african american history

Chapter 13

  • Black Americans started the Double V Campaign; a masterful way to fight racism without endangering vital liberties.

  • During the war, women were needed in most factory positions and while white women would work, black women were expected to do all of the heavy lifting and work

  • When the war was over, black women were the first to be fired which was ironic because they were the last to be hired.

  • After the war, black men got little to no credit from fellow Americans even though they did the same work and more as their white counterparts

  • March on Washington

  • Black Americans wanted to be taken more seriously

  • NAACP tried to desegregate the military and get black officers

  • Reinvigorate the Civil Rights Movement

  • Freedom of Speech, Religion, Want, Fear, and Education

  • Black men wanted to be treated

  • Black soldiers couldn’t be leaders of white soldiers

  • White soldiers would never follow a command from a black soldier/ Black not capable of leading

  • Instead of treating blacks equally, they gave them new uniforms

  • Roosevelt spouted stuff about desegregation and equality in the military

  • A. Phillip Randolph said that to get change they have to March on Washington

  • March on Washington was about equal opportunity in jobs because if they are paying taxes they should be able to get the same jobs as white people

  • 100 thousand people created fear of a race riot

  • Roosevelt issued EO 8802 that made it illegal to discriminate in any defense that does business with the Federal Government

  • More than 1.5 million blacks left the South during the 1940s

  • Southern states maintain a race-based employment hierarchy

  • “Work or jail” laws ( blacks just left instead of working or going to jail)

  • Demographic shifts

  • In Texas, it was illegal for anyone from a different state to take “their blacks” for employment opportunities

  • Black migrants trained for industrial jobs

  • Black workers sent to plants outside the South

  • Most migrants went to Midwestern cities; some went West

  • “ Underground Rail Road” helped black farmworkers find jobs

  • Black women migrated first

  • Race Riots during the War Years

  • Zoot suit Riots in LA where white sailors engaged in combat with Black and Hispanic Americans. This was because there was an influx of blacks where whites were supposed to be.

  • Job competition fueled tension

  • Riots

  • Workers’ Strikes in Detroit- the riot turned violent when there was a rumor that a black man had raped a white woman and killed her baby.

  • What started the riot was a rumor that black men were going to rape white women

  • Rosies were women who took the role of male jobs in industries during World War II

  • They were welders, typers, riveters, mechanics, engineers, and even code breakers. Maya Angelou was a Rosie.

  • African Americans pursued victory against oppression and racism at home after the war

  • Southern blacks voted in record numbers

  • Segregationist Senator Theodore Bilbo's 1946 campaign was investigated and two hundred blacks across the state appeared for the hearings and black men and women testified to the tactics the senator had used to keep blacks from voting.

  • Morgan v. Virginia- Irene Morgan refused to give up her bus in 1946 and was arrested, fined, and banned from riding interstate buses.

  • Journey of Reconciliation was one of the first direct action protests against Jim Crow laws. This is one of the earliest campaigns; initiated by Black women.

  • Black women challenged professional segregation. Mabel Staupers started a letter-writing campaign to Eleanor Roosevelt stating that it was unfair for black women to be nurses in the military. And black women were only able to tend to black soldiers and some white soldiers, while white women only operated on white men for fear that black soldiers might rape them while injured.

  • Freed blacks formed their own baseball teams. More than fifty blacks played professional baseball among whites. Moses Fleetwood Walker became the first black man to go to the Major leagues. White people threatened to kill Fleet Walker if he kept playing on the team

  • Major League Baseball desegregated

  • Althea Gibson first black woman to play in the World Open for tennis

  • Charles “Chuck” Cooper first black person to be led into the NBA

  • Football slow to desegregate- blacks were told they could only be running backs

  • Cities encouraged black culture and talent

  • Bebop- a newer type of Jazz that is more fast-paced. Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, and Thelonious Monk

  • Small victories toward the end of the war

  • President Truman appointed the President’s Committee on Civil Rights

  • Executive Order 9981- there should be no segregation or separation of the races in the military. Nothing happened after and the military remained segregated.

  • The GI Bill- was designed to help soldiers when they came back to war. If a black soldier got a loan from the military, they were only able to buy a home in black neighborhoods. This became the basis of redlining. Black soldiers couldn't use being a soldier on their application as a positive. Black soldiers were forced to get low-paying jobs

Review Questions

  1. Describe the strategy behind the Double V Campaign. How did it enable African Americans to protest their circumstances without risking accusations of disloyalty?

  • The Double V Campaign's strategy was to address domestic and overseas issues of racial inequality and discrimination. One V stood for victory over African American enemies without and the other for victory for their enemies within. African Americans protested their circumstances by providing a masterful way to fight racism without endangering civil liberties.

  1. How did wartime conditions, both in the service and on the home front, shed light on the injustices and restrictions African Americans faced? How did black individuals and organizations address these challenges?

  • Wartime conditions both in the service and on the home front shed light on the injustices and restrictions of African Americans through the way they were treated after the war and the lack of praise and appreciation people had for the black soldiers. Captain Luther Smith, who was a black soldier whom the Germans took prisoner, was confronted by the Germans about fighting for a country that lynched its people. Smith said that it was true and that America is his home so he will fight for it because his efforts can help make America better. African Americans addressed these challenges by staying strong, fighting for equality even when it didn’t seem worth it, and knowing they got the bad end of the stick.

What factors during the war promoted black solidarity? How did this bring about the sense of blacks becoming a nation within a nation?

  • Factors during the war promoted black solidarity including African Americans joining organizations and programs to better their community. Because the military was segregated by both black men and black women, sixty-five hundred black women volunteered for the Women’s Army Corps where white women did clerical and technical work and black women served food and swept warehouse floors. Through this black women were united even though the tasks were strenuous. This brought about the sense of blacks becoming a nation within a nation because the more united African Americans became the closer America got to becoming more accepting. If African Americans decided to sit back and accept the injustices and abuse, we would probably be in the same place today, which is why unification and solidarity were so important during this time.

  1. How did African Americans use the war to advance themselves politically, socially, and culturally? What were the results of their efforts?

  • African Americans used the war to advance themselves through the new beginnings available in political life and the changes socially and culturally. World War II marked a turning point for African Americans. Following the Allied victory, blacks started to reject second-class citizenship more than they did during the war. The number of blacks who voted tripled to 600,000 between the 1940 and 1946 Democratic primaries. The longing to have change was engraved in every black voter's mind at the time, despite white terrorism and voting blocks. Desegregating baseball symbolized the hope of the era more than anything at that time. African Americans could play professionally only in Negro League Clubs until Josh Gibson and Satchel Paige were revered for their skills and competed alongside white players. Other sports such as tennis soon desegregated. Althea Gibson became the first African American to compete in the invitation-only U.S. National Tennis Championship.

  1. How did black migration affect the national Democratic Party? Most white southerners were Democrats. How did they react to the new concerns of their political party?

  • Black migration affected the National Democratic Party because whites didn’t want to be run out of the party because of black Americans. Burnet Maybank said” it will be my purpose to see that our Party stands where it always has- for states rights and white supremacy. This made it so there wasn’t any room for black people even though the Party aligned with their concerns and beliefs. The KKK kept this way of thinking alive by lynching and murdering African Americans who spoke up about voting. The two months after the 1946 southern primary elections there were nine lunchings. While segregationists killed African Americans who wanted to vote, they couldn’t kill African Americans’ determination to vote. Black people continued to fight for a country to have rights that should have been guaranteed.