AZ: The History of Arizona podcast

World War II had the effect of making Fort Huachuca into a a central gathering place for Black men and women serving in the U.S. Army. Their experience ran parallel with their white counterparts, except for a notable undercurrent of segregation, prejudice, and racism. And those same undercurrents would result in a minor war breaking out on the streets of Phoenix on Thanksgiving Day 1942.

After Pearl Harbor, the military turned Arizona into one giant training ground. And many of the soldiers who funnel through the state chose to stay in the desert, chaining the course of Arizona history for decades to come.

Most people connect Pearl Harbor to the USS Arizona that sunk beneath the waves on December 7, 1941. But in the months following the surprise attack, Arizona would have a surprising connection to those who had help plan that most infamous of dates.

Though it was probably not on his mind at all, Adolph Hitler changed the course of Arizona’s history when he invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. One ramification that would unfold a year and a half later was one of the last great instances of Amerindian resistance to the U.S. government.

In 1934, Arizona’s hostility toward California and its water demands reached it zenith, culminating in the governor sending troops and a “navy,” to stop that most heinous of things - a dam across the Colorado River.