"A real home is worth a real fight!"
A pencil cartoon shows a Black war worker in overalls and a Black soldier walking together toward a house where a woman and child wave from the doorway. A printed news item above cites 88,000 housing units for Black tenants; the tell is glittering generalities, linking the abstract value of 'a real home' to fighting and war work, tied to a news item.
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, 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 and Records Administration, Record Group 208, Cartoon Artworks and Mockups (NAID 535594), retrieved October 3, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (U.S. government work)
Office of War Information. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 208, 208-COM-3 (NAID 535597).
Text on the object
NEGRO TENNANTS WILL OCCUPY 88,000 HOUSING UNITS WHEN CURRENT PUBLIC HOUSING PROGRAM IS COMPLETED IN JUNE...... NEWS ITEM "A REAL HOME IS WORTH A REAL FIGHT!" alston
