African-Americans had acquitted themselves admirably during World War II, both on the battlefield and on the home front. In the war's aftermath, in an atmosphere of great hope and optimism, it seemed that the time was now right for the issue of civil rights to be dealt with once and for all. After all, the Americans and her Allies had just defeated Nazi Germany, with its fanatical commitment to a warped, racist ideology. It seemed only appropriate, then, that the United States should take this opportunity to move on from its own legacy of racist oppression and at long last fulfill the emancipatory promise of Reconstruction.
The war had been a testing ground for African-Americans, a chance to prove that they were the equal of anyone; that they were citizens endowed with the same inalienable rights as the majority white population. Having passed the test with flying colors, it seemed only right and proper that African-Americans should at long last be treated with the dignity and respect of which they had been deprived for too long. That the government continued to drag its feet on the issue of civil rights merely gave added impetus to a growing demand among African-Americans for what was rightfully theirs.
The experiences of African Americans laid the groundwork for the modern civil rights movement. The federal government became involved in the integration movement when it refused to award government contracts to munitions factories who used segregation. While this was not enforced integration, it was the federal government's first effort in the movement that would ultimately overturn the Plessy v. Ferguson ruling. The new jobs in war plants and the actual fighting overseas did a great deal in ending sharecropping in the South as many African Americans moved North to take jobs in these factories for higher wages.
African Americans fought bravely on all fronts of the war and believed that theirs was a war against tyranny. WWII had many racial elements to it as the Japanese sought to enforce their will on the rest of Asia and Hitler persecuted all non-Aryans. African Americans came home with a new sense of purpose that racism was inherently evil and un-American and soon they sought to remove the class and race divisions between black and white America. While many Americans received GI Bill benefits, African Americans received them in smaller numbers. African Americans sought greater equality in a nation that they helped to save from the Axis powers.
During and after World War II, African Americans' service in the war made them feel that if they could risk their lives for their country, they deserved equality at home. The quest for rights at home for African Americans was referred to as the "Double Victory" or "Double V" campaign. The phrase first appeared in the Pittsburgh Courier, an African American newspaper, in 1942.
Over one million African Americans enlisted in the army during World War II, and, after serving initially in support roles, they began to fight in combat. African American servicemen and women and later veterans questioned whether they should fight for their country when their country treated them like second-class citizens. When African American soldiers returned home, particularly to the South, they were often the victims of violence. Some were attacked immediately upon returning home, including on the trip home via bus or train. In addition, African American veterans came to realize that the GI Bill, with its provision of college tuition and help with home mortgages, was not designed to help them but provided far more benefits to white middle-class veterans.
As a result of the return of African American veterans, there was a great deal of racial unrest, particularly in the Jim Crow South. Veterans and the African American community as a whole worked through organizations such as the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) to achieve racial equality. One such veteran was Medgar Evers, who fought for equality in Mississippi. A World War II veteran, Evers was tragically slain by a Klansman named Byron De La Beckwith in 1963. By then, veterans and others in the African American community had begun to agitate for civil rights, and the modern Civil Rights movement had been born.
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-tragic-forgotten-history-of-black-military-veterans
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