"Right between the eyes!!"
A pencil cartoon shows a small figure labelled 'War Labor Board' slinging a stone tagged 'Equal pay for equal work' into the face of a club-carrying giant whose back reads 'Wage differentials based on race'. The tell is a slogan-as-weapon framing in the David-and-Goliath mould, with a virtue phrase ('equal pay') set against a personified opponent.
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
- Persuade or win support
- Themes
- Labor, Race and ethnicity, Home front
- 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-5 (NAID 535599).
Text on the object
EQUAL PAY FOR EQUAL WORK WAGE DIFFERENTIALS BASED ON RACE WAR LABOR BOARD Alston OWI "RIGHT BETWEEN THE EYES!!"
