How Did World War Ii Change Life For Many Women And African Americans?

African Americans and the Holocaust

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Americans and the Holocaust

African Americans and World War II

This collection illustrates the inequalities faced by African Americans in the 1930s and 1940s, and examines the ways in which African Americans participated in World State of war 2. These primary sources demonstrate how responses to racial discrimination and violence at domicile shaped the fight against fascism and hatred abroad.

American citizens responded to the threats posed by the Tertiary Reich in two master means. First, they served as volunteers, workers, and members of the military to support US participation in World War 2. 2d, both individuals and organizations attempted to rescue European Jews and other persecuted peoples. This collection of primary sources explores the ways in which African Americans took role in and influenced these responses.

Like most Americans, many African Americans viewed the rise of fascism as a threat to democracy. However, similar other US citizens who faced racial inequality at domicile, they also understood the era through the lens of their own experiences. In some cases, this meant a greater commitment to fighting racism and tyranny abroad. Merely it likewise encouraged a recognition of their own position in a political system that marginalized and discriminated against them.

African Americans organized against the Nazi threat in a multifariousness of means. Historically Blackness colleges and universities (HBCUs) sponsored refugee Jewish professors, helping them escape from Nazi-occupied Europe and facilitating their entry into the United States.ⁱ Though the U.s. military remained segregated until 1948, African Americans served and saw combat in large numbers.^two Over iv,000 students and faculty at Howard University, a prominent HBCU in Washington, DC, volunteered to serve in the US military machine,³ some becoming proud members of the Tuskegee Airmen.⁴ Tens of thousands of African Americans enthusiastically entered the state of war industries, helping to produce the weapons and supplies sent to the battlefields of Europe and Asia. Others, like Usa ground forces sergeant Leon Bass, even helped to liberate concentration camps in Europe. In an oral history featured hither, Bass recalls his desire to join the state of war and describes the scenes he encountered after arriving in a Nazi concentration military camp in the spring of 1945.

Similar Bass, many Black soldiers drew parallels between Nazi racism and the discrimination they faced at dwelling in the United States. For some African American communities, the state of war produced a hope that Jim Crow segregation could be defeated.⁵ Many thought participation in the war effort would finally lead to expanded civil rights and economical opportunities. Indeed, the threat of fascism abroad helped button the National Association for the Advocacy of Colored People (NAACP)^six to campaign for the passage of anti-lynching legislation in The states Congress.⁷ Some Jews living in the The states also recognized the commonalities between Nazi persecution and the brutality facing African Americans. Abel Meeropol, a young American Jew whose parents had fled pogroms in Russia, composed the lyrics to "Strange Fruit,"^eight a haunting song nigh lynching made famous by the jazz singer Billie Holiday.

Many African Americans determined that the war years required a dual struggle. Expressed in the so-called "Double-V" sign, they found themselves fighting for both victory over fascism abroad and victory over segregation at dwelling in the Usa. Voices from the African American press, including that featured in the article "Should I Cede to Live 'One-half-American?'", show that many African Americans tied their calls for justice and equality "to the ideology of the war"—the fight for republic—in social club "to prick the conscience of white America."^nine Also featured here is Langston Hughes'south poem, "Beaumont to Detroit: 1943," angrily denouncing an American war for liberation abroad in era of oppression at home.

German propaganda worked to highlight the evils of racial segregation in American club with leaflets that targeted African American servicemen. These messages falsely claimed that Black soldiers would relish better handling by the German military. Notwithstanding, inequality in the ranks inspired new protests within the military and beyond.¹⁰ Membership in the NAACP grew rapidly during the war, and new campaigns like the March on Washington Movement (MOWM) emerged.¹¹ Activists and political leaders ofttimes focused on integrating the military machine and the war industries. However, as illustrated in the featured Executive Order 8802, they saw but express success.

A more just social club did not come up quickly or easily. However, the years 1933 to 1945 saw the United states of america inch closer to catastrophe Jim Crow segregation. African American communities gained greater access to justice under the law, pedagogy, employment, housing, and political representation. African Americans' activism during this period represents a critical moment in American society more broadly. Sociologist Franklin Frazier wrote that World War II marked the point at which African Americans were "no longer willing to accept bigotry without protestation."¹² In his 1944 study of American race relations, another scholar predicted that there would be "a redefinition" of the status of African Americans as a outcome of the state of war.¹³

These sources highlight how Earth War II in some ways proved a pivotal moment in African Americans' struggle to proceeds equitable integration in American society. The experience of the war became an important milestone for the Civil Rights era of the 1950s and 1960s. During Globe War Ii, African Americans were chosen to join a global fight against bigotry and injustice even as they were forced to endure discrimination at home and abroad.