The War of the 94th Engineer Battalion: How Black Americans and Whites Were treated during World War II, and how they were treated in the military

Delaware: It was terrible. And it really influenced how the military thought about the capacities of everyday Black Americans once they volunteered or got drafted into service. Because when that report’s written, it takes the racist assumptions of a generation of white officers from World War I and then passes it on to that next generation of white officers, almost all of whom serve in World War II. And so it had a really damning impact on Black Americans and their opportunities in the military.

In the Navy, a lot of the Black guys who were serving were in the galley preparing food and serving stuff. Subordinate roles are what they were. What did you learn about how they were treated?

DAVIES: Right. Local officials were in charge of running the draft boards so they could decide who got to serve and who didn’t.

The area of Delmont. It did. Military segregation was maintained throughout the war. And it wasn’t until 1948 when Truman signed an executive order that the military finally takes steps towards desegregation. And the thing that’s kind of crazy-making (ph) as a historian to look back at this is that there was no good military reason to have racial segregation. It made a lot of logistical work for the military to have to do everything in one place, it was the opposite. They had to create separate units. They had to do separate barracks, separate eating facilities, separate recreation facilities. They had to make sure that segregation was maintained after they took troops abroad. They even segregated blood from blood donors, even though there’s no scientific basis to do that. The military maintained this segregation because they wanted to appease white racial prejudice. There was no strategic or tactical reason to do it.

Delmont is. Eventually, it was. It took a while. And I think one of the most surprising things to look back at this history is how often white media undercut Black troops, particularly these Black units that were in combat – that during the war, you would hardly ever see any newspaper magazine call into question the service or the performance of a white unit.

DELMONT: Yeah. So in the summer of 1941, this group, the 94th Engineer Battalion, goes from Fort Custer, Mich., where they’re based, down to Gurdon, Ark. And it’s one of these small Southern towns that becomes a boomtown as the military starts to develop. It went from a small population of a few hundred to over 2000 different military units there. What the engineer battalion is doing is they’re part of war games training. So summer of 1941, the U.S. military hasn’t officially entered the war yet, but it’s clear that the U.S. is going to become part of the war effort. These engineers are training to do the kind of work that they will be doing when they deploy for combat.

The experience in Gurdon was terrible. They put together a camp. The locals of Gurdon harassed them as soon as they entered the town. They’re nearly run off the road by drivers in town. They were forced to return to their base in the woods. They were worried for their lives after being pushed out of town, because they knew that the townsfolk were going to try and force them even further out of Gurdon.

They start talking about what they should do. Some of the troops are saying that they should try to fight back after having had race riots in the military. They don’t have bullets, so they couldn’t do that. Some of the lynchings that have occurred of military men have been described by other troops. They’re worried about being attacked in the woods in Arkansas.

So eventually, the majority of this battalion decides that they’re going to flee from Arkansas. They scatter in a number of directions. They hop freight trains and just start walking away from Arkansas, trying to get back to Fort Custer, Mich. It takes them nearly two weeks to get back there. And once they get back, they’re – then have to face charges of desertion. And so they have to go through a legal proceeding to describe what they experienced in Arkansas and why they were so scared for their lives and what led them to go back to Michigan.

DAVIES: You know, these incidents were really unknown to white Americans, but they were reported widely in Black publications, particularly weekly publications, which were in major cities. I believe you describe a letter that a man by the name of James Thompson wasn’t in the military at the time. He wrote a letter to the Pittsburgh paper, the Courier, which was black. This is what you drew the title of the book from, right? Tell us about the message and what it meant to you.

There are similar stories. Julius Ellsberry was the first person from Alabama to be killed in the war and he was at Pearl Harbor. Later in the war, there were other mess attendants who performed bravely in combat situations. And so it’s a strange paradox within the Navy, that the Navy insists that Black men don’t have the ability to perform in combat. There are records and evidence in Black newspapers that show Black messmen performing heroically when given the chance.

There are men named Daises. Right. Now, Dorie Miller was ultimately commended for his role there in Pearl Harbor, for picking up that 50-caliber and firing it. He got on another ship, but didn’t make it through the war.

Ella Baker: The birth of the NAACP: The road to civil rights, voting rights and civil rights for Black Americans after World War II

The kind of things the war is about, freedom and democracy, helped to fuel demands for Black veterans and citizens after the war. Black veterans who fought in the war come back and start fighting for civil rights. The veterans went from fighting in the european theater of operations to fighting in the southern theater of operations.

DELMONT: Absolutely. The civil rights movement – the groundwork for it had been laid in the decades before World War II. But World War II was really an accelerant. It forced Black Americans to recognize that the kind of discrimination they encountered was something that they could and should organize to fight against. During the war, there was a lot of infrastructure built for that fight. So the NAACP at the start of the war is a relatively small organization. But by the end of World War II, it has more than 450,000 members and a thousand branches all over the country.

Much of that work is credited to Ella Baker, who’s a pioneering grassroots activist. Her methods of organizing are used by Black Lives Matter activists in the past years. She tours the country talking to local Black communities and everyday people about the importance of organizing and working together to fight for issues they care about. And so that’s where you see some of the most important initial steps to fight for voting rights and the fight against school segregation, fight against job discrimination.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/11/07/1134756262/half-american-matthew-delmont-black-wwii

How Did African Americans During World War II Live? (Review with Matthew Delmont): The Tuskegee Airmen and the 99th Fighter Squadron

DAVIES: I’m sure they’d have had experiences when they were in a rural area that made them realize it didn’t have to be this.

By and large, it was Black troops that did that work to move those supplies. There were Black port troops across the channel who loaded the ships that moved the goods across the channel and into Normandy and other ports in France. And then, it was Black units, like the one Medgar Evers was in, that unloaded those ships and then loaded them onto trucks. The truck drivers who moved those goods were part of a truck convoy called the Red Ball Express, 75% of whom were Black truck drivers. Truck drivers were essential to the war effort because they moved 400,000 tons of food, fuel and supplies across France and the European theater. If it wasn’t for that effort, Allied troops would not be allowed to move, shoot or eat.

DAVIES: Let’s talk about African American combat units. The most well known are the Tuskegee Airmen. These were people who were trained military pilots. They had to overcome a lot to be given access to the training. And eventually, the 99th Fighter Squadron was trained and ready in 1942, but it took a while for them to get missions. Why?

DELMONT: They did extremely well, that’s for sure. They got a chance to fight in the Mediterranean in 1943. And even though they perform well, they’re initially tasked with accompanying bombers on runs to hit key access targets in the Mediterranean. Even though they perform well on those missions, then they have to deal with their primary white commander, who tries to undercut them in his after-action report. So in his report, he says that they weren’t aggressive in combat, that they didn’t have what it takes to be fighter pilots. And he tries to get them assigned to shore patrol rather than to combat.

Some people call it daemons. The claims that they weren’t up to the task were rejected with experience. Was the impression corrected in media coverage or not?

DAVIES: We’re speaking with Matthew Delmont. He’s a historian. “Half American” is his book about African Americans fighting World War II at home and abroad. We will return after this short break. This is FRESH AIR.

Theirs is a song calledDAVIES. Yeah. There’s one point where you list by name 15 separate cases of Black veterans who were murdered by white men, in many cases police officers. I think you mentioned that there were some cases where relatives told returning Black servicemen that they should not wear their uniform. So put on some overalls?

They were allowed to eat at the same place, see the same movies, and sit in the same parts of the train cars. Black Americans found out that the Nazi racial policies and the American racial policies were both parts of the same coin. And that really leads them to question the sincerity of what their fellow white soldiers had been fighting for – that if they were going to be this chummy and this friendly with actual Nazis, who had been at war with them just months earlier, it really led them to question real commitments to freedom and democracy at home.

To cite just a couple of examples from that, in Mississippi, only two of more than 3,200 VA guaranteed home loans issued in 1947 went to Black borrowers. And things weren’t much better up north. Of 67,000 mortgages that were insured by the VA in New York and northern New Jersey suburbs in 1947, fewer than 100 went to Black people. Nationally, by 1950, veterans had received nearly 98% of these VA guaranteed loans. It made it hard for Black veterans to get into the middle class and accumulate wealth.

DAVIES: You write that civil rights leaders in the NAACP and elsewhere were appalled by this, the inequity of all this, and actually sought to get investigations and recognition by the United Nations. What happened to that?

More broadly, they want to be able to bring the kind of treatment that Black Americans are receiving to this world forum. They want the UN to look into the lynchings of Black Americans the same way they would look into human rights abuses in other countries. A 150-page pamphlet called “An Appeal To The World” is published by the NAACP and includes information on abuses that Black Americans experienced during the war. It causes a huge controversy, ends up leading to a fracture within the NAACP where DuBois is pushed out and Walter White takes leadership of the organization and leads it in a much more moderate, less radical direction.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/11/07/1134756262/half-american-matthew-delmont-black-wwii

The War of World War II: What Happened During the First Black American War? DAVIES: The Devouring Patriotism of a Nation

DAVIES: You know, you write that the story that you tell in this book matters not just because it’s important to set the record straight It will help us understand and navigate the future. Explain what you mean.

It is Delmont. I always tell my students that the stories we tell about the past matter. And I think if we only tell very simplistic stories about World War II, if we only talk about it as a good war and only talk about this idea that America was unified in some way, that doesn’t do justice to the reality of what the country was actually like at the time period. If we can reckon honestly with this history of World War II – the fact that the military was segregated, the fact that Black Americans experienced intense racism both in the military and at home across the country and that they organized the fight for civil rights – I think we have a better position to understand why we’re still fighting some of these battles today. Some of these issues regarding voting rights and regarding police brutality – these are things that were front-page issues in the 1940s during the war. As a part of World War II, we have to remember that.

patriotism is never unquestioning devotion to a country. True patriotism demonstrates devotion by relentlessly demanding one’s country live up to its stated ideals. Black soldiers have been some of the most dedicated, if unheralded, patriots this nation has ever seen.

The Color of Compromise and How to Fight Racism (by Jemar Tisby): A Legacy from the Air Force

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be the final one, but it may be revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The record of NPR programming is the audio record.

The author of “The Color of Compromise and How to Fight Racism” is Jemar Tisby. He is a professor of history at Simmons College of Kentucky and regularly writes at JemarTisby.Substack.com. The views are of his own. Read more opinion on CNN.

As a young man in the 1960s, my uncle joined the Air Force. Like so many before and since, flying enraptured him. He was very excited about the ability to soar in the clouds using a machine slicing the air at hundreds of miles an hour.

Despite the fact that there were some Black pilots in the Air Force at that time, it was not as realistic to my uncle as lifting your arms like wings and hoping to achieve lift off.

I never failed to notice that my uncle, a fun-loving guy, who always had a quip on his tongue and a good time on his mind, talked about his military days with a tinge of sadness – the kind of unresolved longing that only a dream denied can cause. He died in 2019 at the age of 72.

His discharge records, which my aunt read to me after his death, indicated he attained the rank of Airman 2nd Class, and he served as a “vehicle operator/dispatcher.” The civilian equivalent of his position was explained in a note.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/22/opinions/devotion-half-american-black-soldiers-patriotism-tisby/index.html

The True Story of the Black Pioneer Jonathan Majors and the Battle of the Landau-Free Air Force: The Redemption of the Captain America Image

Adapted from the book of the same name by Adam Makos, “Devotion” makes known the true story of Brown – a little known and underappreciated Black pioneer, portrayed in the film by the increasingly ubiquitous and accomplished actor, Jonathan Majors. Glenn Powell plays Tom hudner, who is White, in the film.

In the movie, Brown engages in a chilling ritual just before the many times he climbs into a plane. Without going into detail and spoiling the movie, Brown replays the trauma of his racist experiences to himself and, in so doing, strips them of their power to sap his confidence in the cockpit. This practice also gives him the fortitude to deflect ongoing attacks on his identity with poise and equanimity.

The film also focuses on the friendship that developed between Brown and his wingman, Hudner. The two could hardly have been more different –Brown, born into a poor sharecropping family in rural Mississippi and Hudner, raised in a three-story Victorian home in New England. By the time the two men meet in the Air Force, both were pilots, but their experiences in the military would never be equal.

As the two get to know each other, Hudner tries and fails and tries again to be a faithful wingman. Brown shows his well- intentioned but nave wingman that Black people do not need a savior, they need solidarity.

The conventional historical record tends to valorize a sort of Captain America image of devotion to nation – a vigorous White man whose military service is not only valued but heralded.

Where, then, does that leave the Black soldier? Brown sacrificed his life for his country by fighting racism every day of his military service, and what is the place for him?

What is the place for people like my uncle who wanted to serve his country and live out his dreams of being a pilot, only to be dismissed because of his race?

There are new signs of American-style fascistism in politics, education and other sectors, as the elusive victory over racism at home takes on renewed significance.

A secret to the grave: how her mother found out about the 6888th cpd battalion and why she fought in WW II

She shared memories of the friendships she formed during the war, and her love of the lush English countryside and its charming churches. The family mantel had a black and white picture of her, wearing a khaki uniform and a military beret, with a swastika on it.

She was in fact a member of the 6888th Central Postal Directory battalion which was an all-female, predominantly Black unit, and served during World War II. The battalion didn’t see combat, but they played a crucial role in boosting US troops’ spirits during the war’s final months.

Her secret to the grave was revealed in 1990 when she died of cancer at 66 years old. For years, she wondered how her mother, who was black, ended up in the military at that time when women and men were not allowed to join.

There were many questions she had. What was her mother’s role in the Army? What unit was she in? Then in 2016 Brown learned about the pioneering 6888th, nicknamed Six Triple Eight, and things began to fall into place.

A group of women soldiers were standing in England in 1945, looking for something to do. And there, at the edge of the frame, was her mother in the second row – staring straight ahead with a stoic expression on her face.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/23/us/6888th-battalion-world-war-2-cec/index.html

The Women’s Army Corps 6888th Battalion During World War II: 1942– 1945, Arrived in Europe

My brother ran into my bedroom and asked what was wrong. I asked you to look at the computer and tell me what you see. She did not tell him anything about what she saw. “He pointed and said, ‘That’s Madea.’ My tears fell. I was unable to speak for a while.”

The women from the battalion were honored by President Joe Biden last year with the Congressional Gold medal. And Tyler Perry will write and direct “Six Triple Eight,” a Netflix film about the women’s heroics starring Kerry Washington, Susan Sarandon and Oprah Winfrey.

Congress established the 6888 Battalion under the Women’s Army Corps in July 1943 after civil rights activists demanded that Black women also get opportunities to serve overseas.

Its members spent roughly four months training in the US before they sailed to Europe in early 1945. Their journey was not without danger – they dodged German U-boats in the North Atlantic and survived a German rocket explosion as they disembarked from their ship in England.

Once there, they traveled to Europe to sort and distribute an enormous amount of mail to American soldiers and government workers stationed there.

Without the benefit of the internet or cellphones, letters were the main form of communication for those in the war. US service members, eager for word from home, were frustrated by the slow pace of mail delivery.

The women needed a lot of help, even if it was simple. The mail and packages were piled in warehouses with dark windows and cold ceilings in Birmingham, England, to hide from German bombing raids.

“It was hard, blackout conditions. We had poor lighting, poor heating. The sunlight could not shine because of fighting and bombing in the area, said one of the unit’s last six surviving members.

“Madea told me of how they had to switch jobs, depending on the shift,” Partridge-Brown said. Even though they weren’t allowed to have guns, they still had guard duty.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/23/us/6888th-battalion-world-war-2-cec/index.html

Hunt-Martin’s memories and experiences in the wars she and her family endured in the UK, most of which were destroyed by Jim Crow laws

Her mother told stories about how wine was served with every meal in France, and how she spent some weekends exploring the country’s massive cathedrals and beautiful works of art.

She told her children about the treatment she and her fellow soldiers received overseas, which was a huge change from what they experienced at home.

Jim Crow laws that limited which establishments the Black women could visit in parts of the US were abolished in Europe. They were free to go out to restaurants and nightclubs.

She said it was very sad to see that the same man that you were fighting the same war, had disrespected her the most.

Nobody mentioned it. Hunt-Martin spoke to CNN before her death at the age of 98, saying that nobody talked about it for 70 years. We started getting a handle on what a good job we did.

It is thought that the chaos of war may have made her mother not mention her specific unit.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/23/us/6888th-battalion-world-war-2-cec/index.html

A Novel Bridge Between the Past and the Future: Willie Belle Irvin-Partridge’s Portrait at a Mantel of the Atlanta Neighborhood

Willie Belle Irvin-Partridge died at her house in East Atlanta, surrounded by her children and grandchildren. She was buried at South-View Cemetery, where other Black heroes, including Congressman John Lewis and baseball legend Hank Aaron, have been laid to rest.

She saw her mother’s name inscribed on a monument while visiting Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. And she recently obtained a copy of her mom’s honorable discharge certificate.

“Things were so bad and they needed money,” Partridge-Brown said. Both my uncle and my mother sent their homes with the allotments. They were able to get a nice home for them.”

Through her research, Partridge-Brown learned that her mother served as a cook in England and later helped sort mail in France. After her discharge in March 1946, she used the GI Bill to take classes at the University of Florida and became a dietician.

Inside Partridge-Brown’s red brick bungalow in the Atlanta suburb of Decatur is a corner dedicated to her mother. Its shelves are stacked with an assortment of photos, medals and newspaper headlines. The Oscar-like award is next to the American flag and has the inscription, “World’s best grandma.”

And like a bridge connecting the past to the future, the portrait of her mother in uniform that sat on the mantel of their family homes for decades is still proudly displayed.