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Week 13: Black Americans & WWII — Transcript

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0:01Hello and welcome back. If you remember
0:04last week, we looked at the period of
0:05the Great Depression and the shifts that
0:08came within black communities,
0:09especially as a result. The Great
0:12Depression was a time of massive
0:14upheavalss. Political allegiances
0:16shifted as black Americans largely
0:18aligned behind the Democratic Party,
0:21which promised aid to the working class
0:23led by President Franklin Delana
0:25Roosevelt. His plan, the New Deal,
0:28however, offered limited response to
0:30black communities who struggled to
0:32maintain employment and housing in face
0:35of government support for whites who had
0:37been affected by the depression. So to
0:40answer these systemic problems, we saw
0:42the rise of black politicians like
0:44Arthur Mitchell, as well as the growth
0:45of new activist organizations
0:48uh like the NNC or the National Negro
0:51Congress, which hoped to address those
0:53systemic disparities.
0:56Lastly, we investigated the Chicago
0:58Renaissance, a grounded response to the
1:01realities of black life in the city,
1:03from which emerged great artistic and
1:06spiritual expressions. So this week we
1:10are going to see the end of the Great
1:11Depression as it tied directly to the
1:14outbreak of the Second World War.
1:18So before we begin talking directly
1:20about World War II, I want to start us
1:22of course with our case study.
1:25Captain Luther Smith was born in 1920.
1:29He knew that he loved flying from a very
1:31young age. And in 1942, at the age of
1:3521, Captain Smith dropped out of the
1:38University of Iowa to become the first
1:40African-Amean from Iowa accepted into
1:43the US Army Airore as a member of the
1:46famed Tuskegee Airmen who were the first
1:50all black aviation unit. His service is
1:54represents some of this dual reality
1:57faced by African-American soldiers. A
1:59patriotic commitment to a country that
2:02at the same time denied them basic uh
2:05civil rights and a powerful belief in
2:08making that country live up to its own
2:10ideals.
2:13Captain Smith was eventually deployed in
2:141944 alongside the Tuskegee Airmen who
2:18flew missions in Europe and
2:19distinguished themselves in air-to-air
2:21combat, earning respect.
2:24Luther Smith flew numerous combat
2:27missions based out of Italy before being
2:29shot down and taken as prisoner of war
2:32by German forces. Here, Luther was
2:35confronted by a German officer who
2:37asked, "Why did you fight for a country
2:40that lynched your people?"
2:42And Smith reflected bitterly on the
2:45truth of that statement, but answered
2:48with resolve that I am a black American.
2:51He said, "It is my home, and by fighting
2:54for it, I can make America better."
2:59Smith admitted that he was floored by
3:01the truth of his own observation. He had
3:04volunteered to defend a nation that
3:06defend that continued to deny his basic
3:09human rights. But rather than reject his
3:12country, Captain Smith used the moment
3:14to reaffirm his commitment to a
3:16betterment of America, one that could be
3:19transformed, if even through struggle.
3:23Captain Smith's story shows the high
3:26cost of patriotism for African-Americans
3:29and also illustrated the moral clarity
3:31of African-American soldiers who saw the
3:34war as a platform through which they
3:36could demand equality
3:39and black service was deeply politicized
3:43creating a new generation of veterans
3:45who like after World War I were
3:47unwilling to accept secondass
3:50citizenship uh upon their return home
3:52from the war. So soldiers like Captain
3:55Smith saw the war as an opportunity to
3:57mobilize for change uh to change those
4:00discriminatory institutions within the
4:02government, within the army, and perhaps
4:04even with domestic life
4:07and their calls for change would serve
4:09as vital foundations for systemic change
4:12nationwide.
4:15So today's lecture focuses on that
4:17pivotal turning point of the 20th
4:18century American history, the nation's
4:21entry into World War II and how it
4:24framed its involvement in perhaps
4:27contradictory ways. So we'll examine how
4:29the United States moved from neutrality
4:31to engagement in the war and more
4:33importantly how it publicly articulated
4:36those ideological foundations
4:39um of its war aims.
4:43So though the United States officially
4:45entered uh World War II after the
4:48bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7th,
4:501941, its path toward war had already
4:54been underway for several years. By the
4:58late 1930s and early 1940s, uh its path
5:01toward war um had uh coincided alongside
5:06Adolf Hitler's um Germany expanding
5:09across Europe and President Franklin
5:12Delana Roosevelt and the United States
5:14Congress had begun preparing for the
5:16possibility of war and in 1940 in
5:20September the United States instituted
5:23its first peacetime draft which meant
5:26they were registering men between the
5:27ages of 21 and 35 and creating a
5:30standing army or an army that regardless
5:33of whether you are in war was there and
5:36prepared a standing army of over 900,000
5:39men and Congress al allocated these
5:42funds to expand military production and
5:45passed the lend lease act which allowed
5:49the United States to send arms and ships
5:52to Britain and to the Soviet Union who
5:54would become America's allies. eyes
5:56through this war.
5:59And despite American sort of
6:00isolationist sentiment or anti-war
6:03sentiment, President Roosevelt
6:04recognized the growing the growing
6:07global threat and sought to build a case
6:10for involvement of the United States,
6:12not just militarily, but also
6:15ideologically. And so what we mean by
6:17that is there was a major moment in
6:20defining these war aims in 1941 where
6:24Roosevelt sat down and delivered to the
6:27American people what he called his four
6:29freedoms speech. So sitting in front of
6:32Congress he outlined what he believed
6:34people everywhere in the world ought to
6:36enjoy these four freedoms. Freedom of
6:40speech, freedom of religion, freedom
6:43from want, and freedom from fear.
6:48This was not just a domestic vision.
6:50Roosevelt was expanding these moral
6:53stakes of the war. He had emphasized
6:55that these freedoms should be universal,
6:58applicable to all humanity, not just
7:02Americans, and importantly, not just
7:04white Americans.
7:07Later in August of 1941, President
7:10Roosevelt met with British Prime
7:12Minister Winston Churchill to draft what
7:14was called the Atlantic Charter. This
7:17document served as a diplomatic
7:18articulation of those shared values
7:22between the United States and Britain
7:24and again further clarified these
7:26ideological purposes of the war. So some
7:30key principles of the charter included
7:32uh the right of all peoples to
7:34self-determination or to choose their
7:37own form of government.
7:39Uh the right to economic advancement and
7:42social security for all.
7:45They delivered a firm commitment for the
7:48freedom of the oceans or freedom of the
7:50seas and the disarmament of aggressor
7:53nations. So those nations which were
7:56hoping to expand um in this period that
7:58would be Germany and Japan primarily
8:02arguing that there should be a massive
8:04disarmament removal of weaponry to try
8:08to cool the temperature
8:10and also they delivered a firm
8:13condemnation of Nazism and their
8:16arguments of racial superiority, racial
8:18supremacy. uh Adolf Hitler um was a
8:22leader of this idea that Germany was
8:25descended from the Aryan race who they
8:28conceived as this kind of um supreme
8:31original race of humanity.
8:34And from that uh Adolf Hitler would
8:37expand of course into uh the horrors of
8:40the Holocaust um which affected um so
8:45many different people throughout the
8:47war.
8:49So in this early period however it is
8:51critical to note that the Atlantic
8:53Charter also denounced totalitarianism.
8:56So those racist ideologies of the Nazi
8:59Germany and this positioned the United
9:02States and its allies not just as
9:04defenders of their own national security
9:07but perceived as champions of human
9:09rights and democratic principles.
9:13However,
9:15this outward promotion of democratic
9:18ideals highlighted innate contradictions
9:20with the United States itself. As the
9:23nation prepared to fight fascism abroad,
9:26or these totalitarian governments
9:28abroad,
9:30it still maintained segregation and
9:32racial inequality at home. The very
9:36freedoms that Roosevelt championed were
9:38denied to millions of subjugated
9:40African-Americans. a tension that would
9:43later spark movements uh like the double
9:45V campaign uh double victory which we
9:48will talk more about later in this
9:49lecture.
9:51So it is important for us to recognize
9:53that even at this early state of the
9:54war, African-Ameans heard Roosevelt's
9:58four freedoms as a call to action, not
10:01just overseas, but within their own
10:03country. And African-Americans had long
10:07fought against southern fascistlike
10:09governments. And they recognized
10:11Hitler's persecution of the Jewish
10:14people, for instance, as a mirror of
10:16their own history, a history of
10:18enslavement and lynching and
10:19disenfranchisement
10:21and exclusion from the benefits of
10:23citizenship.
10:27Even before Pearl Harbor,
10:29African-American leaders were demanding
10:31changes in the military and in defense
10:34industries. This shouldn't be any
10:35surprise to us um as they had been
10:37pushing especially for desegregation in
10:41World War I.
10:43In 1938, Charles Hamilton Houston, who's
10:45pictured here on the screen, uh wrote to
10:48the New York Times warning that um black
10:52Americans would not accept being
10:55consigned to menial roles like peeling
10:58potatoes in the next war. And Houston
11:01himself had been a World War I veteran
11:03and was now an attorney for the NAACP.
11:07So his argument absolutely carried
11:10weight here.
11:12And in 1940, a delegation of black
11:14leaders, including Walter White, also
11:16from the NAACP, and a Phip Randolph, who
11:20you might remember from leading strikes
11:22for the Brotherhood of Sleeping
11:24Carporters in the previous weeks. Um
11:27these leaders met with government
11:29officials to demand an end to
11:31segregation in the armed forces.
11:34But despite these efforts, the federal
11:36government and particularly uh President
11:38Roosevelt remained largely unmoved.
11:42Roosevelt's administration rejected
11:44integration outright, claiming that
11:46segregated units had quote proven
11:48satisfactory and that integration would
11:52simply disrupt military morale.
11:55So even when black soldiers were
11:57admitted,
11:59the military refused to commission black
12:02officers aside from medics and chaplain,
12:05shutting them out from leadership
12:07positions in the military.
12:10So this insufficient federal response
12:13sparked outrage in black communities.
12:17Um the Baltimore Afroamerican, a
12:19newspaper, criticized Roosevelt, saying
12:21that quote, "We asked Mr. Roosevelt to
12:24change the rules of the game and he
12:26countered by giving us some new uniforms
12:29as if to say that this was an
12:31insufficient response from the federal
12:34government.
12:35Um, another individual named Charles
12:37Drew. He was a pioneering black
12:39physician who had developed techniques
12:41for storing blood plasma. A brilliant
12:43scientist. He resigned from his role in
12:46the American Red Cross because the
12:48American Red Cross announced that it
12:50would be segregating black and white
12:53blood.
12:55And so when the army uh air corps um was
12:59also rejecting applications of qualified
13:01black students from Howard University,
13:03the NAACP would initiate a lawsuit. So
13:06again, this all to illustrate that there
13:08was massive outcry. But the most
13:11significant action would come from a
13:14Phillip Randolph who announced the
13:16formation of the March on Washington
13:20Movement or the MWM.
13:23In January of 1941,
13:26Philip Randolph called for a march of 50
13:29to 100,000 African-Americans in the
13:32nation's capital to demand equal
13:35opportunity in defense industry. So
13:38equal employments and an end to
13:40segregation in the armed forces. And on
13:43the slide you can see here actually a
13:45pamphlet that was organizing the march
13:47on Washington. And if you can see, it
13:49takes the language from Roosevelt's own
13:51for freedoms speech here, declaring that
13:54black Americans hoped and would act to
13:57be free from want, to be free from fear,
14:01which they described as being free from
14:03the Jim Crow uh laws and society.
14:08And with this uh threat of mass protest,
14:12again, this massive organization,
14:15this forced President Roosevelt's hand,
14:17but only to a degree. Just five days
14:20before the planned march, Roosevelt
14:22issued Executive Order 8802,
14:26which prohibited racial discrimination
14:29in the National Defense Industry and
14:32established the Fair Employment
14:34Practices Commission or the FEPC to
14:37monitor the compliance.
14:40And as a result, Randolph would agree to
14:42cancel the march, but the contradictions
14:44of American democracy remained
14:46unresolved.
14:47The order for instance did not
14:49desegregate the military and the
14:52enforcement of those regulations from
14:54the FEPC was weak and inconsistent.
15:01I want to talk just a little bit about
15:03the United States entry into the war and
15:06this is primarily emerging uh at first
15:09initially from the Pacific theater.
15:13So, Japan um was deeply connected into
15:17the American market, especially for oil.
15:20And so, Japan's need for oil was a
15:22primary factor in their attack on Pearl
15:24Harbor on December 7th, 1941.
15:28Japan's military was dependent on
15:31imported oil, and the United States was
15:34its major supplier.
15:36When the United States cut off those oil
15:38exports to Japan, Japan had to seize
15:41that oil by force. And so the attack was
15:45coordinated by the Imperial Japanese
15:47Navy and left over 2,400 American
15:50servicemen and civilians killed in this
15:53surprise attack on the Pearl Harbor
15:55Island um in Hawaii.
15:59And it left 19 US warships sunk and 188
16:03aircraft destroyed. So the attack on
16:06Pearl Harbor led to the United States
16:08declaring war on Japan and shortly after
16:12Germany and Italy would declare war on
16:15the United States fully involving
16:17America and both the European and
16:19Pacific theaters.
16:22In his speech calling for a declaration
16:24of war, Franklin Delana Roosevelt, the
16:27president, gave his famous day of infamy
16:30speech, saying that Japan had um
16:34uh premeditated this invasion and that
16:37the American people in their righteous
16:40might will win through absolute victory.
16:45But I want to point out that this war
16:47came with many paradoxes and that these
16:49were very clear. The United States was
16:52fighting racism and oppression abroad
16:56while preserving those systems at home.
16:59And for many black Americans, support
17:01for the war effort was therefore not
17:04unconditional.
17:05Some even expressed admiration for
17:07Japan, who had been a non-white nation
17:10challenging Western imperial powers,
17:13while others blamed American racism for
17:15having emboldened the Japanese to attack
17:18in the first place.
17:20uh one black journalist named George
17:22Schuler, he argued that race prejudice
17:25had caused our complacenc.
17:29And so this growing disscent alarmed
17:31government agencies and the FBI and
17:35military intelligence division monitored
17:38black leaders and newspapers fearing
17:41sedition and potential internal
17:43subversion. So they were spying on
17:45American citizens.
17:49In response, black leaders framed their
17:51movement in strategic and often
17:53patriotic terms. And so this is where
17:55the double V or double victory campaign
17:59was born. So victory not just for uh the
18:02war effort abroad, but also victory at
18:05home.
18:07Officially declared in February 1942,
18:10the double V victory argued that
18:12African-Americans could be both
18:14patriotic and also fight the fight for
18:17black rights, arguing that the
18:20principles of democracy were at stake at
18:22home and abroad. a Philip Randolph again
18:26here he wrote in an article that there
18:28was a moral obligation a responsibility
18:33uh a task for black people to fight with
18:36all of their might for their
18:38constitutional democratic rights and
18:40freedoms here in America
18:44through service in the war
18:47modeling behavior to try to organize
18:51further uh benefits for black Americans
18:54returning back from the war. So doing so
18:57would allow black Americans to seize
18:59rights as citizens uh during the
19:01conflict and upon their return home as
19:04they had seen similar uh legal
19:06advancements after World War I.
19:10But some of the most troubling uh
19:12contradictions of World War II lie in
19:14the United States military's treatment
19:16of African-American soldiers. As the
19:19nation was fighting fascism and racism
19:21in Europe and in Japan and in the
19:24Pacific, it subjected its black
19:26servicemen and service women to
19:28institutionalized segregation, to
19:30humiliation, and continued violence at
19:33home and even within its own ranks in
19:36the military.
19:38And despite early demands for equity,
19:40the armed forces remained deeply
19:42segregated for most of the war. And as a
19:46result, black Americans were under
19:48reppresented on draft boards and often
19:50refu received fewer deferments than
19:52their white counterparts. And in early
19:55years of the draft, uh,
19:57African-Americans were largely passed
19:59over entirely. And that would only
20:01change when white soldiers began to
20:04complain about the disproportionate
20:06burden um on white uh drafties as
20:10opposed to those who were denied uh
20:13their ability to join the war effort on
20:15the basis of their race.
20:19So even as they uh would eventually
20:21begin to enter the ranks in greater
20:24numbers, 50 to 75% somewhere in there of
20:28black drafties were relegated to
20:30non-combat or unskilled labor roles.
20:35On the slide here uh is actually a
20:38picture of our famed baseball legend
20:40Jackie Robinson who was among those
20:42black Americans who were actually
20:44drafted into American service.
20:49Despite this marginalization, there were
20:51three major black divisions uh who were
20:54eventually sent into combat. And among
20:56them were the 92nd Infantry Division uh
21:00also known as the Buffalo Soldiers
21:02uh and the famous Tuskegee Airmen who
21:05Captain Luther Smith was a member.
21:08But I want to say that the path to
21:10combat was again riddled with this
21:12discrimination. The Army Air Corps had
21:14initially barred the Tuskegee pilots
21:16from flying missions despite being some
21:18of the most talented pilots uh in the
21:21United States. And only after repeated
21:23pressure and proven training did they
21:26ultimately gain the opportunity to
21:27engage in air combat and even then their
21:31deployment was delayed for 3 years till
21:341944.
21:36Uh, if you want to see a movie actually
21:37about the Tuskegee Airmen, George Lucas,
21:40the director of the Star Wars prequels,
21:42um, directed a passion project called
21:44Red Tales, which is all about the
21:46Tuskegee Airmen. Uh, it's not great, but
21:49it exists if you are interested. Um
21:52meanwhile meanwhile many highly trained
21:55uh black units were again assigned to
21:58menial labor such as unloading cargo or
22:01repairing roads tasks far removed from
22:05the prestige and honor of combat roles.
22:11Discrimination here would also extend
22:13beyond simply the enlisted ranks.
22:16Although the army integrated officer
22:18training camps and commissioned nearly
22:208,000 black officers by August of 1945,
22:24these officers still only made up 1% of
22:28black servicemen. And that's a huge
22:31disparity for military statistics.
22:34So army policy prohibited black officers
22:37from outranking white officers within
22:40the same unit.
22:42And as a result, they were often denied
22:44access to white officers clubs and other
22:47facilities, even if they were paying
22:50dues to be members of those groups,
22:52those community building groups.
22:56In a striking instance, uh there were
22:58actually Italian prisoners of war who
23:00were allowed to sit in front seats at an
23:02army theater in Italy, while black
23:05officers were forced to sit at the back
23:08of the theater. So, prisoners of war
23:10were seated in more preferable seats
23:13simply based on their race than black
23:16servicemen.
23:19Uh, black women also volunteered
23:21throughout the war effort, especially in
23:23the Women's Army Corps or the WAC. Um
23:26but these branches fared no better in
23:29terms of discrimination as most were
23:31relegated to domestic tasks like
23:33cooking, sweeping floors and laundry
23:36despite training and qualifications to
23:39join technical fields.
23:44Physical violence was also a brutal
23:46reality for many black servicemen, not
23:48only in the actual war themselves, but
23:51outside of it. In 1941, the body of
23:55Private Felix Hall, for instance, was
23:57found hanging from a tree at Fort
23:59Benning, Georgia.
24:02Though his hands and feet had been
24:03bound, the War Department did not rule
24:06out suicide.
24:10Elsewhere, white bus drivers and
24:12policemen frequently harassed and
24:14assaulted black soldiers with impunity
24:16in towns that were located near military
24:19bases.
24:21In 1942, uh, one of these white bus
24:24drivers killed a black soldier in
24:26Mobile, uh, Alabama. And that same year,
24:30a black nurse in Montgomery was beaten
24:33and jailed for refusing to give up her
24:35seat on a segregated bus.
24:38In 1943,
24:40white law enforcement in Little Rock,
24:42Arkansas, and Centerville, Mississippi,
24:45uh, killed black soldiers again with
24:47little to no consequences. And in one
24:49case, a sheriff uh a vile individual
24:54reportedly asked and requested more
24:57black men to kill after already shooting
24:59a black serviceman at point blank range.
25:03So all of this to say that there was
25:05massive discrimination for servicemen
25:08despite perhaps even giving their lives
25:10to the United States.
25:14And many families of black servicemen
25:16were ultimately relieved when their sons
25:19were deployed overseas, seeing Europe,
25:22even perhaps wartime Europe, as safer
25:25than the American South.
25:30But faced with the humiliation and
25:31danger of these instances, many black
25:34soldiers uh resisted.
25:36Um some of these examples, I'm going to
25:38share some. at Fort Deans,
25:40Massachusetts, 54 black women uh WAC's,
25:44they came together and staged a strike
25:47to protest their assignment to those
25:49menial tasks. Elsewhere in Prescott,
25:52Arizona, 43 black soldiers went awall or
25:56missing uh to escape harassment by local
25:59whites.
26:01In Port Hunm, uh, California, black
26:04troops staged a hunger strike over
26:06perceived, uh, discrimination within
26:09their own ranks. And in Alexandria, uh,
26:13Louis Louisiana, there was a racialized
26:17um, arrest which sparked a riot which
26:19ultimately left 28 black soldiers shot
26:22and nearly 3,000 individuals arrested,
26:25indicating the expansive nature of this
26:28riot.
26:30And I wanted to just bring up these
26:32different examples to illustrate that
26:34this wasn't just discrimination and
26:36resistance taking place in the deep Jim
26:38Crow South, but this was a nationwide
26:41experience and was met with activism to
26:45push back.
26:48Southern governors uh in turn would
26:50actually demand the removal of black
26:52troops from their states. And one even
26:54suggested removing the firing pins from
26:56uh black soldiers rifles to reduce the
27:00threat of black men who were armed in
27:03these communities.
27:07um and citing the degrading treatment of
27:09black soldiers in uh January of 1942,
27:13Judge William Hasty uh adviser on Negro
27:16Affairs to the Secretary of War, he
27:19resigned in protest. Hasty concluded
27:22that quote, "It is difficult to see how
27:24a negro in this position can accomplish
27:27anything of value." So there were um
27:31many people who were broken down by this
27:33continued uh by these continued
27:36difficulties.
27:38But despite this, over 2 and a half
27:41million African-Americans served in the
27:43military during World War II, combating
27:46both foreign enemies and domestic racism
27:49embedded within the institution which
27:52they served
27:53for the nation that they loved.
27:58World War II brought also the end of the
28:01Great Depression and opened the
28:03industrial economy to millions of
28:05Americans, including black workers who
28:07had long been locked out of meaningful
28:09employment. So over 1 and a half million
28:12African-Americans in this period would
28:14leave the south throughout the 1940s
28:17uh joining the ongoing great migration
28:20which we've talked about in the previous
28:21lectures
28:23and another million would move from
28:26rural to urban areas even just within
28:29the south. So this movement is going to
28:32transform African-Americans from a
28:34mostly rural population into an urban
28:36one almost overnight. And like during
28:40the great migration, there existed push
28:42and pull factors for this relocation.
28:45Some of these push factors included uh
28:48the fact that blacks in the south were
28:50confined to low wage agricultural and
28:54domestic labor. And several states uh
28:57came to implement laws that would arrest
29:00vagrants or black men who were searching
29:02for other work opportunities.
29:06Pole factors included the factory and
29:09war industry boom in cities like
29:12Chicago, Detroit, uh, Detroit, Oakland,
29:16and Los Angeles. So nationwide, uh,
29:18these massive cities whose need for
29:21workers, um, was met by programs like
29:24the War Manpower Commission and programs
29:27at black colleges, uh, who trained and
29:30placed African-Americans in these
29:32skilled defense jobs.
29:35And of the million black workers who
29:37would enter the defense employment here,
29:4060% of that number were women um who are
29:44now called black rosies by historians
29:47named for answering the call of the
29:49Rosie the Riveter campaign which is part
29:51of it is uh here on the screen. um which
29:54hoped to mobilize women to war and
29:57factory work offered freedom from
30:00domestic service in theory and provided
30:03higher wages and a sense of greater
30:05dignity. So one worker remarked that
30:09Hitler was the one that got us out of
30:10the white folks kitchen,
30:13indicating that this was a moment of
30:15opportunity for many black workers in
30:18the United States.
30:21These migrations would come with renewed
30:24racial tension. The rapid influx of
30:27African-Americans into northern and
30:29western cities disrupted established
30:32racial hierarchies leading to outbreaks
30:34of violence in cities across the
30:36country. So one such instance was again
30:39in Detroit in 1943 which was sparked by
30:42tensions over housing and jobs. Uh, and
30:46this was a fight on Bell Isle Bridge
30:48which led to three days of chaos. 34
30:51people died. Over 1,900 were arrested.
30:54These are massive, massive race riots
30:58that are occurring in these situations.
31:03Federal troops would intervene, but not
31:05before 2 million in property million
31:08dollars in property damage was
31:10reportedly caused. Elsewhere in the
31:12south in Bowmont, Texas 1943, there was
31:15a rumor about a black man uh who was
31:18claim who um was the allegation was that
31:21he had raped a white woman and this
31:23sparked a white mob of 2 to 3,000
31:25individuals who went and looted black
31:28homes. They burned property and beat
31:31pedestrians.
31:33more local to us in Los Angeles 1943
31:36there were the zoot suit riots where uh
31:39primarily uh white sailors were
31:41attacking um black and latino men for
31:44wearing what were called zoot suits and
31:46this is a bit of a weird one. The zoots
31:49suit was a style of clothing um of baggy
31:52pants, long wide coats and was
31:56associated as a symbol of defiance
31:59uh tied to a perceived waste of fabric
32:01which was being rationed during the war.
32:04Um and those who were seen wearing those
32:08uh zoot suits during this riot
32:11were often attacked in Los Angeles, the
32:13zootsuit riots. And similar unrest would
32:16occur in Chicago, Philadelphia, San
32:18Diego, and Long Beach. Again, showing
32:21just the massive scale of these
32:23conflicts.
32:26So, while World War II brought new
32:28opportunities into the workplace, there
32:30was also discrimination in the process
32:33of joining the workplace, from hiring to
32:36job placement to workplace treatment,
32:38which remained rampant. Um,
32:41African-Americans as a result organized
32:44to fight back. White workers and
32:47supervisors had often harassed or
32:49protested black promotions. Um, such as
32:52at Packard Motor Car Company where
32:5420,000 white workers walked off the job
32:56together to uh protest the promotion of
32:59only three black men. And at the Dodge
33:03uh plant um again, so in these uh um
33:07automobile plants, 350 white workers
33:11shut down operations after 23 black
33:13employees were upgraded from unskilled
33:16to skilled roles, those that would pay
33:18more.
33:21Um, executive order 8802, which again
33:24was issued after a Phip Randolph's march
33:26on Washington after the threat of this
33:29protest movement, had created the Fair
33:31Employment Practices Commission, but it
33:34was poorly funded and it lacked
33:36enforcement power in its state mission
33:38to prohibit this discrimination in the
33:40defense uh industry.
33:43And so as a result, African-Americans
33:45joined unions,
33:47especially the Congress of Industrial
33:49Organizations or CIO in large numbers.
33:53And by 1943, over 400,000 black workers
33:56were union members.
33:59Um, and these unions uh would work
34:01together to try to support black civil
34:04rights.
34:06Um in the south and in the west however
34:10unions in this period would often uphold
34:13segregation.
34:14Um
34:16as one union rep uh in Dallas, Texas
34:19argued here in Texas there shall be no
34:22social equality whether in the union or
34:25outside of it. So, it's a continuous tug
34:29and push, a pull to try to bring the
34:33workplace uh outside of these
34:36discriminatory policies.
34:41Despite the growing black population in
34:42the North and West, many
34:44African-Americans in the South remained
34:46disenfranchised during the war years.
34:49And Jim Crow laws in the South made
34:51continued use of literacy tests, pole
34:53taxes, white primaries, grandfather
34:56clauses, voter intimidation, all these
34:58things we've talked about for the last
34:59few weeks. Um, fearing the consequences
35:04of full black political participation.
35:07And there was one particular senator in
35:09Mississippi. His name was Senator
35:11Theodore Bilbo, who openly encouraged
35:14the illegal suppression of the black
35:16vote, insinuating violent means.
35:21Blacks meanwhile viewed the vote as tied
35:23to economic security and said that as as
35:26one of them um said in this period, one
35:29of these representatives said that
35:31politics is food, clothing, and housing,
35:35indicating that politics was the key to
35:38being able to put in representatives who
35:40would enforce
35:42um more beneficial terms for black
35:45America.
35:48And the war was a turning point then for
35:50black political engagement, particularly
35:53after the landmark Supreme Court
35:55decision in Smith versus Al-Right 1944,
35:59which outlied outlawed those all-white
36:02Democratic primaries in Texas and marked
36:05a legal revolution in voting rights,
36:07sparking the formation of the National
36:10Progressive Voters League, which was
36:12aimed at black voter mobilization. So,
36:15you're starting to see some of these
36:16shifts.
36:18And at the same time, returning black
36:20soldiers uh coming back from the war,
36:23now empowered by their service, insisted
36:26on voting rights and and equality.
36:29Um
36:31despite this, returning black soldiers
36:34uh were often met with violence by white
36:37supremacists
36:38um as some veterans were shot when
36:41attempting to register to vote. Um there
36:44were race riots which would lead to mass
36:46arrests and further deaths. Um and white
36:51mobs would just work to again continue
36:55uh lynchings um between 1940 and 1946
37:00where at least another 28 were
37:02documented um often targeting
37:04politically active black citizens.
37:09So,
37:10while World War II is going to spark
37:12these profound shifts in black identity,
37:15expression, and solidarity, and even lay
37:17the foundations for the civil rights and
37:19black power movements, this is also just
37:21a period of contradictions.
37:26Voter registration after the war would
37:28triple in the South between 1940 and
37:301946. And in a particularly incredible
37:33moment of mobilization, over 200 black
37:36witnesses would appear during the
37:38Senate's investigation into Senator
37:41Theodore Bilbo's suppression tactics. So
37:44over 200 black witnesses would go to
37:46court to speak out against that senator
37:50who had argued for those illegal means
37:52to suppress the black vote.
37:55So through this shift and these renewed
37:58voices of protest and solidarity, the
38:00war's end would bring increased pressure
38:03to address those institutionalized
38:05racism in the military and to ensure
38:08equitable access to post-war benefits.
38:11And we're going to talk about the
38:12post-war period in next week's lecture.
38:17All right.

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