African americans and the second world war

• How many Black African American men joined the armed forces during the Second World War?

  1M
• How much did Black African Americans wages increase by during the Second World War?

  doubled
• 400,000 African Americans migrated from the south to north to work for the war effort
• In June 1941, FDR signed Executive Order 8802 which ordered employers to do what?

  if they were supplying the war effort, their workplace had to end discrimination
• Why did the War sow the seeds for the Black Civil Rights movements of the 1950s?

  the US army were fighting against Nazi racist beliefs and it was therefore hypocritical for the US government to approve these beliefs at home
• By 1944, African American soldiers were fighting in combat units and there were hundreds of Black officers in the Army
• In 1948, President Truman signed Executive order 9981 this declared there should be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed forces without regards to race ,colour, religion or national origin
• There was still discrimination and prejudice in the work place. Black African Americans earnt up to 1/2 the wage of white workers
• How many white workers walked out of work when employers followed Executive Order 8802 and 3 African Americans had their jobs upgraded?


  3000
• Where did the most famous race riot take place in 1943?

  detroit
• African American women were only allowed to tend African American soldiers
• At the beginning of the war, Black soldiers served in African American only units black people were their officers
• Up to 1944, Black African American US Marines were only allowed to do what?


  transport supplies, cook or labourers
• Discrimination was worse in the Navy. It was only African American soldiers who did what job?

  load dangerous ammunition onto ships
• Poor workers, both black and white, caused racial tension and race riots occurred in how many cities?

  47