In World War 2 African American’s were given poor treatment, they didn't have the power to vote and provided unfair employment. This main part of this essay is African American rights during this time period. Despite facing racism, African American’s were offered new career opportunities and further civil rights through legislation.
In 1939 world war 2 started and the Armed forces were in need for soldiers. Each branch of the armed forces (Army, Navy and Air Force) has different policies for enlistment regarding blacks and whites. The Army accepted black enlistees to war which in turn the Army created separate infantries. These soldiers that enlisted in the Army had to serve in segregated units and had no say and were assigned to white infantries at will. But like most black soldiers during this period, they were assigned combat roles such as a cook and or grave digger. The Navy also accepted and enlisted black soldiers but only if they agreed to be steward men. Due to this the African American’s represented nearly a quarter of the Navy strength. Air Force on the other hand would not allow any black soldiers to enlist in their programs. Doing so caused a ripple effect which resulted in a drop of …show more content…
soldiers to enlist in in their pilot program. Realizing this issue late in the war, the Air Force opened their enlistment to African American’s which brought in the manpower they needed.
Realizing the manpower given by African American’s enlisting into the Armed Forces in 1940, each branch decided and implemented some changes to their policies.
Men 18-36 regardless of their race were allowed to volunteer without discrimination. These changes also banded color discrimination in the selection and training process of military units. Despite these changes made to the Armed Forces policies, segregation was still huge among the branches. Many black soldiers struggled as the war was wrapping up. Fearing what they would do after the war ended, many African American’s believed they had nowhere to go since the changes made to segregation only affected them within the Armed Forces and not in the outside
world.
In July of 1948 President Harry S. Truman signed Executive Order 9981 which provided desegregation of all U.S Armed Forces. This was good and bad for African American’s since segregation was still very big throughout the united states with society not granting African American’s full rights. Leaving their homes, African American’s realized this first hand. As they looked for jobs in other cities similar to what they learned in the war, African American’s were face to face with segregation as they were constantly denied by jobs and excluded from events big and small. However, due to this huge movement in job seeking by African American’s, it resulted in one of the biggest breakthroughs in history. It gave them a voice to speak up and prove they can be given any job at any time and work their way up as anyone else.
In World War 2 racism and civil rights are what African Americans struggled with. Though the war created new opportunities for African American’s they came to experience strong racial segregation within the Armed Forces causing little to no combat seen by its enlisted soldiers. Realizing the manpower African American’s provided to the war, the Armed Forces vowed to end segregation and changed many of their policies to do so. Determined to end racism in the United States African American’s left their homes to find jobs but found segregation was still very rapid through most of the states and cities they traveled to. The war provided opportunities and laid the groundwork for African American’s to speak up and show they can be equal to the man next to them. In this day in age, how would you feel as an African American in World War 2.