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Empowerment of American Minorities in the Wake of WWII

                 During Word War II, with able-bodied men shipped overseas to fight against the forces of the Axis, out of sheer necessity, the economy fell into the hands of two groups of second-class citizens: women and African Americans.  When the war ended, these groups held on tight to their grasp on economic equality, leaving the fabric of American society changed forever.  More than that, they’d had a taste of freedom and wanted full equality, paving the way for the women’s rights and civil rights movements.  In this way, necessity, often viewed as the mother of invention, became a source of social progress.

                 Before the war, African Americans could not expect to be welcomed into mainstream society as equals.  Instead, they were relegated to the sorts of unpleasant, low-paying jobs that whites didn’t want to bother with.  Only after the bulk of the workforce was in uniform did the blacks have a chance to step up to the sort of work that everyone else was used to.  Moreover, they took on a supporting role in the factories that had a direct benefit to the wartime effort, giving their jobs meaning and purpose.

                 Unlike women, African Americans were also allowed to serve alongside white troops on the battlefield, though not without some segregation and racist restrictions.  While they were given a chance to shed their blood for their country, they were not permitted to donate blood to the same blood banks that served the whites.  This meant that some whites died from refusal to use available blood, but also that more blacks died from lack of access to the larger pool of blood.  Blacks were likewise restricted to low-ranking positions, with only a small handful of black officers at the start of the war. (America’s First Black General)

                 A clear indication of the changing role of African Americans can be found in primary documents such as the wartime propaganda posters, which now portrayed them in roles once limited to whites, and even working directly alongside whites.  One showed a black soldier with the slogan, “Above and beyond the call of duty,” emphasizing that African Americans were just answering the same call of duty as the whites.  (WWII Recruitment) On the one hand, this showed them to be equally patriotic and American, even to the point of exceeding what is required of them.  On the other, it reminded whites that it is their duty to do whatever is necessary for victory, even if it involves allowing blacks into a somewhat integrated military.  Another, more blatantly, showed blacks and whites working at an airplane factory, with the caption, “United We Win”.  The message sent was quite pragmatic, telling people that they had a greater enemy to deal with than their own subclasses. (WWII Recruitment)

                 All this was occurring at a time when racism against blacks was becoming associated with the enemy, more un-American than all-American.  Whites cheered as Jesse Owens figuratively poked Hitler in the eye with his incredible performance at the 1936 Olympics. (Jesse Owens) Hitler’s racist-centered expansionism was giving racism a bad name, unless of course it was racism against the Japanese and Germans.

                 African Americans stationed in Europe were exposed to a very different social structure.  Perhaps because Europe had been historically dependent upon peasant, not slave, labor for agriculture, or because it has always been a little more sophisticated, blacks did not face the same level of prejudice that was found here in the United States.  Even before World War II, African American artists had flocked to France and England (though not Germany) because there were relatively few color barriers.  “From Duke Ellington to W.E.B. Du Bois,” artists found a new home and helped to shape the cultural landscape of Europe, and were influenced by its colorblind policies. (Mays)

African American soldiers were given a glimpse of a less racially charged society and they liked what they saw.  Upon their return to the United States, they were confronted with the stark differences in civil rights between the two continents.  This was pointed out in 1919, when F.J. Grimke addressed black soldiers returning home from the first World War, saying, “If it was worth going abroad to make the world safe for democracy, it is equally worth laboring no less earnestly to make it safe at home.”  After World War II, the civil rights movement took off in full force, inspired by Europe.

                 Once the war ended, soldiers returning home were treated to special economic privileges, such as the G.I. bill and mortgage policies that were very lenient by the standards of the day.  The opportunity to become a home owner has proven to be a huge economic boon for those who took full advantage of it.  Unfortunately, African Americans found themselves largely excluded by such things government redlining policies that automatically downgraded the property value of a neighborhood that had blacks and by consequently discriminatory practiced by real estate agents, who simply refused to show certain houses to non-whites.  This silent discrimination bred racism, enforced stereotypes, and made it hard for blacks to get solid economic footing for years to come. (Race)

                 Still, having tasted some measure of equality, African Americans did not quietly accept further discrimination.  Their wartime experiences contributed to the birth of the civil rights movement.

                 Starting in 1952, fourteen states with anti-miscegenation laws began to repeal them.   By 1967, the Supreme Court of the United States, ruling in favor of Loving over Virginia, repealed them all.  (History of Marriage) The cultural shift that had started with a need for factory workers was gaining momentum.  As African Americans were allowed to show off their talents, they became more widely accepted, leading to other reforms.

                 In a similar manner, World War II affected the rights of women.  While they weren’t allowed to participate as soldiers, they were given the opportunity to leave the role of homemaker and enter the factories and other previously male workplaces.  As a result, the most famous icon of World War II is arguably Rosie the Riveter.  However, she was only one of many different propaganda campaigns that were encouraging women to work outside of the home. (World War II Recruitment)

                 This was an enormous change for women.  Up until this point, women only worked outside of the home if their husbands were unable to.  There was the rare exception, where a woman worked to supplement her husband’s income, but the general rule was that women stayed home.  (Manning) Up until 1940, women weren’t even allowed to own property if they were married.  (History of Marriage)  Now they had the ability to fend for themselves, gaining an economic independence that paved the way for other forms of equality.

                 Like African Americans, women were reluctant to give up their newfound freedom once the war was over.  It was like going back to prison.  Something had to give, because contentment can’t be found once you’ve had a taste of freedom.   In 1920, women had finally been granted the right to vote in the United States.  Economic prosperity allowed women to gain rights and freedoms unprecedented at the time.  However, the Great Depression put men out of work, as well as women.

During the war, European women had slack to pick up too from their absent men.  Globally, women were not ready to give up and go back to their old status as housewives.  Even though, in some parts of Europe after the war, women still didn't even have the right to vote, the women's rights movement pressed forward. Women slowly shed their roles and headed towards the sexual revolution.  A taste of economic freedom for the majority of women was all it took.

The impact of World War II was not limited to the amount of lives lost, or the redrawing of the European political map.  It affected the very way the United States viewed its own culture, causing ramifications for minorities of all stripes that are still being felt today.

 

Works Cited

America's First Black General.  University Press of Kansas.  6 March 2004  <http://                 www.kansaspress.ku.edu/fleame.html>

 

Black History Timeline 1929-1954.  28 February 2004 <http://search.eb.com/blackhistory/                 timeline.html#1929-1954>

 

History of Marriage as an Institution, The.  Larry R. Peterson.  1997.  3 March 2004 <http://                 www.buddybuddy.com/peters-1.html>

 

Grimke, F.J.  “Address of Welcome to the Men Who Have Returned from the Battlefront.”  A                  Documentary History of the Negro.  1977.  6 March 2004 <http://www.geocities.com/                 CapitolHill/Lobby/2660/GRIMKE.HTM>

 

Jesse Owens:  Achievements.  7 March 2004 <http://www.jesseowens.com/jocare.html>

 

Learning Adventures in Citizenship: Ghettoization.  4 March 2004 <http://www.pbs.org/wnet/                 newyork/laic/episode6/topic4/e6_t4_s2-gh.html>

 

Manning, Carol.  Immigrant Woman and Her Job, The.  1930.  7 March 2004 <http://                 occawlonline.pearsoned.com/bookbind/pubbooks/divine5e/chapter19/medialib/                 primarysources2_19_1.html>

 

Mays, Nancy.  “Blacks in Europe: International conference examines emigre artists' experience.”                   Washington University Record 11 March 1999.  6 March 2004.  <http://record.wustl.edu/                 archive/1999/03-11-99/articles/blacks.html>

 

Race:  Power of An Illusion.  Dir.  Christine Herbes-Sommers, Tracy Heather Strain, Llewellyn M.                  Smith.  Perf.  CCH Pounder.  2003.  DVD.  California Newsreel.

 

World War II Recruitment Propaganda Posters.  Ed. Anthony Ball.  7 March 2004 <http://                 housatonic.net/faculty/ABALL/PaperImages/posters.htm>

 

Copyright 2004

by Amanda Evans

Date: 03/08/04