members today and ask full support for the war in the
light of the atmosphere the government has created.”
Many black newspaper editors were so critical of the
administration that conservatives demanded they be
indicted for sedition.
Roosevelt would have none of that, but the mili-
tants annoyed him; he felt that they should hold their
demands in abeyance until the war had been won.
Apparently he failed to realize the depth of black
anger, and in this he was no different from the major-
ity of whites. A revolution was in the making, yet in
1942 a poll revealed that a solid majority of whites
still believed that black Americans were satisfied with
their place in society. The riots of 1943 undoubtedly
disabused some of them of this illusion.
Concern about national unity did lead to a reac-
tion against the New Deal policy of encouraging
Indians to preserve their ancient cultures and
develop self-governing communities. There was even
talk of going back to the allotment system and trying
to assimilate Indians into the larger society. John
Collier resigned as commissioner of Indian affairs in
disgust in 1945. In fact, the war encouraged assimila-
tion in several ways. More than 24,000 Indians
served in the armed forces, an experience that
brought them into contact with new people, new
places, and new ideas. Many thousands more left the
reservations to work in defense industries in cities all
over the country.
Randolph,Why Should We Marchat
http://www.myhistorylab.com
The desegregation of the military and blacks in
combatatwww.myhistorylab.comThe Treatment of German and Italian Americans
Although World War II affected the American peo-
ple far more drastically than had World War I, it pro-
duced much less intolerance and fewer examples of
the repression of individual freedom of opinion.
People seemed able to distinguish between Italian
fascism and Italian Americans and between the gov-
ernment of Nazi Germany and Americans of
German descent in a way that had escaped their par-
ents. The fact that few Italian Americans admired
Mussolini and that nearly all German Americans
were vigorously anti-Nazi helps explain this. So does
the fact that both groups were well-organized and
prepared to use their considerable political power if
necessary to protect themselves from abuse.
Nevertheless, U.S. military authorities arrested
some 14,000 Germans and Italians as security risks.
Americans went to war in 1941 without illusions
and without enthusiasm, determined to win butWatchtheVideoReadtheDocumentfedoras, long coats, and pegged trousers. “Zoot suit-
ers” tended to have money in their pockets, and their
behavior (like their costume) was not always as circum-
spect as many local residents would have preferred. A
grand jury undertook an investigation, and the Los
Angeles City Council even debated banning the wear-
ing of zoot suits. In 1943 rioting broke out when
sailors on shore leave, apparently resenting these pros-
perous-appearing “foreign” civilians, began roaming
the area attacking anyone they could find in a zoot suit.
The willingness of white leaders to tolerate attacks
on blacks and Hispanics at a time when national unity
was so necessary was particularly frustrating. For
example, blood plasma from blacks and whites was
kept separately even though the two “varieties” were
indistinguishable and the process of storing plasma
had been devised by a black doctor, Charles Drew.
Blacks became increasingly embittered. Roy
Wilkins, head of the NAACP, put it this way in 1942:
“No Negro leader with a constituency can face his
The Treatment of German and Italian Americans 719In 2007 acclaimed filmmaker Ken Burns released a documentary on
World War II. It triggered an angry response from Hispanic
Americans who claimed that their role had been ignored. Arnold
Garcia, an editor for the American Statesmanof Austin, Texas,
published a Memorial Day tribute to Hispanic servicemen, including
his father, Arnulfo Garcia, pictured here, who was inducted into the
U.S. Army in 1944. Arnold Garcia wrote that his father had regarded
World War II as the “best thing” that had ever happened to him
because it had conferred the rights and respect other Americans
took for granted. “The Struggle for Latino civil rights was every bit as
epic—albeit not as bloody—as World War II,” Arnold Garcia wrote.