Hello readers. It's been quite a while since I last wrote and published a blog post. Without going into too much detail, I've recently made some career changes and have been going through some stuff in my personal life, but I'm back and ready to continue writing about American history!
As a primarily social historian who utilizes the bottom-up approach, I believe in the importance of everyone's story being told and in the importance of highlighting the commonalities and differences each group faced in a given period. This post will examine the experiences of Black Identifying People of Color (BIPOC) during the World War II era.
African Americans served in every theater of World War II while struggling with segregation and other civil rights issues at home and abroad. In 1941, fewer than 4, 000 African Americans were serving in the US armed forces, but by 1945 more than 1.2 million African Americans would be serving in every branch of the armed forces.
During the war years, the segregation practices that plagued the civilian lives of African Americans on the home front would spill into military life as well. The draft was segregated, and BIPOC recruits were more often than not passed over by the all-white draft boards. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, NAACP, pressured President Roosevelt to pledge that BIPOC would be enlisted according to their percentage of the population; because of this, BIPOC enlistment increased during the war.
Initially, BIPOC serving at the beginning of the US's involvement in the war were assigned to non-combat units and served in support roles such as supply, maintenance, and transportation; these non-combat support roles were vital to the war effort. As troop losses increased, the military was forced to place more BIPOC troops in positions as infantrymen, pilots, tankers, medics, and officers.
During the D-Day Invasion, the First Army on Omaha and Utah Beaches included 1,700 BIPOC troops. The 1,700 BIPOC troops included a section of the 327th Quartermaster Service Company and the 320th Anti-Aircraft Barrage Balloon Battalion, which protected troops from aerial attacks; the all-black 761st Tank Battalion fought with Patton's Third Army, spending 183 days in combat and capturing 30 major towns and cities in France, Belgium, and Germany.
The Tuskegee Airmen
The US Army Air Force established several BIPOC fighter and bomber groups, including the famous Tuskegee Airmen of the 332nd Fighter Group, which became part of the 15th Air Force.
The Tuskegee Airmen flew ground support missions over Anzio and escorted bombers on missions over Southern Italy. The Tuskegee Airmen flew more than 15,000 sorties between May 1943 and June 1945.
Jackie Robinson
Before he became famous for breaking baseball's color barrier upon being signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers, Jackie Robinson served in WWII...and in 1944, a then-25-year-old Lieutenant Jackie Robinson would be court martialed for refusing to give up his bus seat in the Jim Crow South.
In a 1984 article for American Heritage Magazine, author Jules Tygiel (who wrote Baseball's Greatest Experience--Jackie Robinson and His Legacy) wrote about Robinson's court martial.
On July 25, 1944 Jackie Robinson boarded an Army bus at Fort Hood, Texas with the light-skinned wife of a fellow black officer. Robinson and the officer's wife were talking amicably and sat together on the bus; the bus driver, seeing a black man and a woman who appeared to be white, yelled to Robinson to move to the back of the bus. Robinson ignored the driver's order, which would lead directly to his court martial.
Robinson was to go overseas with his battalion, the 761st Tank Battalion, but was on limited service due to an old ankle injury. Robinson had to get his ankle examined before getting approval to go overseas. The medical exam took place at a hospital 30 miles away from Fort Hood; while waiting for the results, he got a pass to visit his battalion but discovered they were out on maneuvers, so he went to the officers' club where he met Mrs. Gordon H. Jones, the wife of another black lieutenant. Mrs. Jones lived on the way to the hospital where Robinson had to go, so they boarded the bus together.
Military buses, and Army posts in general, were desegregated at the time Robinson was ordered to, and refused to, move to the back of the bus. Robinson told this to the driver and he backed down until they reached the end of the line. While Robinson and Mrs. Jones waited for a second bus, two military policemen arrived on the scene and suggested that Robinson explain the situation to the provost marshal; Robinson was taken to military police headquarters where he was met with hostility and blatant racism. He was questioned about the incident and the MPs who were present said Robinson had an attitude; they questioned done if the white passengers on the bus and at the bus station but they refused to question Mrs. Jones about her version of events. Robinson was charged with insubordination, disturbing the peace, drunkenness, conduct unbecoming of an officer, insulting a civilian woman, and refusing to obey the lawful orders of an officer.
Robinson's court martial took place on August 2, 1944. After deliberating, the nine judges found Jackie Robinson not guilty of all the charges that were brought up against him, and in 1946 he would go on to join the Brooklyn Dodgers, integrating the team.
Racial Struggles at Home
After WWII officially came to its end in September 1945, BIPOC soldiers returned home and faced racial discrimination, sometimes in the form of angry white mobs who viewed the returning GIs as a threat to the social order they had grown accustomed to under the Jim Crow segregation laws.
Not only were BIPOC soldiers met with violent acts of racial bigotry, BIPOC servicemen and women were often denied benefits guaranteed under the GI Bill that their white counterparts received, such as low interest mortgage rates on houses, tuition assistance for college and trade schools, job placement, and more. BIPOC veterans and civil rights organizations such as the NAACP protested the racial disparities experienced by BIPOC servicemen and women in utilizing the GI Bill's benefits.
According to Erin Blakemore, a journalist writing for history.com, "The original GI Bill ended in July 1956. By that time, nearly 8 million World War II veterans had received education or training...But most Black veterans had been left behind."
African Americans served in every military branch and every theater during WWI, and faced discrimination abroad and on the homefront that would help to move the civil rights movement forward in later years.
Next time on the blog, we'll examine various acts of espionage during WWII.
