The Afro-American Newspaper Goes to War

Race and injustice was preasant in World War 1 for African Americans. Before the war, Blacks were very ambitious about joining hoping that they could earn more rights and respect. Over one million showed up for the draft. Only to find out that during the war most Acfrican American soldiers were not in the trenches but rather digging them. And they were even more disappointed that when the war was over things almost got worse, with the introducement of the Jim Crow laws treating their race like they are less than human.

Black soldiers, who continued to serve in segregated units, were involved in protest against racial injustice on the home front and abroad. The introduction of black troops left a profound effect on Europe. More than Page 4 350,000 African Americans served in segregated units during World War I, mostly as support troops. Several units saw action alongside French soldiers fighting against the Germans, and 171 African Americans were awarded the French Croix de Guerre or Legion of Honor for their heroic actions. In response to the mistreatment and discrimination from the black community, several hundred African American men received officers` training at Des Moines Iowa.

The Race Beat, written by Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff is the story of how Americans reacted to its race problem, and how a country who expected nothing more than for a united nation after World War II came into the knowing of the inequalities of racial segregation in the South. It is a story of how the press, after years of paying no attention to the problems of the United States, began to realize the importance of the civil rights struggle and turned it into the most relevant story of the twentieth century. It begins with a detailed story discussing the history of the Negro press in the United States, preceding the lunch counter, bus boycott, and school desegregation activities affiliated with the civil rights movement in the twentieth century, and introduced the small group of white editors who were determined to encourage their paper to take a stand against the segregation that surrounded them for decades. The story covers everything from the Brown vs. Board of Education decision in 1954 to the march in Selma, Alabama in the summer of 1965. The Race Beat accounts for how the press covered the civil rights movement and how the movement learned to use the press to its advantage.

However, the U. S. government did not tell the American public about everything that was going on. Despite the political impressions that America had on the improvement to integrate African-American soldiers into the armed forces, segregation and discrimination were still very much a part of World War II. The Army enjoyed showing every picture of a black soldier in action or the heroic stories of certain African-Americans because there were very few instances. The classic heroic story used entailed the plight of Doris Miller, the African-American messman aboard the West Virginia who, on the invasion of Pearl Harbor, moved ?his mortally wounded captain to a place of great safety? and shot down six Japanese planes with a machine gun (Neverdon-Morton 6).

African Americans were expected to fight in a war for freedoms that were not even given to them in their own country. At times, they were even denied the ability to enlist in the Armed Forces. Although many African Americans found a new start in the many war towns, they were still discriminated against and still had to deal with segregation. Whites kept African Americans in the low un-skilled jobs. When Roosevelt signed the federal order for the Fair Employment Practices in the defense industries that called for equal opportunity and prohibited discrimination, the new changed caused a lot of problems.

They... ... middle of paper ... ...ued because of what they have done. American men were called to war after America broke its isolationism and they lost their previous jobs in order to exhibit their patriotism. In America even if WWI was fought overseas, and there were necessary battles to be fought at home for many Americans. African Americans fought to work in the North for improved lives, women fought for suffrage and to help by working for the war effort, German-Americans and other immigrants were suppressed so no uprisings occurred from radicals, and men fought for their country. Overall, America experienced changes politically, economically, and socially but it also showed their patriotism and how they were able to cope with bringing involved in foreign affair which later led them not to approve of the League of Nations because of the pain and change internationalism has caused them.

The civil rights movement in America aimed to gain civil liberties and rights which were guaranteed by law but withheld from them in society. While the movement lasted from about 1954 to 1968, it was not until the 1960’s that other minorities such as American Indians and women began to join the fight. The Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s was possibly the most important domestic social movement of the twentieth century. At the very least, it was the most important social confrontation to grip America since the Civil War. At the end of World War II, African American soldiers returned home from war and found themselves disappointed with how they were being treated in their own country.

Baldwin Blames Mistreatment of Black Veterans for Increasing Racial Unrest Building a case against racial injustice, Baldwin describes how many blacks joined the U.S. military and were sent to fight in Europe during World War II, although the battles they returned to at home were sometimes worse than the war itself. In ?Down at the Cross,? Baldwin zeroes in on the discrimination against black veterans as the final blow causing many of them to hate their own country and become militant against whites. Historical accounts generally support his argument, even though Baldwin doesn?t speak to a few important points that differ from his personal perspectives on this issue. Overall, Baldwin builds a strong case for the need for social change in America to wipe out this type of racial outrage, especially in the case of black war veterans.

Thirty-eight black regiments fought in the union armies that invaded Virginia in 1864, helping to deliver the hammer blows that finally drove Lee’s forces to surrender. After the war, the question of Negro suffrage became a major issue of Reconstruction. The prospect of Negro suffrage presented a good many practical difficulties. The very logic of the union war effort seemed to require the granting of equal citizenship to the Negros. The institution of slavery had crippled the self-reliance, initiative, pride, and manhood of many Negros.

African Americans were sent along side Caucasians to fight in World War I due to there not being enough white soldiers in the military. Many African Americans felt as if they needed to prove their loyalty, respect and earn equality in America by battling in this war. African American soldiers being sent to the war wanted to prove their worthy of citizenship to America. WWI allowed a unique and significant opportunity for African Americans. African American soldiers were sent overseas to Europe for World War I along side white soldiers when segregation and the Jim Crow laws were still being applied in the US.