African Americans Role In WWII

There were only 4000 African American soldiers in the Army prior to World War II but during the war at least 1.2 million black soldiers served in the war. African-Americans participating in World War 2 had drastically changed the way white Americans viewed Blacks as a whole. Prior to this time Jim Crow laws dictated the way people were to act towards African Americans; these laws said they should have separate areas for whites and colored, and other discriminatory acts. African Americans were heavily discriminated against in this time period and were struggling to gain equality. In the military you would have Black or white regiments not mixed. However once the war began African Americans began taking jobs on the homefront that were originally
The Tuskegee Airmen were the first African American air regiment ever. They also had one of lowest amount of casualties in dog fights out of any air fighters, and were constantly used throughout the War due to their effectiveness “The 332nd Fighter group was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation for its' longest bomber escort mission to Berlin, Germany on March 24, 1945. During this mission, the Tuskegee Airmen (then known as the 'Red Tails') destroyed three German ME-262 jet fighters and damaged five additional jet fighters”(“About Us”). These men were not only recognized by the Government for their escort mission to Berlin they were awarded the Presidential Unit Citation which is awarded for large amounts of heroism during difficult missions or tasks. This escort also provided for Americans to take a bomber at least 350 miles through enemy lines and bomb the Germans capital. Since the amount of damage done to the German fighter jets it made the Germans afraid of the Red Tails. Not only were the Tuskegee airmen an African American regiment of great feats the 92nd Regiment was also. The 92nd Regiment was made up of African Americans, and was created in World War I where they had been a cavalry regiment and were given the mascot the “Black Buffalo”. They provided a lot of support and helped in fighting in the Italian front during the Second World War. “At that
Whilst many people at home had left to help in the war effort many of those jobs were vacant and African Americans helped fill the vacancy. As you saw the higher paying jobs lose employees due to selective service taking many of those employees going over to fight in Europe. In the poster to the right this was a poster to appeal to African Americans to work for jobs that help in the war front. The significance of this poster is that an African American is depicted in it and they are trying to appeal to other African Americans to help in the war effort and you also saw very few posters with black skinned people featured in posters and propaganda for the war. Also some companies started to treat African Americans like other white workers which started to begin equality in the workforce. “Under the leadership of A. Philip Randolph, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) began a campaign of protest against this wartime discrimination… Not only were black activists demanding an end to discrimination in defense jobs but they also targeted segregation in the military” ("Wartime Changes for Women and Minorities."). Since African Americans saw that they had an opportunity to try and gain equal rights due to the war they began to protest for better jobs and desegregate the army. Because of the increased opportunities