Black author Richard Wright (1908 – 1960) clearly delineated for the readers of Coronet why African American participation in W.W. II was of great importance to the Black community.
The editors at Yank (an Army possession) seldom wrote about the Marines – and they loved dissing their weekly magazine, The Leatherneck. However, they did recognize an historic moment when they saw one. As remarked in another article on this site, the Navy was the most prejudiced of all the branches of service, and the Marines had previously rejected all Black recruits, but that changed in 1942, and this article served to introduce their readers to this consequential lot. The first African American Marines trained at Camp Montford Point in Jacksonville, NC from August 26, 1942 until the camp was decommissioned in 1949. The greatest number of black Marines to serve in combat during the Second World War was during the Battle of Okinawa (2,000 strong).
Eight months before the American entry to the war, FDR’s Commerce Department Office turned its attention to the thousands of Black-owned businesses throughout the country in order to help maximize their profits and bring them into the wartime economy.
On the very first day of America’s participation in World War II, an African American sailor at Pearl Harbor named Dorrie Miller shot down four enemy planes and saved 12 men from drowning. One would think that this would make the gang on capitol Hill sit up and realize that the war would be shorter if other men of a similar hue could be released upon our enemies, but this was not the case. Very few American blacks were permitted to fight and this article serves as a testimony to their frustration.
“It is a singular fact that [the] supposedly civilized Americans in these times deny the Negroes the opportunity to engage in respectable jobs, the right of access to the restaurants, theaters, or the same train accommodations as themselves and periodically will run amuck to lynch Negroes individually or to slaughter them wholesale – old men, women, and children alike in race wars like the present one.”
What Radio Tokyo was referring to were the multiple race riots that broke out in Detroit and seven other municipalities during the Summer of 1943.
Inasmuch as the Roosevelt administration believed that the integration the armed forces was far too risky a proposition during wartime, it did take steps to insure that fair hiring practices were observed by all industries that held defense contracts with the Federal government; during the summer of 1941 a law was passed making such discrimination a crime.
The attached editorial from Collier’s Magazine applauded the President for doing the right thing.
The brainiac who wrote the Jim Crow rules for the U.S. Army officer corps forgot to segregate the officer’s clubs.
Here is a small notice concerning the Office of War Information and the steps they took during the Summer of 1942 to ensure the patriotic enthusiasm of the African-American community in the war effort:
“Two well-known Negro newspapermen have been selected to supervise the gathering and issuance of Negro news. The head of the new division – still untitled – will be Ted Poston, former New York newspaperman. He will be assisted by [filmmaker] William D. Alexander [who will make newsreels].”
Civil Rights leader Walter White (1893 – 1955) recognized an historic moment when he saw one: during the summer of 1944 he wrote about the first African-American general – Benjamin O. Davis (1912 – 2002; West Point ’36):
“He had endured snubs because of his color and seen less able men promoted over his head without complaint. Some soldiers of his own race charge that he is not as militant as they think he should be in redressing their grievances. Non of this disturbs him.”
Wishing to avoid some of the taint of racism that characterized the American military during the First World war, Republican Senator William Barbour (1888 – 1943) announced that he intended to introduce an amendment to the 1940 conscription legislation that would open all branches of the U.S. Military to everyone regardless of skin color. The article goes on to list all the various branches that practiced racial discrimination.
