"Equal protection for all"
A smiling woman raises a ration book marked 'Ration book two' and carries a grocery bag in front of an enlarged official table of point values for meat, fats and fish. The tell is a broad civic ideal ('equal protection for all') attached to a rationing scheme, urging compliance with the system.
Propaganda techniques used in this cartoon
- Date
- 1943
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- Office of War Information (cartoon artwork; artist Charles Alston)
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Cartoon
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Mobilize or secure compliance
- Themes
- Home front, Economy and finance, Race and ethnicity
- Event
- World War II
- Regime
- Roosevelt administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- U.S. National Archives (NARA), RG 208, Artworks and Mockups for Cartoons Promoting the War Effort, retrieved October 3, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (U.S. government work)
Office of War Information. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 208, 208-COM-134 (NAID 535647).
Text on the object
OFFICIAL TABLE OF CONSUMER POINT VALUES FOR MEAT, FATS, FISH, AN[D ...] No. 1 -- Effective March 29, 1943 RATION BOOK TWO Alston for OWI "EQUAL PROTECTION FOR ALL" (The small print of the point table is not transcribed.)
