<em>Responses may vary but should contain some or all of the following information:</em> Thirty-one prisoner of war camps were established in Oklahoma. The state was an excellent choice for housing prisoners, as the climate was mild, there were few cities, and POWs could be kept busy working on farms and ranches. Oklahoma Ordnance Works, located between Chouteau and Pryor, was one of several plants that produced powders for explosives and bombs, such as TNT. 10,000 employees worked at the facility. The Tulsa Bomber Plant built several types of bombers, was run by the Douglas Aircraft Company, and employed 23,000 people during the war’s peak. The US Naval Ammunition Depot at McAlester opened in 1943. Citizens petitioned the government to build an ammunitions plant there, and the contracts were awarded because it was located inland and at intersections of highways and railroads. On April 8, 1941, Oklahoma City got a contract for a supply and maintenance depot and opened Tinker Field in 1942. It was the largest air material depot in world, and it specialized in repairing bombers. The base was named after Clarence L. Tinker, the first American Indian in US Army to reach the rank of major general. Thirty thousand people worked at Tinker, half of which were women.
Both of these activists were civil rights activists and authors. They would right about the social injustices of their time and played a big part the African American rights.
