Ernestine Wean, 97, remembers working in the fields of Woodland, CA., as a 16-year-old laborer picking fruits and vegetables so that they wouldn’t spoil.
“It was 110 degrees and hot but we never gave up,” she told a crowd attending the 25-year anniversary celebration of the Rosie the Riveter World War II Home Front National Historical Park. “I didn’t chicken out.”
Her motivation, she said, was knowing her family members were involved in the war.
“I did it because my brother joined the Navy,” Wean said. “I was doing it for him.”
Celebrating the determination of Rosies such as Wean was why the park was created. Wean joined seven other former female wartime workers on stage for Friday’s event, held outside of the historic park in front of dozens of residents and elected officials. The event also highlighted the importance of accessible historic spaces given the impact of recent National Park Service layoffs.
If you go
WHAT: Rosie the Riveter WWII Home Front National Historic Park
WHEN: Open 10 a.m. – 5 p.m., daily except major holidays.
WHERE: 1414 Harbour Way South, Richmond 94804 (in the old Ford Building Oil House)
INFO: Visit Rosie the Riveter website or call 510-232-5050, Ext. 0
In February, about 1,000 newly hired National Park Service employees were fired as part of the Trump Administration’s effort to downsize government. Additionally, the new administration’s policies seeking to limit diversity, equity and inclusion efforts have cast confusion and uncertainty recently across federal agencies — like the NPS — and their programs.
U.S. Rep. John Garamendi, D-Calif., said the importance of Richmond’s park comes in the lessons gleaned from the tumultuous period brought on by World War II that are applicable in today’s political climate.
“We have those same challenges today,” he told the crowd Friday. “As we commemorate the 25th anniversary of this historic and extraordinarily important national park, there are many lessons and tasks that were laid out long before the 1940s about how to be inclusive.”
Garamendi pointed to the diversity of the Rosies who were being honored as being a model for the country today.
“This national park is extremely important in bringing to us today what was once an essential necessary part of America,” he said. “All of us have that opportunity, and frankly, that obligation to learn the lessons of the 1940s, learn the lessons of the Rosies and apply it in so many different ways as we go around the challenges of this day.”
Garamendi presented the Rosie the Riveter Trust, which financially supports the park, with a congressional proclamation and commended its partnership with the NPS while encouraging the organization to continue providing support to the location given the fact that 30% of the workforce for the NPS has been fired. (So far there have not been layoffs at the Richmond park.)
“What does that mean for this national park? Will it be able to open seven 7 days a week, 12 hours a day? Probably not,” he said. “These are the challenges that we are witnessing at this moment. The historic trust — as you just laid out your task of why you exist to support the park here — advocate, speak up because this is a moment.”
The Rosie the Riveter Trust told Richmondside in an email Monday that Garamendi’s comments were moving.
“What moved us the most was him (Garamendi) asking us to close our eyes and imagine the Rosies as teenagers answering the call of our country, and what the site must have been like in full swing: a bustle of activity and common purpose,” Pamela Buckingham, communications and marketing manager wrote. “May Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park remain of beacon of light and community engagement for years to come. Rosie the Riveter Trust remains steadfast in our support of this amazing endeavor.”
According to the Rosie the Riveter Trust, the park’s origins can be traced to 1997, when then-Richmond City Council member Donna Powers led a citizen committee to create a memorial honoring women who worked on the WW II home front. The following year, then U.S. Rep. George Miller and local leaders got Congress to delegate the memorial as a National Park Service Affiliated Area, which led to NPS officials visiting the Rosie the Riveter Memorial.
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“What does that mean for this national park? Will it be able to open seven days a week, 12 hours a day? Probably not.”
— U.S. Rep. John Garamendi, speaking at Richmond’s Rosie the Riveter park about the threat of federal budget cuts
Finding Richmond’s former shipyard sites ideal for telling the home front story, discussions began about establishing a national park in the city. The Rosie the Riveter Trust was formally established in 1999 as the nonprofit philanthropic partner of the anticipated park, with a responsibility to support park development, educate the public, and enhance the visitor experience. In 2000, the Rosie the Riveter Memorial was dedicated in Marina Bay Park on Oct. 14, with President Bill Clinton signing legislation establishing the Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park on Oct. 24. The park’s Visitor Education Center celebrated its grand opening in 2012 with about 300 people attending the ribbon-cutting ceremony.
Beyond documenting the mobilization of the home front during wartime, the museum chronicles the fight for women’s and Black Americans’ rights, along with the transformative changes that followed — including employer-sponsored healthcare, complimentary childcare for workers, and the emergence of women in traditionally male-dominated fields such as electrical work, carpentry, and other trades.
Some of the original Rosies, who worked at the shipyards — represented by the iconic image of a woman in a red polka dot bandana flexing her arm — still serve as docents and come to the museum to lead talks.
Keeping those stories alive has brought a recent appreciation that retired park ranger and ‘Rosie’ Betty Reid Soskin said has given her fulfillment.
“I didn’t realize (during that time) that I was doing something,” she said at Friday’s ceremony. “It wasn’t until the last 15 years that I really felt that I accomplished something.”
