As we discussed in class, segregation was something that was seen in all aspects of American life during WWII. Despite fighting for a democracy, equality and freedom for all, Jim Crows law, Segregation, and denied military service of African Americans proved to many Americans that they weren't ready as a nation to support everyone. The main reason of fighting the war against Germany was to stop their trashing of land and misconduct of treating people poorly under a dictatorship. But, like many African Americans pointed out, what is the difference between that, and a democracy that also treats a specific type of people poorly and unfair. The Pittsburgh Courier, an African American newspaper during WWII, pointed out the similarities between treatment of the Jews by the Nazis and African Americans by white Americans.
Speaking of war, African Americans were usually given the boring, dangerous, and labor work while being denied to fight on the front lines. Though many historical black voices have spoken out and said that African Americas want to fight for their country as much as white Americans, they were still denied the opportunity to show how they felt.
The Double "V" campaign was the thing that changed it all. Standing for double victory, this campaign was geared to get two victories. the first was an external victory away from home (Germany --> defeating the Nazis). The second victory was an internal victory focused to beat and get rid of segregation and inequality in America. This Second victory helped many African Americans get recognized and allowed them to become more engaged in all activities of war.
For more info: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/african-americans-many-rivers-to-cross/history/what-was-black-americas-double-war/
This is a very well-thought and informative blog post. You did a wonderful delving deep into the concept of segregation and its significance during the time of war as a whole. Although you mentioned and discussed many of the effects that segregation had on minority groups of Americans, it is also important to note the changing status of American minorities throughout the war's entire progression and how certain legislation or general scenarios either helped or hindered such minorities in moving toward greater equality. Taking this into consideration, one can understand more of the motives for maintaining a degree of segregation in the war as well as the mindset of many Americans during this particular time period. For additional reading on this topic and seeing how the segregation during the war paved the way to changes like the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, I suggest taking a look at this article: https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/civil-rights-act/world-war-ii-and-post-war.html
ReplyDeleteInteresting post about a controversial issue at the time. The problem of segregation in the defense industry was so tense, President Roosevelt had to give Executive Order 8802, banning discrimination in this industry. Additionally, race riots such as in Detroit and Los Angeles also showed the tension between blacks and whites. Do you think that the Double V campaign was successful?
ReplyDeleteFor more information on segregation in the army:
http://www.worldwar2history.info/Army/Jim-Crow.html
This is a very interesting post. I find it very interesting that many African-Americans at this time associated their segregation with the treatment of Jews in Nazi Germany. This also presented the moral question to the United States of whether they could take the moral high ground over the Nazis, when they were committing similar crimes, albeit less violently. The website https://www.archives.gov/research/african-americans/ww2-pictures
ReplyDeletehelps portray the sheer amount of African-Americans who fought for justice both externally and internally.
Interesting read about how many African-Americans during WW2 experienced segregation. Adding on to your idea about how the Jim Crow laws that were implemented negatively affected African-Americans, the effects of the racial segregation can be seen in when blacks didn’t get a PX (and also weren’t allowed to use White PX) and also in Roosevelt's selective service act, which not only worsened the segregation issue, but also stirred anger and shock in the blacks of how little Roosevelt cared about their issues compared to the situation where the country is being in a national peril, which they saw his attitude as undemocratic.
ReplyDelete