During
World War II, she worked as a file clerk for
Boilermakers Union A-36, an all-black
union auxiliary. Her main job was filing change of address cards for the workers, who moved frequently. and in the 1960s became a well-known songwriter in the
civil rights movement. She later served as a field representative for
California State Assemblywomen Dion Aroner and
Loni Hancock, and in those positions became actively involved in the early planning stages and development of a park to memorialize the role of women on the
home front during World War II. Those efforts came to fruition when
Rosie the Riveter World War II Home Front National Historical Park was established in 2000, to provide a site where future generations could remember the contributions women made to the war effort. ,
Richmond, California Reflecting on her own role in planning for the park's creation, and on how she brought her personal recollections of the conditions for African American women working in that still
segregated environment to bear on the planning efforts, she has said that, often, she "was the only person in the room who had any reason to remember that ... what gets remembered is a function of who's in the room doing the remembering." Soskin's duties included conducting
park tours and serving as an
interpreter, explaining the park's purpose, history, various sites, and museum collections to park visitors. She has been celebrated as "a tireless voice for making sure the African-American wartime experience—both the positive steps toward
integration and the presence of
discrimination—has a prominent place in the Park's history." Soskin said in 2015, at the age of 93: "Wish I'd had [the] confidence when the young Betty needed it to navigate through the hazards of everyday life on the planet. But maybe I'm better able to benefit from having it now—when I have the maturity to value it and the audacity to wield it for those things held dear." She released her memoir,
Sign My Name to Freedom, in February 2018. A feature-length documentary about Soskin's involvement with music, also titled
Sign My Name to Freedom, began filming in 2016. == Retirement and death ==