World War Two – Page 41 – Old Magazine Articles

The Segregated U.S. Army (Coronet Magazine, 1960)

Here is a segment from a longer article that tells the sad story about racial segregation in the U.S. Armed Forces. The small portion that is attached here tells of a secret group of fifty army researchers who were dispatched to the European front and

interviewed thousands of [White] soldiers about their attitudes toward Negro platoons fighting experimentally within their divisions.

Their findings proved that to these front-line respondents, the experimental platoons were truly their equal. In 1948 this research was showed to President Truman, who signed Executive Order 9981, thus bringing to an end racial segregation within the ranks of the U.S. Military.

The U.S. Navy was the biggest offender

African-Americans in Hawaii (Yank Magazine, 1943)

Colonel Chauncey Hooper was a World War I veteran; of African-American stock, he had served with the Harlem Hellfighters (the 369th Regiment, 93rd Division). When 1943 came along, he could be found as an army colonel in Hawaii, lording over a regiment of colored New Yorkers calling themselves Hooper’s Troopers. This article is by no means about Hooper as much as it concerns the high number of Harlem Jazz musicians who served under his command

Dorie Miller was an African-American hero during the Second World War, click here if you would like to read about him.

African-Americans in the U.S. Army (Yank Magazine, 1945)

Here are a few fast facts about the African-Americans who served in the U.S. Army during the Second World War (it should be noted that the record keeping in 1945 was not nearly as accurate as they had hoped; the number of Black servicemen and women was way off compared to what is known today. Pentagon figures today number W.W. II African-American service at 1.2 million).

Those councilors who advised FDR on all matters African-American were popularly known as the Black Brain Trust…

African-American Fighter Pilots (Click Magazine, 1943)

A three page photo-essay found on the yellowing pages of a 1943 issue of Click Magazine introduced American readers to the flying Black Panthers of the U.S. Army Air Force; a fighter squadron composed entirely of African American pilots, trained at the new $2000,000 airfield in Tuskegee, Ala.. The four paragraphs that tell their story are accompanied by eight portraits of the pilots and snap-shots of the assorted ground crew, mechanics and orderlies – all Black.

They undoubtedly will reach a combat area this summer. One squadron, the 99th, has arrived overseas already. [These] pilots, whose insignia is a flame-spewing black panther, are rarin’ to join them. They want to roar a personal answer to the Axis ‘race superiority’ lies.

With The War Came New Opportunities (United States News, 1942)

The government, endeavoring to meet the problem by raising the economic stature of the Negro, create committees, change regulations. The Army admits Negro candidates for officer training to the same schools as whites. It is training Negro pilots for the Air Corps. Negro officers will command Negro troops. The Navy opens new types of service for the Negro in the Marine Corps, the Coast Guard, inshore establishments, Navy yards and construction crews.

Men’s Hats and Shoes (Advertisements, 1942)

When the fops answered the call in 1942, these are the hats and shoes they walked away wearing.

You will be able to easily print the attached page of fashion images.

On another note: the legendary fashion designer Christian Dior had a good deal of trouble with people who would illegally copy his designs; click here to read about that part of fashion history.

The Hat Superstition that was Reliable… (Pathfinder Magazine, 1945)

As far as superstitions and clothing are concerned, hats seem to be the one garment that has the most unfounded and irrational precepts attached to their existence. Plentiful are the dictates pertaining to where hats should never be placed or worn – these superstitions existed centuries before the Second World War, but for one citizen of San Angelo, Texas, he had his own beliefs where hats are concerned and some believed that, as a result, he was able to save the lives of 56 American servicemen…

Click here to read about the woman who dictated many of the fabric restriction rules on the home front.