PHOTO CREDIT: African American World War I volunteers in front of third Delaware County Courthouse, 1918. Image courtesy of Ball State University's Bracken Archive and Special Collections.
Muncie was actively involved in war efforts during both World Wars. During World War I, 2,600 residents of Delaware County left for the trenches, including 150 African Americans. At the end of the war, 53 Munsonians had given their lives in the conflict. On the home front, the County Council of Defense was in charge of recruitment, coordinated the sale of Liberty Bonds, and encouraged Victory Gardens. Ball Brothers, Hemmingray Glass, Ontario Silver, Moore Manufacturing, Durham Manufacturing, Kitselman Steel and Wire, and Gill Clay Pot all retooled their manufacturing facilities to produce supplies for the war effort.
When World War II began in 1941, Muncie again mobilized. Thousands of residents left to fight in European and Pacific theaters of the war. On the homefront, community leaders again sold war bonds and promoted Victory Gardens, while factories coordinated to manufacture the necessary products to support the war effort. While servicemen and women, both white and Black, enlisted in the war effort, many women and African-Americans also began to fill jobs in the labor force that had previously been closed to them.
World War II Soldiers, including Munsonian Joseph Fisher (2nd from left, sitting on vehicle), 1945.
Image courtesy of Ball State University's Bracken Archive and Special Collections.