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Similarities
- Experience of war radicalised AAs, seeing no segregation in Europe and treated as heroes in Paris
- Still treated badly in segregated regiments, given the worst equipment and training
- Hypocrisy of fighting for freedom when they didn't have it at home, adopted double V sign
- Also changed minds of white people upon seeing how brave they were e.g. Tuskgee Airmen's skilled job
- Also economic change and urbanisation as by the end of war 48% AAs in the North
- Black social change first advocated by Du Bois, aimed to end segregation through Niagara Movement (1905) and later NAACP (1909)
- Similar Northern migration seen in WW1, 500,000s AA moved to fill production boom
- Many also served in WW1 and witnessed the less racist society in France, assertiveness encouraged in black newspapers
- Similar to the end of WW2, race riots over blacks taking white jobs- but AAs fought back, no longer willing to accept racism, 'a new ***** to be reckoned with'
- Garvey promoted a similar pride in encouraging Pan-Africanism and the Harlem Renaissance celebrating AA culture
- As a result of new black militancy, NAACP using Supreme Court to create de jure change e.g. Brown vs. Board 1954, and then testing it de facto with Little Rock in 1957
- Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s combining legal fight of NAACP with grass roots activism of groups like CORE, SNCC, SCLC with the Montgomery Bus Boycott 1956, Greensboro Sit-ins 1960s, Freedom Rides 1961, Birmingham 1963
- Peaceful protest of MLK similarly increased white support, with 20% of the crowd at the March on Washington 1963 being white
- Malcolm X advocated a similar emphasis on black cultural pride and unity, arguing that AAs should 'defend themselves by any means necessary'
- Black Power a celebration of black heritage and culture, trying to improve economic and social rights in Northern ghettos and end police violence
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Differences
- Stark contrast from beginning of period, where 90% AAs still in South and under control white Southerners as sharecroppers
- Faced extreme violence e.g. from KKK who lynched 2000 AAs in 1868 alone
- Change from Booker T. Washington's approach, who promoted economic hard work but acceptance of white superiority
- In WW1 received less credit from white people, with rumours that they ran away and white soldiers trying to turn French ones against AAs
- During New Deal, AAs often not given jobs in preference to white people, New Deal organisation (CCC, TVA) often segregated, poor sharecroppers in South worse off
- Lack of unity between North and South, as North didn't respond as well to MLK's campaigns for non-violence e.g. in Chicago 1966 and Memphis 1968
- The violent image of the Black Panthers decreased white support, especially as groups like SNCC and CORE began to exclude white members
- By 1980s-90s AAs still oppressed, with 30% in deep poverty, growth of illegal drug market, disproportionate prison population and 43% of aid recipients
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Overall comparison
WW2 was a turning point for attitudes of AAs themselves in increasing pride and militancy to demand equal right, as well as expanding economic opportunities. This expanded to the Civil Rights campaigns of the 1960s, as well as influencing the black pride advocated in Black Power. It showed a stark change from the beginning of the period, when the majority of AAs lived in the South under oppressive Jim Crow laws. However, in the 1980s-1990s and even today, AAs were still among some of the poorest, with white attitudes clearly not changing that much with a rise of Neo-Conservatism.
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