History from 1920-1950
Turning to Peacetime Services
With the "Great War" over the Red Cross evaluated its role in light of the prevailing opinion that the world would never again go to war. The Red Cross turned to health services, including infant care, nutrition, home nursing, communicable diseases, and sanitation. Services included a Braille department for the blind, water safety training and health stations. New York chapters continued to assist on major national disaster operations, as well as to help provide assistance to war veterans and their families. And at Ellis Island Red Cross nurses tended to immigrants awaiting resettlement.
During the Depression of the 1930s, the Red Cross in New York worked to get people jobs and food. Hundreds of workrooms were opened. Seamstresses made garments from government surplus cotton. Bread and cereal made from 600,000 barrels of surplus flour was distributed.
Massive flooding in the Midwest in 1937 and a devastating major hurricane in the Northeast in 1938 tested the local chapters' ability to finance and staff the relief operations.
Red Cross Plays Active Role in World War II
In 1940, shortly after the outbreak of World War II, the "Blood for Britain" program was begun by New York's Dr. Charles Drew, one of the most prominent African Americans in Red Cross history and a pioneer in the world of blood banks. Later, in 1947, the first civilian Red Cross blood bank was established in New York under the new Blood Program of Greater New York.
New York Red Crossers once again went all out to support the national war effort, this time from 1941-1945 during World War II. Services to the armed forces were expanded. Nurses were recruited for hospital work at home and overseas. Red Cross recreational workers entertained troops. Volunteer enrollment in the New York Chapter alone reached 40,000 as the city geared up for possible attack. The Red Cross War Fund opened in New York City help raise money. In 1943 President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed the first Red Cross Month. At war's end the Red Cross handled the influx of returning service personnel, prisoners of war, families and war brides. |
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