7) African-Americans in the north and south

• Impact of the Second World War on black Americans

  • Many migrated from the South to work in defence industries in the North and on the West Coast
  • Freed from de jure segregation and concentrated in urban areas, they gained greater political power and community consciousness
  • Many black veterans gained increased opportunities through the GI Bill of Rights
  • Black and whites had to live and work in closer proximity under pressure of war, leading to conflict and greater black consciousness
• Membership in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) had risen from 50,000 to 450,000 during the war
• When black labour leader A. Philip Randolph had threatened to bring Washington DC to a standstill unless President Roosevelt promoted greater equality in the armed forces and the workplace, Roosevelt had responded with the Fair Employment Practices Commission (1941)
• Campaigns for civil rights in the Truman years

  • The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), established in 1942 by James Farmer, organised wartime sit-ins and a 'Journey of Reconciliation' in 1947
  • The NAACP focused on litigation to erode Plessy v. Ferguson and won Supreme Court victories against segregation
• Responses of the federal and state authorities

  • President Truman put civil rights on the national political agenda, repeatedly requesting civil rights legislation from Congress, establishing the liberal committee on civil rights, issuing executive orders to end discrimination in the armed forces and guarantee fair employment in the federal bureaucracy, and establishing the Committee on Government Contract Compliance
  • The Supreme Court helped black Americans through rulings that eroded the constitutional foundations of Jim Crow, but had no powers of enforcement and Congress refused to help make the ruling a reality
  • State and local government proved helpful or unhelpful, depending upon location and local circumstances, with the Deep South states remaining adamantly opposed to improvements in black lives