Race in the United States: the 1940s

Race relations within the United States in the United States did improved, because of African Americans’ war efforts. This was because all of the African American fighting in the army were fighting for the United States, together with the whites, and the whole cause of the war was because a massive racism against the Jewish people in Europe, which made people wonder at why they were fighting against racism in Europe if they had it back in the United States. Besides this, many in the United States who fought against the fascist governments in Europe felt the equality that was given to them from the Europeans, but when they came back, they wondered why they fought for something that they did not receive back home.
Black soldiers were sent to war during World War two, and most of them went willingly. Most of them did this to try and ear respect from their white “superiors” by going to fight and perhaps earn an equal standing with the whites. This was not seen, though. For example, Joe Louis, a famous African American boxer joined the army in 1942. The newspaper The New York Amsterdam News depicted Joe serving impeccably dressed white men with the caption of “Why Joe Joined the Army!” This clearly shows how African Americans were treated within the army. This depiction also gives Americans a clear view of the segregation in the army, although they are fighting for the same thing: release the Europeans from the Nazi leader, Hitler. Another example of this, given by Mrs. Charles H. Puryear’s brother, was that when the white lieutenant had Italian prisoners, he wanted the black soldiers to give up their seats to them. He then wonders if one of the Nazi officers would make some of his soldiers give up their seats for prisoners. This sho...

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...ackground, according to these documents. Based on the evidence from the documents, the narrator would probably think that the United States was despotic because it fulfills all of the criteria to be so.

Works Cited

Eric Foner, The Story of American Freedom, (New York: W.W. Norton & Company Ltd., 1999), 600.
Mrs. Charles H. Puryear, "Letter to the Crisis, 1945," Freedom on My Mind, ed. Deborah Gray White, Mia Bay, Waldo E. Martin, Jr. (Boston: Bedford's/St. Martin's, 2013), 587.
Private First Class Gladys O. Thomas-Anderson, “The 6888th Postal Battalion, 1944-1946,” Freedom on My Mind, ed. Deborah Gray White, Mia Bay, Waldo E. Martin Jr. (Boston: Bedford’s/St. Martin’s, 2013), 589-590.
Encyclopedia Britannica Films, Inc., Despotism: An Erpi Classroom Film, Web Video. Produced by Encylopedia Britannica Films, Inc., Harold D. Lasswell. (United States: 1946)