Module 5 Reading : Red Cross, Double Cross: Race and World War II Blood Services

Introduction and the Significance of Blood Plasma in World War II

  • The Critical Role of Blood: Blood plasma was regarded as one of the most significant medical discoveries of World War II.

  • General Dwight D. Eisenhower's Endorsement: Eisenhower emphasized its importance by stating that if he could thank all of America for one thing, it would be for the blood plasma and whole blood that saved lives on the front lines.

  • The Paradox of "Blood Brothers": While the program was celebrated as a "common cause" that brought Americans of "all stations of life" together, it initially failed to include or treat all Americans as equals.

  • The Core Conflict: The American Red Cross and U.S. military officials initially excluded African American donors and later accepted them only on a strictly segregated basis.

  • Persistence of Jim Crow Blood: Despite scientific consensus and civil rights protests, official Jim Crow blood policies (targeted specifically at blacks) remained in place throughout the war and several years after its conclusion.

The Scope of the African American Freedom Struggle

  • Activism and "Smaller Victories": Thomas A. Guglielmo argues that while wartime civil rights activism did not achieve its ultimate goal of immediate total integration of the blood program, it secured "smaller victories" against significant odds.

  • Geographic Concentration: This activism was most prominent in the Northeast and Midwest, which were the primary locations of Red Cross donor centers.

  • A Broader Movement: The fight over blood was not an isolated incident; it was part of a larger surge in civil rights activism during the war that touched the military, workplaces, schools, voting, and public accommodations.

  • The " Dynamite" Problem: Red Cross Chairman Norman H. Davis described the race issue as being "loaded with dynamite" in 1942.

  • Intentional Silencing: G. Canby Robinson, the national director of the blood program, entirely omitted the race controversy from his 87-page internal report on wartime activities, later admitting to a colleague that the situation was too "sensitive" to include.

Defensive Ideologies: A Shift Away from Essentialism

  • Questionable Assumptions: Red Cross and military leaders justified segregation based on the assumption that white donors and soldiers would refuse to participate in an integrated program, thereby jeopardizing the war effort.

  • The Rhetoric of "Social Custom": Officials rarely used arguments of biological racial inferiority (essentialism). Instead, they framed their decisions through "nonracial variables" such as tradition, white preference, and social customs.

  • Connections to "New Racism": Guglielmo connects this to David Freund’s work on suburban exclusion. Both cases represent a shift toward subtler forms of racism that emerged as scientific racism fell out of favor.

  • Racism Without Essentialism: These leaders maintained a deeply unequal racial order without appearing racist in the traditional sense, avoiding talk of races as fundamentally distinct while upholding white supremacy.

The "White"/"Colored" Divide and Multiracial Complexity

  • Expansive Whiteness: The Red Cross and military utilized a specific binary: "Negro" (colored) and everyone else (white).

  • Classification of Non-Black Groups:     * Chinese and Filipino Americans: Explicitly categorized as "white" for the purposes of blood donation.     * Latinos and American Indians: Generally included in the "white" category.     * Japanese Americans: This was more complex. While the Navy refused to accept them at all, the Army eventually included them, and the Red Cross often treated Nisei blood as white, despite occasional protests from segregationists.

  • Multiracial Messiness: State power during the New Deal and WWII eras was defined by how the government categorized people to determine who would suffer (internment/repatriation) and who would benefit (G.I. Bill, home loans).

The Historical Evolution of Race as Blood

  • The "Heroic Age" of Transfusion: By the early 20th century, blood transfusion had become routine.

  • Race-as-Blood Notions: Long-standing legal and social beliefs in the U.S. equated race with blood.     * Legal Definitions: State laws on segregation, marriage, and voting defined people based on their percentage of "Negro blood."     * Federal Classification: The census, the military, and immigration slots (after the 1943 repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act) were all governed by race-as-blood concepts.

  • Allotment and Internment: Blood notions even determined the allotment of Indian and Hawaiian lands and who was sent to concentration camps during the war.

Key Incidents Leading to Formal Segregation

  • The Sylvia Tucker Incident (December 1941): A Detroit mother and "loyal American citizen" was barred from donating blood at a Red Cross center. She offered to have her blood labeled "Negro Blood" for use by black soldiers, but was refused and left in tears.

  • Blood for Britain Precedent: Dr. Charles R. Drew, the African American director of this precursor program, noted that donations to Britain were mixed together regardless of race, despite some official claims to the contrary.

  • The Wanda Douglas Incident (July 1941): In Baltimore, Douglas and nine white co-workers attempted to donate. Unlike her white peers, Douglas was told to donate at a separate location for "colored volunteers."

  • Formalization of Policy (August/September 1941):     * Navy Position: Surgeon General Ross T. McIntire stated simply that the Navy had no need for "negro blood."     * Army Position: Surgeon General James Magee argued that integrated blood collection would "militate against the success of our plasma program" due to white outrage.     * Red Cross Policy: On November 5, 1941, G. Canby Robinson issued a confidential policy statement to supply only plasma from white donors, claiming 95% of the armed forces were white and preferred white donors.

The National Protest and the Shift to Segregation

  • Public Exposure: The policy was leaked in late December 1941 by the liberal tabloid PM and subsequently covered in the black press with headlines like "Red Cross Bans Negro Blood!"

  • A National Grievance: Activists compared the Red Cross policy to the "crooked Nazi sign." Public meetings in Cleveland compared the exclusion to the "infamous Dred Scott decision."

  • Interservice Conflicts: Walter White of the NAACP accused the Red Cross of "falsification" when the Navy denied ordering the exclusion. This led to front-page headlines: "Who's Lying, Navy or Red Cross?"

  • The 1942 Statement of Segregation: On January 21, 1942, the Red Cross, Army, and Navy agreed to accept black donors but insisted that blood be "processed separately so that those receiving transfusions may be given plasma from blood of their own race."

Operational Logistics of Segregated Blood

  • The "AA" Stamp: Robinson required that laboratory workers mark all black-sourced materials with "AA" (standing for Afro-American). This included registration cards, tags, and plasma cartons.

  • The Exclusion of Serum Albumin: Even after segregation was accepted for plasma, blacks were entirely banned from donating blood for serum albumin in July 1942.

  • The Paradox of Nisei Blood: While black blood was stamped "AA," Nisei (Japanese American) blood was often pooled with white blood. Segregationists like Congressman John Rankin of Mississippi railed against "Japanese blood" being pumped into white veins.

Widespread Forms of Activism

  • The Civil Rights Groups: The NAACP (led by Walter White), the March on Washington Movement (MOWM), and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) conducted letter-writing campaigns and distributed leaflets titled "Red Cross, Double Cross."

  • Scientific and Medical Opposition:     * JAMA: Stated in May 1942 that there was no factual basis for discrimination as blood cannot be distinguished by race.     * The Races of Mankind: Anthropologists Ruth Benedict and Gene Weltfish produced a best-selling pamphlet and museum exhibit explaining "It's Not in the Blood."

  • Cultural Resistance:     * Poetry: Gwendolyn Brooks and Geraldyne Ghess wrote poems mocking the "tarnished souls" of those who refused black blood.     * Passing: Langston Hughes reported that light-skinned black women ("mulatto ladies") in Washington D.C. would "pass" as white and donate blood as a "patriotic and harmless little joke on unscientific Nordics."

  • The Economic Boycott: Many African Americans refused to donate money or blood to the Red Cross. While blacks made up 10% of the population, they contributed less than 1% of the 8.5 million donations received by August 1944.

Internal Red Cross and Military Conflict

  • Internal Dissent: Some local chapters (e.g., St. Louis, Boston, Princeton) disregarded segregation. The director of the St. Louis blood bank offered to "throw out all Negro blood if anyone could tell which was which," noting that no one could.

  • Leadership Reaffirmation: In February 1944, the Advisory Committee on Negro Troop Policies, chaired by John J. McCloy, reaffirmed the segregation policy despite General Benjamin O. Davis reporting that it offended the black community.

  • Jesse O. Thomas: Hired in 1943 as the first black Red Cross administrator to act as a liaison. He was reportedly referred to by some white staff as "Fieser's Nigger."

Profiles of Key Leadership

  • Major General James C. Magee (Army Surgeon General): The primary architect of the policy. He was a staunch segregationist who believed Northern whites would never accept integration. He was frequently targetted by the Chicago Defender with the headline "Objects to Negro Blood."

  • Norman Davis (Red Cross Chairman): A Tennessean paternalist who believed progress required "patience" rather than "agitation." He once suggested blacks had no "race pride" because they wanted to mix with white people.

  • Ross T. McIntire (Navy Surgeon General): Evasive regarding the policy, he suggested the Navy simply not acknowledge letters of protest at all.

Discrepancies Between Policy and Practice on the Front Lines

  • Daniel Inouye’s Memory: The Senator recalled receiving 17 transfusions in Italy, many labeled with the names and units of the black 92nd Division, but notably without "AA" racial markers.

  • The G.I. Perspective: Front-line soldiers often disregarded policy. An Ollie Harrington report from Naples quoted a Texan soldier saying, "Them slobs back home had better forgit that stuff… if it takes a black man's blood to save a white man's life, he's gonna git that blood."

  • Capt. Lawrence A. Drollett: An Army Medical Corps officer who admitted to the press that blood was not actually segregated in processing or administration. He was immediately forced by his superiors to recant his statement.

  • G. Canby Robinson’s Final Admission: In 1953, years after the war, Robinson admitted he "never really thought" the segregation plans were carried through in detail from beginning to end.

Post-War Policy Changes

  • 1947 Policy Update: The Red Cross issued a statement acknowledging there is no racial difference in blood but allowed local physicians to make a "selection" based on patient preference.

  • 1950 Final Reform: The Red Cross voted to officially discontinue marking racial designations on medical records. The New York Times hailed this by stating, "human blood is human blood regardless of the degree of pigmentation in the skin."