HIS325: African American History

HIS325 : African American History

Pg .1 African American Experience from The Depression to WWW II The Depression Era was a contradiction in American History . The

Stock Market crashed leaving the population out of work standing on

Soup lines while it herald the decade as the new modern age on the road

to the future . Both minority groups , white and African American was

affected by the Depression . However , no one was affected more than the

African Americans . By 1932 , half of the African Americans were out of

work . In Northern cities , the whites

called for any employer to refuse

any African American as long as any white man is out of work

Racial violence exploded and became more common in the South

lynchings became commonplace , where it had declined to only eight in

the year of 1932 , it increased to an alarming rate to 28 in 1933 . Most

African Americans voted Republican , until the election of President

Franklin Roosevelt changed their views . The African Americans believed

President Roosevelt 's fervor in wanting to eliminate the Depression and

create jobs . They felt a sense of belonging they had never felt before

Discrimination still existed despite the African Americans feeling as

if they belonged . Through Presidents Roosevelt 's New Deal and

employment projects , Roosevelt for political reasons did not get behind

all of the legislation which were favored by groups such as the

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP

World War II began , ending The Depression and labor leader A

Philip Randolph threatened to organize a march on Washington to protest

discrimination in the military to the President Roosevelt . The

President in response to this organized a march that was decided on an Issue executive 8802 , which states all persons , creed or race

HIS325 African American History

Pg .2 were allowed to participate in the defense of the United States . This

attempt was to show integrated African Americans in the army which was

far from accurate . It was far from the truth when African American

forces were segregated and discrimination ran rampant during World War

II Thousands of African American soldiers who did not see

battle were segregated despite , being a member of the United States

Army . The American government did nothing to abolish this

discrimination . The army allegedly sent African American soldiers to the South so soldiers could train for year-round open weather , which

translates to African American soldiers were sent to the worst possible

place in America . Soldiers who were sent out throughout the states were discriminated against , denied entrance and service and were forced to

eat outside while watching as [ German prisoners of war were seated in

the restaurant eating hot food (Time 65 . The soldiers believed that

they were being treated worst than the enemies of war There is a hidden truth in WWW II where it is said that Negro

soldiers did not get to fight in the war . This is untrue , very few

African Americans did get to fight , and were treated as...