Transcripts For CSPAN2 Racism 20240706

Welcome to tcu. Welcome to the annual Lance Corporal benjamin w schmitz symposium on war. Conflict and society. My name is kara dixon and im the Lance Corporal Benjamin W Schmidt. Professor here in the history department. Its my honor to welcome you here tonight. Whether you are in this building with us or joining us from home or your campus via cspans American History tv, the Lance Corporal Benjamin W Schmidt symposium on war. Conflict and society is an annual series which we consider the experiences and consequences of wars and conflicts in various times and places. It is named in memory of Benjamin Whetstone schmidt, a former tcu student and marine scout sniper who died in afghanistan in october 2011. Benjamin history. And it is our honor to have this opportunity to further love of history and to consider cost of war. In an annual symposium that we hold in his memory. We thank those who make this symposium possible most especially dr. David and theresa schmidt. And we thank the society for military, as well as tcus department history. The adrienne college of liberal and the comparative race ethnic studies. We also thank leslie makinson and stacy tyson, all of their work that makes this symposium tonight, we focus our study of wars experiences, consequences and costs on world two by most any measurable tally, the war brought more destruction than the world has ever seen. It touched all corners of the globe impacting the lives of the powerful, the powerless in equal measure. Here at tcu, the university altered, the academic calendar to facilitate speedy graduations, those who would go on to wartime service. And it welcomed Training Programs for Navy Officers and military chaplain is the school of nursing enrollment boomed after the government created the cadet nursing program, which funded education in exchange for wartime service. Like most americans, t. C. , students were sheltered from the wars direct impact, even as changed their lives in profound ways as they grappled with the wars meaning daily, though never more than they did when it claimed the lives of their family friends. Over 1000 students and faculty from tcu served in the war. 59 of them died while serving the war left its mark. Our campus and indeed across the nation in ways that were both tragic and profound for many veterans return home brought the beginning of a long struggle to secure the democratic principles for which they had fought. And tonight we will hear about the ways that World War Two simultaneously opened and closed, the ways that it ignited extinguished flames of hope for americans. And so it is my pleasure to introduce dr. Thomas guglielmo, who is professor of american studies and chair of the department of american studies at George Washington university, a scholar of, race and ethnic studies, immigration and 20th century u. S. Social, cultural and political history professor. Guglielmo teaches a variety of courses on civil rights, race, World War Two in the us state. He will speak tonight to us tonight about his most recent book divisions a new history racism and resistance in americas World War Two up two military, which was published 2021 by Oxford University press. The book won the society for histories distinguished book award was a finalist for the Gilder Lehrman prize for military history. Professor guglielmo, his first book, white on arrival race and power in chicago, 1892 1945, was also published by Oxford University press in 2003 and also several awards, including the organization of american historians, frederick jackson, turner award and the society of american historians, and alan nevins. Hes written widely in academic journals, including journal of American History, american journal of sociology and, as well for outlets including the washington post, the chicago reporter and the conversation. Were honored to have him with us this evening. So please join me in welcoming professor thomas guglielmo. Thank you so much, professor vic, for for that wonderful introduction. Thank you so much for the invitation to be here. I want to thank the department of history here, tcu, for having me. I want to thank leslie makinson for taking care of all the behind scenes logistics that have made my my first visit ever to tcu i really, really wasnt one i want to, of course the Schmidt Family for making this symposium possible and i want to thank you all for braving these storms to make it out here tonight to be with me. I really, really appreciate it. So tonight i want to talk about this book of mine that came out a year and a half ago called the visions and. Its a kind of a long book. Theres lot in it. But what i want to do over the next 45 minutes or so is kind of give what i see as the highlights of the book. What i see is its most salient arguments. Its sometimes hard to follow these kinds of presentations. So in order to make it a little bit easier, i, ive broken up my talk into three parts. So the first part is called divisions, the second part is called descent and the third part is called aftermaths. Part one divisions, americas world two military was a force of unalloyed good and not simply because it helped save the world from nazi ism and totalitarianism. It also managed to unify a frame a famously fractious american people. At least thats the good war story. Many americans long told themselves from the very earliest days of mobilization right up until the present day. So heres president Franklin Delano roosevelt in the fall of 1940, when he signs the first peacetime draft. The selective training and service act 1940. Heres his prediction about the impact of military service on the nation. Quote in military service, americans from all walks of life will learn to live side by side, to depend upon each other in military drills and maneuvers, and do appreciate each others dignity. As americans, citizens, universal service will bring not only greater preparedness for war, but a wider distribution of tolerance and understanding to enjoy the blessings of peace by wars end, roosevelts predictions had come true. That is, if you believe what you see on the big screen and what you read in popular books during the war. Hollywood. Im sure some of you have seen these films, films and popular books that came out during the war, showcased a limitless supply of plural platoons. As one scholar put it quite consciously quote, quite consciously, these platoons were composed of one , one , a southern boy, and a sprinkling of Second Generation italians, irish and scandinavians, poles and of, quote, these stories about unity in uniform live on in his 1998 bestseller, the greatest generation, tom brokaw assured his readers that americas World War Two gis, quote, were fuzed by a Common Mission and a common ethos, which was so uniformly profound that more than a half century later, they still all quote each other, completed six years later, the World War Two memorial on the national mall, which is blocks from where i teach, according to its website, this memorial quotes as an important symbol of national unity, a timeless reminder of the moral strength and awesome power that can flow when a free people are at once united and bonded in a common and just cause. And so this is an office of war information poster from the warriors perfectly this this dominant theme of unity in uniform. My talk today in the book its based on tell a decidedly different story. They stress the book in this talk stress not national unities but racist divisions as a fundamental feature of americas World War Two military and of the world it helped to create in postwar america. Who served who fought . Who died, who gave, and who was forced to follow them . Who received the best ratings and jobs and pay and promotions . Who was Court Martialed . Who receive furlough and leaves . Who received honorable and dishonorable discharges . Who aided the Officers Club . Who at the posts best center, who drank at the nicest pub in cherbourg france or swam in the best pool in calcutta, india, shaping every imaginable aspect of military life. Colorlines spoke definitively in all these matters and more so if colorlines spoke definitively, what did they have to say . Most simply, the fundamental answer is whites supremacy. The us military was a sprawling structure of white domination. The the the the most argument in my book, at the risk of sounding let me explain precisely what i mean by this. The us military offered a grossly disproportionate share of power and. To those who could claim status as white in comparison to all other people, whites had a much easier time joining the military or a particular branch or service in the military, breaking into the officer ranks, rising within them, occupying all the highest positions of authority. They had a much easier time receiving skilled, wellpaid work and promotions. They had a much easier time enjoying adequate recreational facilities on bases all over the country and all over the world. They had a much easier time in combat and receiving the prestige that came with it. They had a much easier getting a fair shake in the militarys criminal justice system. They had a much easier time earning awards and decorations, and they had much easier time being discharged honorably on time and with access to gi bill benefits. I could go on, but the bottom line is this white people, countless unearned in americas war, two armed forces. But who were these white people . Exactly. And in relation to whom did they enjoy these advantages . And thats where things get a little more complicated, actually, because the military did not just have single color line that divided all. It had multiple crisscross color lines. These lines defined whites and everyone else various and sometimes contradict three ways. So im just in order to kind of make this abstract idea a little more concrete, im going to mention to all of these color lines now. But there were more but these were the most important ones. So the first one, the militarys most important racist division, was what one africanamerican soldier training at camp shelby, mississippi, in 1942 called, quote, fool lines that say black boys on this side and white on the other. So this black white color line in this black white color kind of formation, black people included anyone with any discernable trace of african ancestry. But the all important white category was a moving target at its most inclusive. And this is something that surprised whiteness, corralled everyone who was not black, creating what some scholars today call a black nonblack line. The power in this in these cases, the power of antiblack racism. Sometimes has transformed japaneseamerican and chineseamericans and americans and mexicanamericans and puerto ricans. They transform, groomed these folks into insiders of a sort. So, for example, one 1940, War Department memo regarding who could join white units, white military units held that, quote, trainees of all races other than will be assigned and the same as white trainees, end of quote. Right. So heres example of this kind of what im calling this white black line, but which in effect was a white everyone else line. And this was by far the most institutionalized, the most expansive, the most, you know, debilitating and destructive of the militarys many color lines. So that was the first one. The second important line is apparent. Maybe this quote that i just mentioned. Right . So take the note. Take note of the language some of those quote races, other than , end of quote. Were not exactly white but would be assigned to as if they were white. Here, then, is a sign that the military established other color lines besides the black white one. The most important of these were various versions of a white non white line. And i apologize. Were getting abstract but itll itll hopefully make a little more sense as i get into things the most important of these white non white lines were im sorry, the color line was less widespread, much, much less widespread than the black white line. But at times it nonetheless narrowed the category of white to include, at its most exclude of only those of supposed european descent. This that groups like asianamericans, latino americans and native americans zigged and zagged throughout war between non whiteness and nominal whiteness, between an insider status and outsiders status, and some murky middle ground. Okay, so those are those are the color lines. Ive got aoue sdes here to just kind of dramatize of what im talking about here. So this is a mbeof,uote, police colored in columbus, georgia,n ril 1942. So again, when im calling a black white line a the was called a coloredhite line or a white line. And you see that kind of language reflected here. This is a typical all africanamerican unit. And keep in mind, all africanamerican is actually a kind of a misnomer bel of the Senior Officers in these units would have been white. I mentioned. Right. So theres notust of black white lines, but there are other lines. Th is in a Texas National guard unit of 140, 100, 141st infantry regiment. I guess camp bowie is not far from here in texas. This unit kind of started out segregated, but became more integrated over time. And t iortant thing is mexicanamericans, some very few mexicanamericans served in th unit of them served inhi outfits, socalled white outfits. This is an awful penal unit, all puerto rican unit. So of these nonblack minority groups, none move more frequently or more dramatically than. Why you might ask, because of their supposed unbreakable bonds with americas enemy in the pacific. In fact assumptions, racist assumptions about those bonds sometimes led to the exclusion of japaneseamericans. So, for example, the navy throughout the war refused to accept anybody of japanese descent into their ranks. That was the policy of the beginning of the war, and it remained so at the end of the war. The militarys various color line shifts shifted some over course of the war. So these werent static. These were not inevitable. There was change, especially in combat. So because most asian americans, native americans and latino americans were permitted to fight alongside white troops, they sometimes forged bonds with another that kind of transcended some of these color lines, many years after the war. One American Indian veteran recalled, quote, his first feeling of complete acceptance came while serving in the army during World War Two. So some of these unity messages actually did play out even some black troops occasionally expressed similar feelings, especially abroad, where they held friendliness of foreigners and often said that color lines dont exist in foxholes. This was a kind of a phrase that you could hear every now and then during the war, but to be clear, these feelings about the possibility of, black, white lines kind of dissolving overseas in combat. These feelings were incredibly rare. Why . Large part . Because the u. S. Military committed so few africanamericans to combat and even fewer to the integrated kind of combat. So they werent around foxholes enough to really see those color lines disappear. Who built military . Who built these color lines that im talking about . It was a group effort. Some ordinary white people both in and out of uniform, proved enthusiastic builders, but more powerful architects had the most say in the matter, especially on the ground. Commanders and leaders in the War Department and the navy department. With a few important exceptions, the white house, congress and, the courts, including the supreme court, supported these leaders implicitly or explicitly all along the way. So one exception to this rule was the 1940 selective training and service act. Right . This is the first peacetime draft that i opened my paper with. So this law that was passed in the fall of 1940 contained surprisingly a straightforward and sweet thing civil rights clause. And heres what it said in the selection and training of men under this act and in the interpretation and the execution of this act shall be no discrimination against any person on the basis of race and color. So straightforward, sweeping. But as it turned out, the military refused to follow follow letter of the law. And the white house and the courts never forced it to do so. So in a sense, these color lines that im going to talk about were both diametrically opposed to americas warriors, but they were also illegal at in, you know, in relation this fairly clear civil rights clause in the draft act. Another important question why why build these color lines youd you might think that in total war the us military had much more important things to worry about than slicing and dicing its soldiers especially when think it was in their interest to bring unity as much as possible among its troops, there was one primary paradoxical reason for these color lines military brass sorry in the in the minds of american leaders winning the war for four freedoms required on freedoms in the minds of Many American leaders during the war winning the war for four freedoms, they thought required on freedoms, military brass repeatedly, for example, said that the morale efficiency and discipline of u. S. Troops, by which they almost always meant u. S. Troops, the morale and discipline of u. S. Demanded jim crow. This was a point made over and over and over again. The implication was that without segregation and whites would be to consume armed by antiblack resentments and to invest their all in the war effort. Antiblack racism. This perspective was a war time imperative, a precondition for victory. This argument, of course, was a admission about the depths of the nations commitment to supremacy. It also painted a picture of the wartime military that contrasted sharply with popular notions of. But truthfully, the militarys jim crow had more to do with its leaders. Own deep investments in white domination and black subordination, both. They seemed to believe in their bones were natural, essential and virtuous features of. American life. True toward wars end, some of these leaders, a small minority of these leaders actually, broke with some of these racist traditions as there was some there were experiments towards the end, the war integrating, some fighting units, some training camps, some base facilities. But most of these leaders did not break from this tradition. Most leaders clung to a military steeped in antiblack racism throughout through victory and well beyond the white nonwhite line had its own set of justifications. At times, military leaders also viewed them as essential to the war effort, none more so than when japaneseamericans were concerned and National Security was involved. So as with japanese american internment, the idea was that japaneseamericans could never be trusted, that they were somehow programed to be disloyal, and therefore military policy had to reflect this basic fact. So that was one of the kind of primary motivations for some of the color lines that targeted japanese americans. At the same time, these leaders also viewed racism targeting, say, japaneseamericans or chineseamerican or filipino americans. Mexican. Sometimes leaders saw racism directed at these groups as as a war effort, liability, as something that could actually interfere with the war effort, could hurt americas chances of winning. Leaders felt that this racism at these groups damaged americas ties to its quote darker allies overseas. So china india countries in latin america, the philippines. And they also recognized that some of this racism confirmed the propaganda of axis powers that were constantly harping on the hypocrisy of america and saying, you know, the allies say they believe in democracy, but look at their military. So, you know, so military leaders understood some of this and thought, well, racism directed at japaneseamericans and mexican is a war effort liability now. Black activists and their allies made some of these same points about jim crow in uniform. But to little avail nearly all of americas military brass viewed bright black white lines as an undisputed war. By contrast, the value of white nonwhite lines was more contingent, varying somewhat depending on the time the context and the people in question. So this is the first part divisions, right. And i just to summarize, there were many racist divisions. The us military targeted, most at africanamericans, but also targeted at times that other folks color. I mentioned that there were moments overseas when some of these color lines blurred a bit and sometimes it involved africanamericans friendly with foreigners. And theres a lot about this in the book. This is a photograph of a of an African American soldier, ellis ross, enjoying a drink with some friends in italy. This is another example of colorblind comradeship, this involving a white soldier and a japanese american soldier. Part two dissent. So i spent bunch of time talking about color lines, but this is only half of the story. This is only half of the story. After all, the militarys purpose in building these lines was often defensive. It sought to shore these lines up against constant efforts to remove or rewrite. Furthermore, to the extent that these boundaries, these color lines shifted or blurred the course of the war. Bottom up struggles deserve a good deal. The credit. Right. So ive mentioned that some leaders had their views kind of evolve over time. Thats true. There was some colorblind comradeship that happened at times during the. Thats true. Sometimes there was a need to kind of temper the racism because of our allies overseas. Thats true. These were all forces that were pushing in the direction a more egalitarian military. But my argument here is that bottom up struggles for a more egalitarian military were the most decisive force for these changes. The modest as they were these changes that occurred during World War Two. And yet we dont have a great, in my view, of the role the military and of troops themselves in civil rights histories. But one of the arguments of this book is that wide ranging battles against military racism constitute a vital chapter in modern in the broader story of modern americas freedom movements. These battles, these civil rights struggles were plural just as there were distinct color lines that were wending their way through the military. There were also distinct civil rights struggles that emerged in response. The largest of these involved black troops and an impressive array of allies black newspapers, civil rights organizations, unions, labor unions, religious groups, troops, family members, especially mothers who were constantly writing letters to military leaders, saying, i am the mother of africanamerica. They would say soldier. And on basis, im making demands of you. I have given my my son to to the nation. You need to treat him with respect respect. The troops themselves in these civil rights struggles of theirs tended to their battles against the racism that they were most likely to see in their day to day lives in uniform. So they were most interested in things like rank and promotions and jobs and recreation in their allies in the civilian world supported them in these battles, but they also the lead on broader policy fights, fighting, for example, for greater to the military or in time for the desegregation of. The military. These activists worked inside the political system. So they petitioned, they lobbied, voted, they litigated. But they also worked outside of a political system that was often so to them. So they were forced to be creative in their political tactics. So they boycotted and struck. There were sit ins and even armed selfdefense. They tried their best soldiers, hoping that Heroic Service in uniform might finally secure for them some semblance of fairness, decency and respect. And they tried their least convinced that no amount of sacrifice in uniform would truly uproot jim crow. One of my favorite examples of soldier resistance involves a man by the name of winfred. Here he is. Winfred. Lynn. Hes long forgotten today, but winfred lynn was once a household name in some circles in. World war two america, a National Civil rights group, bore his name shows, told his story. Cocktail parties, raised funds for his cause. A 36 year old black landscape gardener from queens, new york, my birth place, lynn refuse to be drafted into the segregated us army in 1942. This is letter to the local draft board and as you can see there, he said he was more than happy to defend the United States in uniform, but he flatly refused to do. So in a segregated fashion in time, he was convinced to join up and. He rose to the rank of sergeant serving in a medical Sanitary Company in the pacific, but he never let go of his civil rights struggles. He helped stage down strikes when he felt that his he and his fellow black soldiers mistreated in uniform. He circulated protest petitions. And most important, perhaps he served as the plaintiff in a civil rights case that reached the Us Supreme Court in 1944, a decade before brown v board of education. His case state sanctioned racial segregation in army and in the draft and he lost his case. The military the courts refused to touch this. It was incredibly sensitive. But his activism, in my view, contributed to the postwar desegregation of the military and contribute in some ways to postwar black civil rights struggles. His story, i said, is sadly pretty much forgotten today, but my son did a black History Month report. Winfred lynn. Im proud to. Last year facing their own forms, racism involving enlistment restrictions, segregation and excessive surveillance. Japaneseamerican troops and their allies forged their own civil rights struggles. Most famously this involved highly decorated military service in the 42nd Regimental Combat Team and the 100th infantry battalion. These are famous units, often that, you know, theyre among the most decorated and military units in u. S. History. These these units in heroism, you know, disprove the of core element of antijapanese american, which was again, as i said, they not be loyal americans. But that thats is fairly well told. There were other forms of advocacy and activism among japaneseamerican troops, a small subset of japaneseamericans also made their compliance with induction conditional on their receiving just compensation. That is, reparations for the wrongs of mass removal and mass incarceration. Right. Whats called internment. Some japaneseamericans also fought both voluntary enlistment and comply sorry, conscription. So not unlike when fred lynn demanded and expatriate asian and renounced their u. S. Citizenship. So japanese americans as well had a whole host of protest tactics to the racism that they faced in the military. There were also miscellaneous struggles or moments of struggle, perhaps the most important of these involved in a sort id collection of inductees whose official racial designation then was the subject of great among the military, the Selective Service and the inductees themselves. Right. Have a military thats segregated. You need someone deciding who goes where. And sometimes there are debates about where someone ought to be placed in many of these cases, the men who identified as indian creole, puerto rican, even something called moorish, american. In all of these cases, they these fought most fervently to be not black. That was their kind of most fervent demand of the military. They did not to be black, since it was that group that faced the most widespread and vicious forms of racism within the military. This point reminds us that these struggles against military racism were varied as the racism itself. Some people wished to keep color lines in place, but simply to relocate themselves in relation to the to these lines. Right. So they see a color line here and they say, well, im okay with the color line. I want to be on this side of the color line. All right. So some people that was their activist. In other cases, some folks wanted to, you know, change these color lines or dissolve these color lines, but not these ones over. And in the most inspiring set of cases, there were folks who just said color lines have no place in democratic country in the for a democratic country. So thats the second part. Dissent. And again, just to kind of summarize the story here is if the military had a complex mix of color lines, they also had a complex mix of civil rights struggles as well. This is general benjamin davis, who was the only africanamerican general during World War Two. He had a he was often active kind of behind scenes in trying to support some of civil rights struggles. He was often, you know, criticized in the black press for not doing enough. But behind the scenes, he was was actually trying to do something to kind of temper the the racism that so many black troops had faced. And im just going to give you a little sense of some of this activism. So this is a petition i found in the National Archives eliminate discrimination in the armed forces. And you see a bunch of signatures. And you can also see some of the demands. Right. In my classes, to be able to read those demands, the numerical restrictions eliminate the numerical restriction against africanamericans in the air corps and so forth. This is a pam flip from the Young Communist League calling for voluntary re integrated unit. So activists on the home front often said, okay, so you dont want to integrate military. We get it. This is a big, complicated war. And the nations future depends on on it. So maybe its not the best time to experiment, but you can at least have one volunteer per unit, right . So if one of your arguments is that whites wont accept, the response was, how about we just allow whites who want to join an integrated unit to belong . And so this was an actually really Interesting Campaign on the home front during the war. These are members of the 442nd combat Team Training at camp shelby. I mentioned this unit before. This is a draft resolution, registration card of james brown day, who refused to be inducted into the military as an africanamerican. He wanted to classified as a moorish american. But you could see that the draft official at the bottom, quote, suspects. I have a whole really interesting in my view, interesting chapter about these really complex of how to place people in a segregated military when there is some disagreement aftermaths. Okay. So weve talked about divisions. Weve talked about dissent. The call in response between the two of these things, right. The kind of dialectic between racism and resistance, cost passed a long and complex shadow over postwar american life. There were all kinds of consequence pieces of these stories that ive been sharing with you that shaped america into the postwar years in lots of different ways. So im going to end my talk by talking some of these consequences. Ill start the positive consequences. Ill end with the negative consequences. The negative consequences. Youll see, are its a much longer list because i, i argue that this is the much more significant set of contexts consequences. But the ones are important as well. So on the side ill start there. Countless returning veterans infused home homefront freedom struggles, all swelling in power and the depression. World war two years they swelled these infused these struggles with enormous energy and moral thory. The war years had profoundly changed. Many africanamerican gis. They donned the official uniform of, the us military. They traveled the and they traveled throughout the country as well. They met new people they learn new skills. They thrilled to new freedoms and protested against old injustices. In the process, they became more convinced that america could and must change. Crossing the pacific on a troop transport in late december 1945, one African American soldier later recalled predicting about his fellow black veterans, quote, when the moment came and it would come, these men were going to be the cutting edge of a movement that would change america. End of quote. That moment arrived sooner than he and others might have expected because all over the country, many African American veterans quickly became leaders, organizers, foot soldiers in the surging postwar civil rights struggles. They marched to courthouses across the south to register to vote. They organized naacp chapters. They lobbied governments for fair employment and fair housing laws. They became litigants in numerous civil rights cases. They joined or launched local efforts to desegregate schools, pools, neighborhoods and movie theaters. The unions as their workplaces. And in the 1950s and 1960s, they cultivated a whole new generation of civil rights activists. A similar sort political awakening occurred with other troops of color as well. And for some of the same reasons, right . The war time chance to represent the us to, to travel, to meet new people, learn new skills. But in contra to black veterans, many asianamericans, native americans and latino americans enjoyed greater freedoms inside the military than they ever experienced outside of it. And that was it. Experience also politicized them in new and profound ways. Riding of japaneseamerican soldiers from hawaii. Historian franklin otto argued that, quote, Race Relations could never be the same after on the mainland and in europe. They bought sex from white prostate inuits, fed white beggars and brawled with gis, married white women and killed white enemies. End of. Similarly for native American Veterans, the greater inclusion that they found in the armed forces reinforced the desire for selfdetermination for equal treatment or for some combination of the two. Much like africanamericans, other veterans of color also spearheaded postwar freedom struggles of various kinds. So native x gis, for example, became active in tribal governments and through spirited activism, quickly won the right to vote in new mexico and in arizona. And they also demanded access to gi bill benefits. Japanese American Veterans leaving their newfound status as war heroes to battle discriminatory veterans organizations. Employers, alien landlords and naturalized asian laws, and to gain modicum of redress for wartime and mass incarceration. MexicanAmerican Veterans. Similarly returned fighting, creating new like the american g. I. Forum. Military experiences convinced some white veterans to join these struggles as well. For some, it was the act of traveling to and witnessing other less rigidly racist societies or fighting alongside people of color or rehabilitating with them in adjacent hospital, or witnessing firsthand that, quote, blood and death respected no man because color. End of quote. For others it was the evils of nazi racism or encounters with other military caste regime that divided an officer from enlisted which convinced them to oppose any system which grants privileges to a particular of individuals, end of quote. Whatever the precise causes some segment of white veterans returned home with a deep end or newfound determination to build a more postwar america. White veterans organizations. Organized brotherhood days, weeks and months. They advocated for fair employment laws. They spoke out against housing discrimination and demanded a decent gated military and a desegregated national guard. Thanks to a sweeping wartime activism, the u. S. Military also became more egalitarian during the war. And this is something mentioned earlier. By wars in direct contrast to its beginning, the military no military service excluded group on the basis of race that was very much a tradition at the start the war, it had pretty much collapsed by the end of the war and the practice of segregation was well on its way out when it came to everyone but black troops. But even of black troops was newly controversial. This was just, you know, just a long tradition that. The military was deeply, deeply invested in the start of the war. There were starting to be questions by the end the war. In fact, president truman often receives the lions share of credit for the postwar desegregation of the us military. But wartime activists in and out of uniform, especially African American activists, deserve their fair share. Its my argument that without understanding incredibly powerful civil rights struggles to desegregate the military, among other things. During the war that laid foundation for trumans postwar executive order that helped to desegregate military in time. So these were all advances and we ought to celebrate these stories. But the negative consequences of wartime divisions are, as i more numerous, in my view, and more significant. So im going to end with a lengthy of six consequences that were truly tragic, in my view. First, military racism, unspeakable trauma, suffering and humiliation which haunted some veterans after the end of the war if it did not kill them first. The latest anguished historian, John Hope Franklin recalled that, quote, his older brother, a College Graduate and a high school principal, was abused by his white, uneducated Staff Sergeant consigned to the kitchen brigade and driven to an early grave. Two years after the close of the war by the insensitive treatment of those who draped themselves in the flag and sang the National Anthem even as they destroyed nations ideals and its people. End of quote. Thats John Hope Franklin talking about his brothers. Even many of those survived the twin traumas of war and racism still faced serious challenges, even decades after the end of the war. Interviewed in the 1970s, one black veteran recalled quote are thousands of black who will not talk World War Two because for the black man it was humiliating degrading, cruel and not by accident. The treatment of the black was deliberate, contrived and planned as well as the normandy invasion. Only. Only the invasion is over, but the wounds are still raw and of, quote, my wifes grandfather, his war story suggests that these lasting wounds were not black veterans alone. Yasuke academy. I have a photograph of. This is a beautiful painting done at the end of the war of a black soldier that i think captures some of the what im mentioning here, some of the consequences. But ill move to you so yasuke academy mia yasuke academy. I was born on Bainbridge Island in Washington State and joined the army his 26th birthday. January 13th, 1942. What his experiences were like in uniform are largely unknown, except that on august 7th, 1943, he and five others, five other japaneseamerican soldier soldiers stationed at fort Francis Warren in wyoming, wrote to the secretary of war, henry l. Stimson. They wish to renounce their u. S. Citizenship and expand create to japan. When the army investigated the mens requests, kdoe mia explained quote that on several occasions in the us army, i have been by officers as a. An officer once told me that it is a disgrace to the United States, to a to wear a uniform. End of quote. No doubt the restrictions placed on japanese american soldiers at the time their mandatory movement inland, their constant surveillance, their loss of arms and so forth. No doubt these other restrict actions infuriated this willful, proud and principled young man. In any case, the army rejected his request to punishing. Instead, it transfer him to a hard labor battalion for the, quote, potentially subversive. It forced him to conduct menial tasks for the rest of the war, and it eventually discharged him less than honorably with restricted, which restricted his access to invaluable g. I. Bill benefits, just as he was getting married and starting a family right after the war when he died of alcoholism the age of 58. He had not been well for years. If his in betraying if not downright traumatizing experiences had to played at least some role so that the first point. Second, the militarys racist lines unquestionable interfered with its efficient execution of the war. Perhaps lengthening the countrys time, the conflict, and costing american lives. The militarys restrictions just. To cite one example, the militarys against africanamerican and japaneseamerican enlistment or against their and other nonwhite sites, promotions and commissions robbed the military of more than robbed the military more than a half a million additional troops and untold numbers people who had they been given the chance would have excelled as generals or pilots or paratroopers. Moral while military leadership often claimed that color lines minimized inefficiencies and strife, they often maximize both. How in the form of the added work required run multiple militaries in the form of the overuse and underuse of facilities, equipment and people. As a consequence, those multiple militaries in the form of countless disturbance scenes and protests to dissolve to deepen military racism and in the form of lowered morale among many of those troops ensnare, eared and enraged and despair by that racism. Third, in drawing these color lines, the military made remade the very of race deepening belief and its taken for granted reality now. One might be tempted to discount the importance of this process of making race seem inevitable. Natural. After all, the concept of race had been around by the warriors for several centuries already in the United States and all around the world. But all racist regimes less than they might appear, require constant making and remaking of race to live on. And americas World War Two military. 16 Million People strong. 11 of the Us Population in uniform during World War Two. This military among the nations most important and bustling factories, this broader war production of race. In my view, along with the United States munitions industry, one might consider race as the other great wartime quote, destructive creation creation. Fourth, military racism. Many whites investments in White Supremacy, especially its antiblack variant. For every white veteran who returned home with a burning desire to democratize, there was another likely several every bit as determined protect White Supremacy at all costs, especially White Supremacy that targeted African Americans. The most Extensive Army survey of soldiers and veterans views found that while some whites, quote, felt that tolerance had been promoted by interracial contact in the army, a larger group seemed to have reinforced their prejudiced army attitudes and of, quote, one representative veteran recalling time in the service, remarked that relations with black churches were fine quote as long they stayed in their place we didnt associate with each other. They kept on the other side of the line. End of quote, fifth that this line was actually plural, not singular, that the military imposed not one color line, but a bewildering mix of them may have poisoned further poisoned american politics for years to come. A War Department Intelligence Agency report from 1942 remarked, quote, in india, the british have instituted as many as five or six grades of jim crow. The reason for this being that british found that the more classes there are, the easier it is to exploit the masses. End of quote. This is a War Department memo talking about india. In other divide and conquer, something similar happened in World War Two. Armed forces, though, without intentionality, the militarys, quote, grades of jim crow. And there are many racialized classes, greatly complicated. Americans efforts to transcend color lines and to work together. And this point, it seems me, is especially noteworthy given that there were numerous promise singh efforts during the war to do just this to organize interracial really coalescing around an expansive set of identities like worker or darker race or just the people. A diverse mix of unionists and feminists and civil rights activists, organized hawaii to memphis, los angeles to new york, winstonsalem to detroit. They came together to fight fascism and imperial, to advance civil rights workers rights, to mobilize for social democratic parties and candidates, and to imagine the world anew. But such expand of solidarity only intermittently in the and it often foundered in postwar civilian circles for numerous reasons. One important reason is too often, in my view, overlooked, and that is the and convoluted color lines embedded in the day to day military lives of young 16 million young impression noble americans and the endure warring fractures. Those lines produced right. So this is something that these young servicemembers were on less than 25. So these incredibly formative times for them and theyre entering this institution and that is so deeply invested in color that had to have made an impression on many, many people. And those impressions lasted. Finally lost in this fracturing was a simple but profound truth. Military racism spared no one. Military racism spared no one. My book divisions catalogs the manifold harms done to africanamericans, japaneseamericans, to a lesser extent, other people of color. These harms endured in the form of skills not learned promotions. Not one, wages not earned, not accumulated, except perience, not gained. G. I. Bill. Gi bill. Benefits not received. Mass movements not waged in psychological traumas not but even white by far the biggest beneficiary of military racism also paid a price. Sometimes it was the ultimate price. Racist barriers, enlistment and elsewhere ensured whites among. Those who served fought on the front lines. And yes died few this way. Military racism crowned few true victors. So it has been with all forms of racism past and present. Thanks very much. Questions. Happy to take any questions you might have. But sometimes it takes a second to formulate a question. Yes, sir. Thank you for being here and thank you for this wonderful talk. I was curious when you were talking about these racial if we desegregate two units, it seems from maybe the army and the marine perspective, it seems easier for them to be segregated. But how about africanamerican sailors during the war . Because it seems like they would kind of be more together with the white units on ships and Different Things like that. I wonder if you could adjust or address how it was different from that perspective. Great. Thank you. Excellent question. So so in the marine corps, the marine corps refused, to accept any africanamericans. The middle of 1942. So thats how the marines dealt with africanamerican soldiers, at least for a time through flat exclusion. The navy accepted at the beginning of the war, they accepted. But only in the most menial roles. Right. So they were mess attendants. They were serving officers on board ships. But the but in 1942, again, thanks to massive activism on the part of africanamericans, this was not these didnt just come out of nowhere. African had to demand them over and over and over again. But in time, by june 1942, the navy started accepting africanamericans in a range of ratings not just in these most menial roles. And the marine corps started accepting africanamericans as well. But segregation was was pervasive in both of those service hours. But youre right, it looked a different in the navy. Ill give you one example. So a one seabee unit, you know, theyre all on board a ship. And there are there white folks and there are black folks. And there other folks on this ship. And it wasnt as simple as in the army where you just had units were again, the enlisted folks were all africanamerican, the way it worked on in the navy often was that everyone below a certain was africanamerican. So its in some ways quite similar. Right . So there was a way in which rank and race matched other and reinforced each other in these kinds of units. So you look at it, if you were to see everybody just kind of randomly some picture or something where rank didnt seem to organize people, you would think that its integrated, but when you actually see the structure, the ranking, again, those with authority were white. Those without authority were africanamerican. And that was pretty much the the the the pattern throughout World War Two. Now, its true that the navy which started the war as more regressive than the army ended the war as a more open to experimentation. They actually had they started integrating a truly integrating certain small not the big battleships not the big ships in the fleets that were out fighting, but smaller ships in the united. They started to integrate those. They started to integrate certain camps. They integrated you know, facilities and stuff on training stations, things. And so the navy actually moved a little. Well, it moved a great distance more than the army, because it started basically by excluding, again, africanamericans from the most from but the most menial tasks. But over time, it had kind of it had evolved some somewhat and it was starting to look a little bit more like a military that were could be fighting for four freedoms in and in earnest. But thanks was a great question. Hi. You discuss these differences between the various branch in terms of who they were willing to you say that the army is more accepting of japanese americans, the navy, which is in turn more accepting africanamericans in the marine corps. To what can we attribute these differing approaches from the different branches, just the individual prejudices of the leadership of the different branches . Or are there some of in their mind, different strategic considerations . Yeah, thats really, really good question. So i think part of it had to do with some of the leadership. So for example, in the case of japaneseamericans, so in the army, japaneseamericans were early in the war before pearl harbor, before the attack on pearl. They were included in the army and integrate it in the army. Then the attack on pearl harbor. And then all of a sudden they were in the enlistment of japaneseamericans ended completely for a time, as you know. And but not only that, the exclusion only so much time and then, you know, over the course of nine months or so, japaneseamericans were allowed to volunteer to part of the army. And then in time they were actually drafted into the army. So there was a lot of change with regard to japaneseamerican enlistment patterns in army. Again, as i mentioned, the navy, though, never changed. They excluded japaneseamericans in the beginning and they excluded them at the end. The question, why these variations and part of them has part of it does have to do i would say with, leadership, because there were some folks, the War Department. John j. Mccloy, for example, who ironically was, an architect of mass incarceration, internment during the war. But he became actually a really important advocate for japaneseamericans enlistment rights and in time for their greater integration in the army. And i do think his which was spurred on japaneseamerican activism so that was a really key factor but folks like mccloy in, the War Department, were more open to these sorts of more open these kinds of reforms where the navy just there was never anyone, as far as i can tell, that was like mccloy who was willing to experiment. They just again, they just were committed to exclusion. And that never really changed. So i think thats a part of it. But thats a good really, really good question. Hello. I couldnt help but mentally compare World War Two with world war one and thinking should the military have had these same type of conflicts in the First World War . How how did that change over time . If there was with the color happening between the two wars . Yeah. Yeah, thats a thats a great question too. So. So world war one, you know, this book is all about World War Two. But but some of course, what happens in World War Two is as a consequence, what goes down in the world war one years. And so or i should say not so much what happens in the world war one years, but how white leaders in the military in interpret what happens during the world war one year. So what ends up happening many of the highest ranking officers in army were were service themselves in world one and despite fact that many africanamerican units fought admirably during one, they came out of the and theres been a good bit of scholarship on that many white leaders came out of the war just to to think otherwise and wrote all of these reports that ended up being really influential in the interwar years that shaped military in the World War Two years and they were kind of rooted in a kind of a racist interpretation of what exactly happened in world war one. And that racist interpretation involved, you know, a portrayal of africanamerican troops, this belief that no africanamericans were could really be trusted in uniform form. Their numbers had to be greatly restricted. They to be risked, they had to be strictly segregated. Often, africanamericans needed officers, wanted white officers only perform with white officers. So some of these kind of racist formulations were rooted in a misreading of what happened in world war one. So thats kind of one example. Just another kind of quick example is that to your question about change over so out of world war one, both the army and the greatly restricted the numbers of africanamericans in their ranks. So by the time of before the draft act is passed, the navy has very, very few africanamericans in the army has a very i mean, you know, fraction of 1 of their ranks are africanamerican. So thats another kind of consequence of some these kind of racist misinterpretations. What happened in world war one. But again, those misinterpreted actions end up profoundly shaping military policy in the world war. Two years. You hear these. Ideas repeated over, over and over again about the incompetency of africanamerican troops. Even when. Theres lots of evidence thats disproved at this point. And by the way, theyre never thinking about how rampant racism throughout military is shaping africanamericans performance when it may be so great, when their morale may not so high. Thank you. Heidi. So thank you so much for. Coming and presenting for us tonight. You had mentioned africanamerican mothers writing about the conditions of their sons in the army. Did you come across any other examples of women of color . You know, writing to arent writing to the army or, taking efforts on the home front to change conditions for . Men of color serving during world war. Yeah. Thank you. So i actually happened to write a whole paper about this, and it ended up being just a sentence or two in the book. But i presented a paper at a conference called civil paternalism and argument in the paper was that the war offered war mothers this new opportunity make claims on the state, right . Because all of a sudden they had children often, but sometimes daughters in uniform, and that all of a sudden gave them leverage that they did not have africanamerican folks completely disenfranchized guys for the most part. Right. All of a sudden, with folks in service that instantly them some purchase, some political purchase, some voice, not a voice. They had a voice they had a voice that folks sometimes listen to. And so what you see and this is something that i see with africanamericans, africanamerican mothers, japaneseamerican mothers, mexicanamerican mothers. Its something that jumps out at you in the archives going through these letters. And then one after another is signed. A mother, a concern, a black mother, a japanese mother. There are petitions out camps, kind of some of these internment camps completely signed by japaneseamerican mothers. You know, thats kind of an explicit way in which these folks are organizing themselves and again, making demands on the state as mothers. This is an interest thing, a new kind of politicized identity. There are other examples, what im calling civil rights paternalism. Other scholars have talked about, but its absolutely something you see in civil rights context. During World War Two. Thank for being here this evening. We sincerely appreciate it. In the peacetime up until 1948, when the army desegregated it, Race Relations within the military, within the military continue deteriorate or did they improve, from how they were during the Second World War . Thank you. So, you know, the honest is i dont really know. You know, because i, you know, i, i had my hands full with the warriors and so kind of didnt really look too much at kind of what happened after the end of the war, although my next project maybe im juggling a bunch of different possibilities but one of them may be the desegregation the military. Theres been a lot written about it, but my Years Research on the world war on the war years has convinced me that we really cant. Trumans decision and not just trumans decision, because this is order didnt say anything about integration segregation as it turns out. But that kind of led to greater integration in the military. Question so that by the early fifties the military was more or less integrated and that that was a dream as can imagine from some what youve heard today, that was the dramatic change. And i dont think we quite understand the roots of that change and to what extent it was a product of of course, lots of things, cold war politics, party politics, the activism of postwar africanamericans. But i do think theres this hidden chapter of this forgotten of wartime activism that dramatically changed the way people thought about segregation. Im not quite your question, but i will just kind just talk about this a bit more because what was striking to me was that in 1939, 1940, the the segregation of africanamerican was not a controversial thing. There were very few africanamericans who were organized around this issue. They really greater i mentioned there were very few in the military. They wanted to change that. They wanted more people in the military. This was an opportunity get a job to have health care and food and an education in some cases. Right. So there were despite all of the racism that i mentioned were real opportunities in the military so the early rights struggles around the military involved access it did not these early struggles did not involve an effort to integrate but that changed really quickly in 1940. You start seeing, you know this this kind of organizing this issue. And africanamericans realize that, in fact, you know, greater access to the was just the tip of the iceberg terms of democratizing the armed forces and that it had to absolutely integrated. And so one of the stories i tell is how that political position, again, seemed to many, Many Americans inconceivable an integrated military in 1939 or 1940. And that was one of the reasons why africanamericans, some cases, were not organizing around the issue because they just thought there was no chance of any success there, you know, but that changed dramatically what was deemed politically possible, changed dramatically and fairly quickly thanks to organizing. So, you know, i my understand to get back to your question, my understanding is that, you know, as long as had segregation, as long you had these complex mix of color lines that greatly disadvantaged some people were going to have conflict. So my understanding is you had massive conflict during the war that did not change in that in that kind of brief period between the end of the war and the beginning of integration in the late forties and early fifties fifties. Thank you so much, everyone. I really appreciate it