RACE RELATIONS DURING WW2
The Selective Service Act of 1940 officially banned discrimination in the selection and training of military personnel, yet discrimination and segregation in enlistment, advancement, training, and assignments were still exhibited towards African Americans on the warfront. Many African American soldiers wrote in large numbers to the war department and African-American newspapers to expose their struggles as black men on the warfront. This particular letter was written on June 26, 1943 by an African American officer whose name is unknown; written to the president of Afro-American Newspapers, the officer tells him that he believes African American soldiers have not yet been accepted as a “definite part of the fighting machine.”
The African American officer explains that even though the War Department laws have been set and granting equal treatment to all African Americans in combat, almost none of them are being upheld. There is intense segregation within the army such as signs referring to race being hung up even though they are in direct violation of regulations. Efforts are being made to purposely degrade the African American soldiers to a sort of civilian like status. Other soldiers seemed to be scared to accept African troops as one of their own, and this only further divided the fighting machine.
The author of the letter then asks an important question in the letter, how can an "officer sworn to uphold and defend the principles of this democracy, were being denied the very thing you are and asking them to lay down their life for?" Soldiers lay their life in a war, fighting for the principles of another country yet their own country denies them the very "principle of “Liberty and justice for all”. What the officer finds most sad of all is that although he has worked hard to gain the right to become a commissioned officer of the United States Army, he is denied the rights and privileges of an officer.
Laws were established in 1940 to grant equal treatment of African American soldiers during war, but many were ignored. The denying of these basic rights to the soldiers lowered their morale and only divided the troops from within, making the war effort even harder. The acceptance of African American soldiers was an inscribed fear in their mentality that became dificult to remove or change.
