Did World War Ii Advance Rights for African-americans Peer Reviewed

The civil rights movement was a fight for equal rights under the police for African Americans during the 1950s and 1960s. Centuries of prejudice and discrimination fueled the cause, but Globe War Two and its aftermath were arguably the chief catalysts.

A. Philip Randolph's cause against discrimination prodded Roosevelt into activeness.

On January 6, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave a State of the Union oral communication outlining the need for America to help Europe fight against Hitler's tyranny.

He spoke famously of 4 Freedoms for all: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want and freedom from fear. Information technology was an beauteous vision, merely few American blacks of the era enjoyed true freedom of any kind.

As America prepared for war, civil rights leader A. Philip Randolph threatened to organize a march on Washington to protest segregation and discrimination in the military and defense industries.

The threat brought increased attention to race relations and compelled Roosevelt to issue Executive Social club 8802 which prohibited, "discrimination in the employment of workers in defence force industries and in Authorities considering of race, creed, colour, or national origin."

VIDEO: Tuskegee Airmen

Black Americans served admirably in the war.

Prior to World War Two, about iv,000 blacks served in the armed forces. Past the war'due south end, that number had grown to over 1.2 million, though the armed services remained segregated.

Black Americans served their country with stardom: At first, they worked as support troops, only as casualties increased many became infantrymen, airmen, medics and fifty-fifty officers.

All-black or more often than not black units such every bit the 320th Anti-Shipping Barrage Balloon Battalion, the 761st Tank Battalion and the Tuskegee Airmen fought their mode through Europe and earned reputations every bit courageous, honorable soldiers.

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Coil to Keep

Yet, according to John C. McManus, Ph.D., Curators' Distinguished Professor of U.S. Military machine History at the Missouri University of Science and Applied science, "… quite commonly black soldiers plant themselves confronted with ugly discrimination and segregation during off-duty hours in military towns, especially in the South.

"Probably the most famous instance of this was when Lt. Jackie Robinson refused to comply with the bus segregation at Ft. Hood. Many other incidents led to confrontations and significant violence and much social activism. At times, in that location were riots between white and black soldiers, fifty-fifty overseas too."

Every bit whites at dwelling house went to war, blacks left behind had access to manufacturing jobs previously unavailable to them. They learned new skills, joined unions and became part of the industrial workforce.

World War II home front end poster. (Credit: David Pollack/Corbis/Getty Images)

The 'Double Five Campaign' fought for victory at home and abroad.

In 1942, African American James Thou. Thompson wrote a letter of the alphabet to the Pittsburgh Courier titled, "Should I Sacrifice to Alive Half American?" which questioned if he should fight for a country that discriminated confronting him.

Thompson initiated the "Double V" campaign to encourage others to fight for victory and freedom abroad and at dwelling house.

The double Five slogan took hold. "By serving their state, [black soldiers] earned a great deal of respect from fair-minded whites and blacks alike. This in turn gave them a greater political voice than they otherwise might have had," said McManus.

Black veterans led the postwar civil rights charge.

Blacks returned home from the war to a life of bigotry and injustice. "[Blacks] had just helped destroy some of the most homicidal, racist regimes in human history and withal they had served in an armed forcefulness that was segregated on the basis of race," said McManus.

"They were victimized by the same sort of racist views that had animated America'southward enemies. This made zero sense and it created a powerful moral imperative for domestic change."

The blatant injustice motivated blacks and unprejudiced whites to fight discrimination. Many blacks moved to large cities to find jobs using skills they'd learned in the military.

Others became civil rights activists and lent their powerful voices to organizations such as the NAACP, CORE, the Regional Quango of Negro Leadership and the Deacons for Defence and Justice. In 1948, their efforts paid off when President Harry Truman issued an executive society to desegregate the war machine.

According to McManus, "World War Two led to an explosion of racial reform, issues that the Ceremonious War failed to solve and that had been festering for virtually a century. In my opinion, Earth War 2 was the most significant event in American history, to a great extent because of the racial change it helped foster."

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Source: https://www.history.com/news/did-world-war-ii-launch-the-civil-rights-movement

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