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BLACK AMERIC A N S
"Howshouldw e punishHitler ?"Jreporter as keda
yo ungAmer icanblackgi rl to w ard sth e en dofthe
SecondWorldWar."Painthi mblac kand b ringhi m
overher e. "W;lSh erb itter re p ly .It wasth e resultof
being treat ed as asecond-classhuman being -.o f
being toldno .youcan'tattend rhis school,hav ethis
job.livein this h ou se. sit o n this parkbench .Andthe
reason?Becau seyoursk in is black.
Theofficialtermfo r 3 11 this wassegregation- thatis.
separating blacksfromth e restofthecomm un ityand
refusingth emm an yof'thc righ ts enjoyedbyother
people.
In19-1 0 tellm illion of rhccount ry'stotalblack
populationofthincellmillionsrilllive dIIIthe
southe rn UnitedStares.mostofrhcmIIIgreat
p o ve rt y.B y 1970th e situationhadchanged. The
country 'sto talb lackpopulationwasn o wabour
twenty-fourm illionandtwelvem illionlivedo ut side
theSouth.mosrofth eminbignorthernin dustrial
cities.Am assmigr ati o nh adtak enplace.Morethan
- 5m illion so ut he rnb lackshad caug htb usesand
tr am stothe Northand to California.
T h ebigattractionforth e migr ant sw aswell-paid
JobsIIIthefactoriesofcitieslikeChicago, Pittsburgh
and Det roi t.Butth erew asanot her ,Takingth e road
north orwestpromised an escapeno tjust fro m
poverty.butfromthe mise riesandh u miliatio nso f
segr egationwhichwereapartofeverysouthern
black's d ailylife. As o neblackm igrantw ro te," I
d o n 't carew hereso longasIgowherea man isa
!ll an ."
D ur ing th e SecondWorldW.ar,segregatio nstar ted
tobr eakdown,at leastoutsid etheSouth. Black
w o rkersearnedm or emOlley th aneverbefore
workingalongsidewhitesin thebusywartime
factories.Blackserv icemenn o to nlyfoughtandd ied ,
butateandslept alongsidetheirwhitefellow
countrymen."One th i ngis certa in , "wrotean
obser ve rin1946,"thed ays of tr eatingn egroeslike
sheeparc d o newithfended). "
' 11 1eblackstruggle forequal rrca rmc n rb ecame
knownas the Civ il Righ tsm ovement .A n impo rtant
legalturlllng pointca rnein 1954.Ina casecalled
112
B lackAmericansatwar
In 1940 theAmericanarmyhadonlytwoblack
officers. T h enavyhadnone .ThatSeptember th e
U nitedStatesbegantodraftyoung men mrothe
armedforces.Beforethis,fewerthan4,000b lac ks
wereservingin theAmerican.army,Mostwere in
supportunits-diggin gditches, load ing and un-
loadingshipsand trucks,servin gfood,Manyof
th e youngblack recruits objected to this. "We
wanttobesoldier s.notser vants;"they said.
Theentire black co m m un ity su ppo rt ed the re-
cruits. So did many whites, mcluding Eleanor
Ro o sevel t.thewifeofthePresident.Thesystem
waschanged.O n DecemberI ,1941,theAmerican
.armyand airforceopenedalltyp esofpositionsto
q u alifiedblacks.Sixmonthslaterth enavyandthe
marinecorpsd idthe sa me.
D ur in g th e SecondWorldWarblackcombatunits
fough t inbothEuropeandthePacific.Oneblack
un i t inparticularwongreat admiration.Thiswas
th e 332nd Fighter Group ofth e Unite d States
Army AirForce. In the skiesaboveFr an ceand
German yitspilotsdestroyed 261 enemyaircra ft
an d walla to tal of 90 4 medals for braver y. In
Mar ch1945, the whole grou p was awarded a
Distingu ish edUnit Cita tio n.
T he 332n d Groupcametosymbolize the stru gg le
ofallblacks for equality. Its war time ach ieve -
m ent shel ped to endsegregatio ninth eAmer ican
ar med fo rces. InJuly 194 H, P res ident Tru ma n
ordered "equal ity oftreatment ando pp o rt u nity
for all per son s intheArmed Forcesw ithou tregard
to race.color,relig io n or natio nalorigin. "RW II' IIv, T QPI'k<lthe Su prem eCou rtdeclaredthat
segregatedsc hools wereillegal andorderedth at black
childrenshouldbe allowe d toarrend.anyschool as
p upils. In September 1957 , blackch ild rentriedto
enrolat the previ ou slyallw h ite high scho o l in Little
R ock ,A rkan sas. An angry mobgathe redtoprevent
them .President Eisenhower senttroopstoenforce
th e Supreme:C ourtd ecisio nof 1954 and thech ild re n