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P. B. Young, editor of the Norfolk Journal and Guide, an African American newspaper, spoke from the heart
when he told white liberals "Help us get some of the blessings of democracy here at home before you jump
on the 'free other peoples' band wagon and tell us to go forth and die in a foreign land." The first lady,
Eleanor Roosevelt, said "The nation cannot expect the colored people to feel that the U.S. is worth
defending if they continue to be treated as they are treated now." In spite of these contradictions,
black Virginians were eager to join the armed forces. At first the military proved reluctant to enlist
them or else assigned them to menial roles. But in time the army and navy increased opportunities
for black men and women and Richmond's Dimmeline Booth became one of the first black marines in 1943.
In 1940, 19 percent of black men were unemployed, and most black families lived in poverty. The huge
defense buildup that began with the fall of France in June 1940 ended the Great Depression and brought
back prosperity. But blacks were denied an equal share. Using the slogan "We loyal Negro-American
citizens demand the right to work and fight for our country," African Americans threatened to march on
Washington to demand these rights. They forced president Franklin Roosevelt to issue Executive
Order #8802, which opened government jobs and defense contract work to African Americans
on the basis of equal pay for equal work. It was the first presidential action against discrimination
since Reconstruction.
The war years were tumultuous, but blacks sensed that out of this ferment change might come. After
the bleak racism of the 1920s and the economic disaster of the 1930s, there was hope. African American
newspapers conceived the "Double V" campaign—victory over both America's enemies abroad and
over Jim Crow segregation at home. In this hopeful atmosphere the NAACP increased the percentage
of registered black voters in the South from 2 to 12 percent. Membership in the NAACP itself
increased from 18,000 before the war to nearly 500,000 at its close.
As the Cold War began, America could not claim to be the defender of freedom and democracy
when it practiced segregation and discrimination at home. President Harry Truman fully desegregated
the armed forces in 1948, and a government report of 1947 called To Secure These Rights called for
"the elimination of segregation from . . . American life." The stage was set for the civil rights movement.
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Commemorative stamp, 1963 March on Washington
Pressured by a threatened march on Washington by 100,000 African Americans, President
Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a law in June 1941 that created the Federal Employment Practices Commission
(FEPC). The agency enforced the law's provisions against racial job discrimination by the federal government
or its private contractors. Virginia Historical Society. |
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NAACP advertisement
The military draft was begun in the U.S. in 1940. Soon afterward, the pamphlet
"We've been Drafted for active duty by the NAACP" was issued by the NAACP for fundraising and membership
recruitment. Courtesy Library of Congress. |
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Next: Brown I and Brown II
Previous: Beginnings of Black Education
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