During World War II, African Americans made tremendous sacrifices in an effort to trade military service and wartime support for measurable social, political, and economic gains. As never before, local black communities throughout the nation participated enthusiastically in wartime programs while intensifying their demands for social progress.
The struggle for African American first-class citizenship during this period was primarily waged in the workplace and training facilities throughout the nation. In particular, black colleges and universities made vital contributions to the defense program and, on a state level, directed training facilities and organized the African American war effort.
Like this article? World War II accelerated social change. Work in wartime industry and service in the armed forces, combined with the ideals of democracy, spawned a new civil rights agenda at home that forever transformed American life.
African Americans in WWII faced both external battles against fascism and internal struggles against segregation. Their commitment demonstrates the alignment of patriotic duty with a fight for civil rights.
African American soldiers in WWII
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Contributions to the Defense Industry
By 1942, thousands of African Americans had enrolled in pre-employment courses at historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) throughout the South. Nearly 30 black colleges offered 50 new courses that covered topics such as mechanical arts, radio engineering, tool engineering, welding, electronics, boat building, nursing, sheet metal work, photography, internal combustion engines, production management, and nutrition.
Students received training in occupations that reflected a shortage of personnel in regional areas. Sixty-five black colleges participated in federal programs such as the Engineering, Science, and Management War Training (ESMWT) program. Twelve of those institutions had direct contracts with the federal government and offered a total of 74 courses in physics, mathematics, management, engineering, and chemistry.
The federal government also vigorously solicited the support of HBCUs in numerous programs like the War Bond and Stamp Savings program and the Army Enlisted Reserve Corps, which was a precursor to the United States Army Reserve. In addition to thousands of Africans Americans, more than 50,000 non-African-American students throughout the South were registered in defense-related training programs. African Americans received valuable training in skilled and unskilled occupations that qualified them to work in numerous war-related industries.
Though African Americans eagerly sought these defense-training program opportunities, many employers in the South avoided hiring blacks for fear of social unrest and mass strikes. Rapid expansion forced leaders to confront discriminatory hiring practices.
In June 1940, President Franklin Roosevelt created the National Defense Advisory Commission to create equitable employment for all Americans in the Defense industry. In June 1941, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People started a National Defense Day to protest discrimination of African Americans in government hiring.
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Labor leader, Philip Randolph called for 100,000 African Americans to march on Washington to protest discrimination in the armed services and in the Defense industry. In response, Roosevelt signed Executive Order 8802, forbidding racial discrimination in government hiring and training programs to avoid escalating tensions during this critical time. The order set up the Fair Employment Practice Committee.
The lure of Defense industry jobs and promise of the FEPC triggered migration of African Americans from the South to Defense plants across the country. Industry leaders often refused to comply with the order, arguing that if African Americans were hired, employers would be forced to integrate the workforce.
Executive Order 8802: A Step Towards Equality
Document for June 25th: Executive Order 8802: Prohibition of Discrimination in the Defense Industry. Franklin D. Roosevelt issues Executive Order 8802 banning discrimination in the defense industry on June 25, 1941.
In the ammunition industry, WWII records convey how challenging it was to recruit and sustain a large enough workforce to first build the plants, and then operate them. Discussions on labor pools and hiring practices are not detailed in accounts of how the plant were operated. However, advertisements across the nation and in plant newspapers targeted specific groups of people, like white females.
Many authors have documented the inferior experiences by the black labor force in Defense, and the injustices they encountered as they were given more dangerous and dirtier jobs than white counterparts across industry.
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The government set up special divisions dedicated to African American workers within the Labor Division of the War Production Board. The Negro Employment and Training Branch was to help qualified black workers participate in the employment and training opportunities of the national Defense program.
Living Conditions and Segregation
Once employed in the Defense industry, at an ammunition plant for example, working and living conditions were often difficult for African Americans. Newly constructed ammunition plants were frequently located in remote areas of farmland. As they quickly constructed plants, living quarters and "company towns" had to be created around the plant.
Living conditions were in tent and trailer camps, and sometimes temporary housing additions off the highways leading to the plant's front gates. This was a difficult situation for everyone, but harder for minority employees who were segregated in society and at work.
In African American communities, the problems went unaddressed and reports of inadequate services, sanitation and treatment were common experiences in their neighborhoods.
Military Service and Discrimination
During the war, Americans routinely sang “God Bless America” and the “Star Spangled Banner” and posted signs and American flags in support of troops and war-related programs. However, fervent displays of patriotism did not include the support of black troops. During this period racial violence against African American soldiers was common near military installations in the South.
Shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, for example, a race riot broke out between African American GIs, civilians, and the local police in Alexandria, Louisiana, when a white military policeman struck a black soldier in front of a crowded movie theater. Because of such incidents, black leaders, educators, and the black press believed that building morale in the black community was even more essential.
Tuskegee Airmen: The African-American Military Pilots of WW2
Tuskegee Airmen
Rightly so, black Americans had little to celebrate, considering that many of them were barred from civil defense training programs and jobs, as Jim Crow philosophy permeated the branch services of the Army, Navy, and Marines, and African Americans who suffered from maltreatment and assaults at the hands of whites had no recourse in the justice system. In fact, this attitude was representative of the mood in the black community throughout the nation.
To combat this pessimistic atmosphere, the Research Branch of the Special Service Division, US Army Forces, released a report entitled, “Attitudes of the Negro Soldier.” The report suggested that special efforts be established to assign black troops to important military duties and that there be an increased flow of news about African American military achievements both in combat and in training.
This increase in the flow of information would include a steady focus on enemy racial doctrine. The contradiction between fighting to sustain democracy throughout the world and experiencing the humiliation of Jim Crow laws, second-class citizenship, and exclusion from wartime job training programs at home understandably proved too great for many African Americans.
African Americans threatened a "March on Washington" in 1941, in their demand for a fair share of jobs and an end to segregation in government departments and the armed forces. President Roosevelt responded by taking action to ban discrimination in defense industries.
Even as people of color served in the military, those at home still faced racial discrimination from federal and local governments.
During WWII, more than 2.5 million African American men registered for the draft, and African American women volunteered in large numbers. When combined with black women enlisted into Women's Army Corps, more than one million African Americans served the Army during the War. At home, African Americans proactively fought for their right to work in positions in the Defense industry, facing discrimination and segregation.
The Tuskegee Airmen
The Tuskegee Airmen stories continue to highlight the importance of African American service in WWII. Leading up to the war, civil rights groups advocated for the military to add black pilots to the ranks. In 1940, Secretary of War, Harry Stimson approved a plan to train an all-black 99th Fighter Squadron and construct an airbase in Tuskegee, Ala.
By 1946, 992 pilots were trained and had flown hundreds of missions in southern Europe. During the Battle of Anzio in Italy, the Tuskegee Airmen played a key role by escorting bombers across heavily defended areas. They deftly protected Allied planes from enemy fire and supported ground troops, ensuring vital operations continued.
The Tuskegee Airmen’s success proved African American men could excel as combat pilots and leaders in the armed forces.
Other Notable Units
The 92nd Infantry Division known as the Buffalo Soldiers, were the first African American Soldiers sent into combat in 1944. The division landed in Italy and made its way through the country until they encountered German troops in September.
To fill the gap, commanders were ordered to integrate black volunteers into any unit that needed them. General Dwight Eisenhower resisted the order but formed black volunteer platoons that could be attached to combat units.
Becoming a pilot or engaging in combat operations was a unique opportunity, as African Americans were marginalized and often assigned to support roles throughout the war. African American Quartermaster Soldiers proved their value to WWII, as logisticians.
The Red Ball Express was a 1944 logistics mission that required traveling a 700-mile supply route, hauling supplies from Normandy to Paris. At its peak of operations, the fleet carried 12,000 tons of ammo, food and fuel to the front daily. The route was 54 hours roundtrip, dangerous and difficult.
More than one and a half million African Americans served in the United States military forces during World War II. They fought in the Pacific, Mediterranean, and European war zones, including the Battle of the Bulge and the D-Day invasion. These African American service men and women constituted the largest number enlisted in the Army and Navy, and the first to serve in the Marine Corp after 1798.
For the Allied Powers, “V” was the WWII symbol that unified their war effort to achieve victory for democracy over the tyranny of the Axis powers.
Those who were inducted usually served in large units whose members represented a wide range of skills and levels of formal education. All of them conducted their work assignments separate from white soldiers, received medical treatment from separate blood banks, hospitals, and medical staff, and socialized only in segregated settings.
Moreover, the authority of African American officers was restricted to African American units only and, if there were white officers in these units, the African American officers were not allowed to have higher positions. In addition, pernicious beliefs of “race” often stalled the use of African American troops in combat units and excluded them from receiving recognition for their World War II service.
About 4,000 African American women joined the Army’s Women’s Army Corps. While they often experienced racially-integrated instructional facilities, they were usually assigned to menial labor positions. However, one of these African American units served overseas as a postal battalion.
The Double V Campaign
A month after the attack on Pearl Harbor, on January 31, 1942, an African American resident of Wichita, Kansas, Mr. James G. Thompson, wrote a letter to The Pittsburgh Courier, one of the nation’s leading African American newspapers, suggesting “that while we keep defense and victory in the forefront that we don’t lose sight of our fight for true democracy at home.”
In response, the Courier, supported by other African American newspapers, created the insignia which featured two Vs and described as double victory for “Democracy at Home and Abroad,” launching the Double V Campaign in 1942 in support of the nation’s war effort.
Thompson, a 26-year-old defense worker, that contrasted the war rhetoric with the treatment of Black workers in the industry. Thompson called for a “double V for victory” sign representing victory at home and abroad.
Black workers embraced the Double V campaign, marching in cities across the country and demanding improved working conditions for the millions of Black workers in defense plants. They also demanded an acknowledgement of the contributions and sacrifices of more than 1 million Black men and women serving in the Armed Forces.
On parade, the 41st Engineers at Ft. Many of these individuals resisted supporting the war by refusing to support national defense programs or contribute to the national war chest. At Howard University, many students linked wartime support to the civil rights movement and began to participate in sit-ins and demonstrations that protested segregationist policies of restaurants, department stores, and drugstores throughout the Washington, DC, area.
The G.I.
G.I. Bill benefits
The G.I. Bill and Post-War Impact
Well before the war ended, President Franklin D. Roosevelt envisioned a plan for veterans to return home and better their lives through the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944.
Toward the end of World War II, Congress passed the G.I. Bill, officially known as the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944. More than one million Black veterans qualified for these benefits. However, the Bill’s administration depended on local agencies, which sometimes enforced Jim Crow practices.
Under Jim Crow laws, many Black veterans encountered prejudice when attempting to secure loans or educational support. Housing discrimination kept them from buying homes in certain neighborhoods. As a result, the potential for economic mobility was uneven.
Despite these challenges, the G.I. Consider a Black veteran returning home in 1945. With G.I. Bill benefits, this individual sought admission to a college that would support veterans of color. Although discrimination persisted, each success story brought renewed hope.
