How did the lives of black Americans change during the period 1900 – 1945?

Woodrow Wilson had great difficulty in persuading the USA to join the First World War. When he succeeded in 1917, he asked for war on Germany to be declared so that ‘The world must be made safe for democracy.’

At first the black community was not keen to respond, after all how could they support a war for democracy when they did not enjoy civil rights at home? However, Du Bois argued that blacks and whites should be united in support of the USA and there were many blacks amongst the first volunteers.

A total of 380,000 black Americans joined the US Army. Most were used in a support capacity e.g. digging trenches, but more than 40,000 saw combat.

The army and navy were segregated. Blacks fought in black units. Very few were allowed to become officers.

In France, the black units were sent to fight with the French Army which was used to fighting with its own colonial troops. Many fought bravely, and by 11/11/1918 more than 5000 had been wounded and 750 killed.

Returning black soldiers were not welcomed home as heroes. A wave of lynching and violence swept the USA. Whites feared that returning blacks would demand equality and decided to stop them from ‘stepping out of their place.’

Some of the first victims were discharged black soldiers still in their uniforms. Race riots took place in more than 20 cities in 1919-1920. In Washington DC, 39 blacks and whites were killed in street fighting on 19th-20th July 1919.

On the home front, the First World War had a more profound effect on the lives of black Americans. Immigration to the USA slowed in the war and there was a need for more industrial workers, especially in the northern states.

Many black Americans saw the war as an opportunity to get out of the Jim Crow South. This was known as the Great Migration and was the largest movement of people internally in the USA. Over 1.25 million moved north before the Depression hit in 1929.

Parts of the South were severely depopulated e.g. Alabama lost 100,000 by 1920. In contrast the northern cities developed huge black communities. Detroit’s black population increased by 611% between 1910-1930.

In 1915 the Ku Klux Klan was revived. This was partly due to a Hollywood epic ‘The birth of a nation’ which showed the Klan as heroes. The new Klan widened its scope to target any group deemed ‘un-American’ – thus immigrants, Jews and Roman Catholics were to be new victims of oppression,

The Klan’s popularity grew rapidly in the North and mid-West as well as the South. In 1924 the KKK had 4 million members.

However, this was its peak and by the later 1920s KKK membership had fallen to 45,000 as state laws began to clamp down on wearing masks and gatherings for rituals.

Traditionally, those black Americans that had kept the right to vote, voted for the Republicans – the party of the ‘Great Emancipator’ Abraham Lincoln. This shifted to the Democrats under Franklin Roosevelt.

After the Wall St Crash of 1929, the USA was plunged into Depression. To get the country back on its feet, Roosevelt proposed a package known as the New Deal. Its economic benefits were distributed equally to blacks and whites. Many blacks were impressed enough to switch allegiance to the Democrats.

Roosevelt went further and created the Civil Rights Division in 1938. This was a government agency to aid Southern blacks to gain integration. It became an ally of the NAACPin using the legal system to change things.

Although the Democrats became more popular with blacks, they did this by improving black economics rather than supporting civil rights. Roosevelt’s support was based on the Northern liberals and the traditional white Southern voters. His problem was keeping these groups together. Black voters were not nearly enough to disregard the white voters.

When the USA joined the Second World War in 1941, it did so to fight fascism, anti-Semitism and racism. Many blacks believed that fighting abroad would give them the platform to improve civil rights at home.

Black activists campaigned for the ‘Double-V’ : victory abroad and victory at home. Under pressure, Roosevelt signed Executive Order 8802 which prohibited discriminatory working practices in Federal agencies or unions or any company involved in war-work. This was overseen by the Fair Employment Practice Commission. Over 2 million blacks were affected by this.

By 1944 there were 701,678 blacks in the US Army. Black pilots were trained at Tuskegee and black units were the first to enter Dachau and Buchenwald concentration camps.

Despite all the changes from 1914-1945, blacks who had fought and died in two world wars were still second-class citizens in the USA.