Civil Rights during WWII

Objective: Analyze the civil rights violations

during WWIIStd. 11.7.5

Japanese

Japanese Americans

• Pearl Harbor – How does this effect Americans

• Easy to separate Japanese from Americans• Ex Order 9066– FDR authorized– Place Japanese away from West Coast

• Forced removal from their own land

Korematsu vs US

• Japanese Am - Fred Korematsu (Nisei) sued American gov on Constitutionality of Order 9066

• Based on 5th Amend – abuse of gov authority, “due process”

• Ruled ok because protected against espionage• More important than individual rights• Over turned in 1983

German/Italian Americans

German & Italian Aliens

• Some were required to report to internment camps like the Japanese

• Others required to register with post office as “enemy aliens”

• Under Alien and Sedition Acts 1798 then Sedition Acts of 1918– natives, citizens, denizens or subjects… of any foreign

nation or government with which the United States is at war ...are liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured and removed as alien enemies..

– Usually place in the middle of the country

Jews

Final Solution

• Genocide of All European Jews• All undesirables – Jews, Mentally/Physically

Handicapped, Gypsies, Homosexuals• Placed Jews in Extermination camps– None of which were in Germany

Women

Women in Military

• Once again took jobs while men were fighting in the war.

• Helped to continue the push for equality

Women - The Rise of Rosie

A. The Hidden Army• Up to and especially in the Great Depression:

unacceptable white, married women work outside the home: taking men’s jobs

• WWII: 50% more women (7 million) working– SF: 2x Detroit: 5x

• # of wives working doubled

• Attitudes changed: patriotic duty: the “Hidden Army” on the “Homefront” (actively fighting war)

• Can duty: women pressured to work

• Black women benefited most from changing jobs– $3/week $48/week

• New jobs gave: money, sense of pride and accomplishment, community– Gender consciousness

Women

• What did women want? 4/5 wanted to keep working after the war

• Vets had preference: women pushed out of work after the war

• Lost factory jobs, most kept some kind of employment (necessity)• Women employed outside the home

• 1940: 27% 1950: 32%

Women - Problems

• However: many attitudes remained unchanged– Discrimination– Pay disparity– Culture (2nd Shift)– Post-war propaganda pressured women back into

the home delay Women’s Movement• Vs. Civil Rights Movement

– Only 10% working women in defense industry• 55% housewives

African Americans

Af-Am political Demands

• WWI & WWII was the first step towards civil rights that took place in the 60s

• Saw what it was like to have equality in Europe

I. Blacks and the Sources of the Civil Rights Movement

A. Breaking the Color Barrier• Pre-war defense industry: blacks only as janitors• A. Philip Randolph (Brotherhood of Sleeping Car

Porters): demand FDR end discrimination– Threatened massive March On Washington June 1941

EO 8802 – Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC)

• Black Democratic voters• Eleanor’s criticism• 700,000 blacks hired in defense industries• 200,000 in Federal Government

B. Moving On Up

• High paying, unionized jobs– # of blacks in unions doubled

• Lured blacks from rural South to North and West: 2nd Great Migration– Roughly 1 million (2x as many) and West (CA black

pop. 2x)

Effects:• Economic advancement• Urbanization• Control over own lives• Didn’t have to be Jim Crow South• Right + ability to vote• Army moved slowly toward desegregation

“Double V,” Tuskegee Airmen• Rise in expectations

C. Discrediting Racism

• American attack Nazis + Imperial Japan’s counter-propaganda US racism broadcasted to the world pressure reform– Sim. USSR propaganda

1950s+60s• Blacks get outside Jim Crow• Whites see evils of racism

(both of enemy and among selves)