelled 'Labor' hammers up a sign reading 'Workers Wanted](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/owi-alston-step-in-the-right-direction-1943.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/owi-alston-step-in-the-right-direction-1943.jpg)

# A Step in the Right Direction!!

A worker labelled 'Labor' hammers up a sign reading 'Workers Wanted Regardless of Color' while a man labelled 'Management' steadies it, and a discarded sign reading 'Workers Wanted / White Only' lies at their feet. The tell is card stacking: a single percentage increase (85 per cent in Baltimore war plants) is given without the starting number or the plants' total hiring.

## Propaganda techniques used in this cartoon

[Card stacking](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/card-stacking/)

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
WORKERS WANTED REGARDLESS OF COLOR
LABOR
MANAGEMENT
WORKERS WANTED - WHITE ONLY
"Between May, 1942, and January, 1943, Negro employment in Baltimore's principal war plants increased eighty five per cent."
.......... NEWS ITEM
Alston OWI
"A STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION!!"
```

[← "Spend that vacation at home!!"](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/owi-alston-spend-that-vacation-at-home-1943/) [Still a weapon for freedom! (116th anniversary of the Negro Press) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/owi-alston-still-a-weapon-for-freedom-1943/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Fragments of the Abydos king list from Ramesses II's temple, in the British Museum: rows of royal cartouches](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/abydos-king-list-ramesses-ii-temple-british-museum/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer)
- [Behistun (Bisotun) rock relief and trilingual inscription of Darius I: the king, two attendants and the bound rebel leaders beneath the winged figure of Ahuramazda](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/behistun-relief-darius-and-rebels-521bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Card stacking, Name-calling, Testimonial). Content note: Shows bound captives before the king, and the inscription records the mutilation and public execution of rebel leaders, as the king's own account.
- [Tomb of Darius I at Naqsh-e Rustam: the king in relief beside his inscription DNa, c. 490 BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dna-inscription-darius-i-naqsh-e-rustam-490bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Testimonial, Card stacking)
- [Line drawing of the Great Kadesh battle relief on the walls of the Ramesseum, from Breasted's History of Egypt](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kadesh-relief-ramesseum-breasted-drawing-1275bce/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer). Content note: A drawing of an Egyptian royal battle relief showing Hittite soldiers and horses killed and drowned, as the king's monument presented the battle; it is a one-sided image made by the winning side's own account.
- [Persepolis, Apadana staircase relief: a figure with an animal from a procession of delegations, early fifth century BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/persepolis-apadana-delegate-relief-500bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Card stacking, Manufactured consensus)
- [Alabaster relief, Assyrian troops storming a citadel, from Nineveh (reign of Sennacherib)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/relief-sennacherib-storming-citadel-nineveh-704bce/) (Neo Assyrian Empire · 0000 · Card stacking). Content note: An Assyrian palace relief of troops storming a fortified city, with a file of figures below; Assyrian royal reliefs and texts record killing, mutilation and deportation, shown as carved, with the historical context and scholarly dispute on the regime page.
- [Colour lithograph of the Latin text of the Res Gestae Divi Augusti on the wall of the temple of Roma and Augustus at Ancyra, with the heading in large letters (Perrot, Guillaume and Delbet, 1872)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/lithograph-res-gestae-ancyra-heading-0014/) (Roman Empire · 0014 · Card stacking, Glittering generalities)
- [Silver denarius of Vespasian, reverse IVDAEA with a trophy of arms and a seated mourning woman](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/denarius-vespasian-judaea-capta-0070/) (Roman Empire · 0070 · Card stacking). Content note: A Roman victory coin showing a mourning female figure as the personification of the conquered province of Judaea after the Roman suppression of the Jewish revolt; shown as struck, with the historical context on the regime page.