African Americans - WWII

World War II invigorated the civil rights movement, galvanizing black people who during the Great Depression had developed a greater awareness of their potential political influence. During the 1930s many blacks had switched their political affiliation from the Republican Party, 'the party of Lincoln' that had freed the slaves, to the Democratic Party, and in 1936 had voted for Franklin Delano Roosevelt to show support for his New Deal programs. WWII arguably brought about more extensive change for African-Americans but there were still continuities and in some cases WWII had a significant negative effect on black people.

Political

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The Fair Employment Act of 1941 promoted equality in employment and set up the Fair Employment Practise Committee to investigate discrimination in employment, but it didn’t have much impact and was often ignored. However, this did shown that the government were willing to use laws to African-Americans

No political changes were made to protect African-American's right to vote. In 1947, only 12% of African Americans were registered to vote. This was an increase from 2% in 1940 which does show the gaining awareness of people but perhaps the increase in these numbers can be put down to people moving north and escaping the Jim Crow Laws which made voting incredibly difficult. WWII did definitely contribute to the Great Migration but still politically little progress was made in terms of voting

Executive Order 8802 was signed in June 1941 and also set out to stop discrimination in employment, but this was limited to government industries. Nevertheless, it was extremely significant and that area and historians see this law as a turning point as it also sets a precedent for Presidents to directly intervene in the Civil Rights Movement

African Americans also still had little political representation. By 1947, there were only 2 African American Congressmen out of 535, which was 0.37%

CORE was founded in 1942 by James Farmer. This was a very important umbrella organisation which not only unified people supporting rights but it went on to be a very important group who led the freedom rides

A. Philip Randolph, president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, informed Roosevelt that 100,000 African Americans would march in Washington, D.C., to protest about discrimination in defence industries. Roosevelt averted the protest by signing Executive Order 8802. This was of massive importance for African-American Activists as it not only secured the protection against discrimination which they needed but laid the foundations for future decades of success as it showed the value of activism in securing rights

Due to an ideological change which the war brought membership in the NAACP to swell tenfold to 500,000. This gave the organisation far greater power and support, along with showing the gaining consensus that Civil Rights needed to be obtained

Military

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Negative

Black and white soldiers were seen as equal when it came to being on the front line and by working together they realised the value in each other. A…