Interesting piece and one I can personally relate to on some level, having been an “army brat” living in Germany during the early through mid 60s. It did not escape me how well many of the black soldiers got on with most Germans and the animosity of some white soldiers toward black soldiers dating German women. At the same time, the civil rights movement was getting pretty good coverage in the Stars & Stripes. It was interesting time and place for me to spend my formative years. On another note, I read a biography of Lucius Clay and was astounded at what an incredibly able, intelligent and far-seeing military governor he was. He is still held in very high regard by Germans of a certain age. We — Americans and Germans — were incredibly lucky he was there at such a delicate time.
42
In a text about German frontline interrogations during D-Day I read an interrogator from the Waffen-SS ask a black US soldier taken prisoner : How can you, as a negro, fight for a country that is as racial as mine ?
As a convinced Nazi he could not understand that a black "undermensch" was willing to fight for this white superiors.
18
I've always remembered a young African-American soldier who was a patient on my pre-op/recovery ward at the 24th Evac in Vietnam.... As he was waking up from his surgery, he cried out "why am I here fighting for some other man's freedom when I'm not free?" I didn't have an answer for him, the most I had to offer was a soothing pat on his shoulder but it was insufficient. He gave me a new perspective that I never had in my small 99% white Midwestern town.
50
My uncle who served in Europe in WWII, once told me a story about a group of Southern soldiers who were so viciously racist that they were murdering black soldiers in England prior to the D-Day invasion. This unit was sent back to Ireland and not allowed to participate in the D-Day invasion. I have not been able to find any information regarding this and wonder if anyone else has heard this story before. My uncle has since passed away.
25
@mgksf01 This has hints of that story:
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-46033229
13
I certainly was aware of this. As, I am sure, many Americans were.
I wonder if the author would be so kind as to write an article on how the US Army led the US in integration of blacks and minorities in the fifties and sixties, and was basically the leader in the US at that time. I remember the first black officer who commanded white troops in the south, in the mid fifties. They were amazing and tough men.
Or perhaps the author never read enough history to understand that the army ended up being the shining example of integration.
6
@Ernest Montague I'm sure the author knows where the military eventually went, ahead of society.
Maybe you didn't notice that this was never intended as comprehensive history of race relations in the US military.
50
During WW 2, 70 soldiers were court-martialed and then executed. Of the 70, 55 were blacks and 15 were whites, even though the blacks made up only about 10% of the military at that time.
In France, there was a huge outcry as our troops raped thousands of French women. A number of troops were executed after being convicted of rape, but it was mostly blacks who were executed, with whites normally getting a lesser sentence.
35
Anyone want to talk about how slavery was never made illegal?
23
I served in the US Army Infantry from 1970 to 1979 and believe the military made more progress towards improving race relations than at any time before or since. Can't prove it, of course, but our society was undergoing a sea change that swept over the nation and even affected the way we saw ourselves... for a while. Sad that waves and tides go in and out with such predictable regularity.
16
Just as one needs to document types, levels and qualities of racial-ethnic, and other, injustices in ALL social systems. there is a need to document the interacting necessary conditions which enabled, promoted, empowered, weaponized, anchored and sustained it. Over time. In ranges of places, spaces, environments and networks. Who were the accountableS? Then. Who are the influential individual and systemic stakeholders NOW? The discriminators?
Dehumanizers? Excluders? Marginalizers?
What are their names? Sources of influence?
And in addition, what are viable, effective options for limiting the processes and consequences of the willful blindness, deafness, indifference and ignorance of all too many which contribute to the ongoing operation of a daily toxic, infectious WE-THEY violating culture?
2
Exactly when was America ever "great?"
52
@Peter Burmeister Never has been, never will be until the country is honest with itself about its racist past and present.
47
@Peter Burmeister It's very challenging for countries to be "great", but as for people, it's easier given the opportunities to do what's right and thus be "great" abound. Starting with small gestures is always a good start.
10
interesting history. I didn't read about any of this in high school or college. Thanks.
29
The black soldiers were not alone in the ignorance and bigotry that emanated from many of their fellow white soldiers. My father, who rarely spoke about his experiences in the war, was a Medic and a Jew. He did tell me one thing that must have bothered him deeply- While stationed in Fort Benning, before deployment to Europe, he was asked by soldiers in his own platoon to tell them where his “horns” were. As a young child, I had no idea what that meant or why my father, who remained mostly silent about his experiences during the war, felt it was something he needed to articulate...but that brief comment by my dad was my first introduction to the world of antisemitism.
50
This article paints a striking picture of the wild disparity between the proclamations of post-WW II America and how it treated its "colored" citizens--especially members of its serving military. I served in the Army just outside Frankfurt from 1963-64, when everything OFFICIALLY had changed, but the reality of race relations among the troops was much as described in this article. Many NCOs and the few Black officers were accorded whatever privileges their rank entitled them to.
But off the base, strict segregation was practiced. There were "whites only" bars where no Black soldier dared enter. There were also bars and clubs that had an almost entirely African-American clientele. I was told this was "necessary" because the heavily Southern contingent among the soldiers would become enraged at the sight of a Black man with a German (white) girl.
I was a white enlisted man, and nearly devoid of racial prejudice as any white American of that era. I had made numerous friends among my black fellow soldiers, one of whom invited me to his favorite bar. I discovered that the nearly all-black crowd was totally friendly, the music fabulous and, most appealing of all, the German girls there were lovely. They were clearly of a higher class than the scruffy mercenary B-girls who hung out at the clubs catering to white soldiers. From then on, I hung out at these bars, making some great black friends--and meeting some lovely Frauleins who didn't hold my white skin against me.
62
Our country has more than one history. One is a mythology taught in most schools and supporting the popular notion that Americans defend justice in a way that transcends personal ideology and belief, and other hsitorical accounting which is supportive of the truth.
Many Americans choose to shun the reflection in the mirror in favor of the one they choose to see...not the one that's there.
So many kinds of vanity in this world.
49
The US Military has done more for racial injustice than any other institution of the US Government.
4
@Nessus I'd say that US Military has done for racial _justice_ than any other institution of the United States whatsoever.
There was one thing that took me by real surprise. I found white Southerners to be less overtly racist than white Northerners. It was as though, once that the Southerners were freed from the usual expectations of their neighbors behind the Cotton Curtain, they became just regular people who preferred to hang with blacks because, for example, we didn't make fun of their accents or laugh at them when they spoke of "light bread" or "sweet milk," at the mess table. Once, a mess cook from Georgia said to a Connecticut yankee, "Get you a tray." It blew the yankee's mind! He just couldn't get over it, talking about for hours. It the cook had said that to me, then I simply would have gotten me a tray, without giving it a second thought. Furthermore, Northerners seemed to think that there was no racism above the Mason-Dixon Line. So, they considered nothing that they said or did to be racist. Therefore, they might say or do anything and deny that it was racist or anti-Semitic, for the simple reason that Northerners aren't racist or anti-Semitic by definition.
3
14
Seeing how this nation (years later) made substantial efforts to honor and salute the service provided by the men and women of this nation who served during the Vietnam War, perhaps the same efforts should be made to honor the African-American men and women who served this nation during World War II, but were denied such. I believe that it might give those surviving members a long overdue moment of satisfaction, knowing that their selfless and honorable service was ignored but is finally recognized and appreciated. They have my thanks and appreciation.
32
How ironic that the ones sent to promote Democracy were the ones being denied Democracy. It is shameful and hypocritical on so many levels. We should never forget these brave and deserving heroes.
38
This is a very well written article, can you just imagine that Black Soldiers preference was to live in Germany because they were treated as human people not based on skin color . My gosh we are talking about in 1947, this was taken place, how sad for America
36
@Karen Selsey Even today there are minority Americans who opt for a “German out” at the end of their term of service. I was a civilian living in Germany and I shared an apartment with an Air Force enlisted man from Maine. We are both gay (just friends) and he insisted that we speak German at home because he wanted to stay in Germany after his service because we gay people are treated better there than in the USA. (He got his wish and is now happily married to a German National.) Sad note for our country, indeed.
24
Well said! We should never forget this paradox. My eternal gratitude to these brave American Soldiers, Sailors, Marines and Airmen.
22
My father and uncles served in WWII, my dad was in the Navy on a destroyer in the Pacific. They came from Louisiana. I never saw them in uniform. They never marched in Veterans Day parades. Whenever they spoke of the war they only told stories about how badly they were treated by the white Americans they served with.
48
@mch My father's father (black) also served in WWII, and Dad has mentioned how Grandpa would tell him: "The white soldiers treated Nazi POWs better than they treated their fellow black soldiers."
If you've read the memoirs of Sammy Davis Jr., he received positively monstrous treatment from many white soldiers during his service in the war, just purely evil.
He also mentions a handful of white soldiers, sometimes with a degree of authority, who did their best to help be treated fairly... some people try to pretend that any malevolent racist behavior can just be excused because of "the times," but even when racism was more pervasive and publicly acceptable than it is today, there were a few honorable people who rose above it.
Using "the times" as an excuse is just that... an excuse for people who could have behaved with more decency and honor, but chose not to do so.
34
A fascinating article. And the background serves for a possibility of making a binge worthy Netflix series. It’s remarkable that post war Europe seemed more at ease with Black American troops than white Americans.
37
America's national reluctance to antagonize the Jim Crow South resulted in the whole nation becoming more like the Jim Crow South. We didn't make the South better, by doing that, and we made the whole nation worse.
92
great article. it would have also been good to mention that a good number of White German and Austrian women entered relationships with African Americans, something that was unheard of in the US at that time. As a matter of fact today foreign-born Blacks and FB Whites are much more likely to marry outside "their racial group" than native born Blacks and Whites; very different from other Asians and Hispanics where US born pple are more likely to marry interracially.
9
@xyz While I won't argue your point, which is valid, I think part of the reason for the lower rate of African-Americans involved in interracial relationships in the US than Asian-Americans is our greater numbers... there are simply more of us to choose from.
I've read that as the Asian-American percentage of the population has grown, the rate of interracial relationships in its community has started to go down... there are more fellow Asian-Americans to choose from.
In the UK, a much higher percentage of black Brits marry interracially than in the US, but the same logic as above applies... black Brits are a much smaller percentage of the population than African-Americans are here, so there is a smaller pool of fellow black Brits to choose from, making it sensible that more of them find partners outside of their community.
3
Thanks for this interesting article. I had learned about the experience of injustice by black troops involved in, among other WW II duties, liberating one of the concentration camps in Timuel D. Black Jr.'s 2019 memoir Sacred Ground.
7
It is difficult comprehending the unnecessary abuse and cruelty African Americans have suffered for hundreds of years through no fault of their own whatsoever. This world is indeed a strange and cruel place.
34
An illustrative anecdote: Eisenhower received an order to discharge lesbians from the service during WWII. His secretary who opened the order told him she would need to resign as well as another woman on his staff. Eisenhower threw the written order in the trash.
17
That’s a beautiful story. I’m a big fan of Eisenhower but I suppose he was responsible for what this article describes. Like JFK said, it is a problem as old as scripture.
2
@Peter Yet, Eisenhower, during the war, was one of those who maintained and sanctioned the segregating of the troops. Your lesbian story doesn't fit the narrative of this article. except to say that he refused to obey the order, but sustained segregation.
5
Consider the large number of white liberals in New York City who recoil in righteous disgust at the spectacle of red-necked bigots at a Trump rally and yet declare themselves willing to support Michael "stop and frisk" Bloomberg's run for the presidency. It supports the idea that what many people object to in Trump is not the content but the style. A crude racism is unaesthetic and cheapens the brand. An urbane racism carried out smoothly and largely out of sight by a billionaire "philanthropist" -- another matter entirely.
Note that this issue of the Times also carries a piece by the egregious Bari Weiss, who has made a career out of attacking those who dare to deprecate the "Jim Crow" state of Israel.
15
@Alexander Scala: My objection to trump is that his content is much more important than his style. His boast that he has done everything he's promised is exactly the reason that he is a danger to our country not solely his boorish behavior. I dont excuse Bloomfield's stop and frisk history
but I feel that he is the best choice at defeating DJT which trumps (no pun intended) all else in addition to having the credentials and ideas that will begin to restore the presidency to normalcy.
Every candidate has their baggage, the perfect candidate does not exist. While I'm not letting Mike off the hook for for his past record of racial inequalities, I feel that he realizes his mistake and moved on. I dont see him supporting or enacting dicey racist issues in this or any social climate. I think its a error to dismiss Mike on this issue when he has the best chance and resources needed to defeat the abomination in 1600 Penn. Ave.
Very interesting article
4
@Alexander Scala
I agree completely re the Trump-Bloomberg “difference.”
1
An argument in defense of enslaving Black people was that Blacks and Whites alike were slaves to King Cotton. False equivalencies and alternative facts were stock in trade for defenders of the Confederacy. Anything is permissible for the sake of profiteering.
American weeklies from the time of Hitler's rise talked about Nazi race laws as business as usual. An article in the Wall Street Journal, from February 1933, was 'Berlin Calm in Face of Hitler: Rise in stocks indicate he will not disrupt nation's affairs.'
Inequities and injustices of all sorts derive from talking about economic exploitation as inevitable, unavoidable, and even necessary. And of building in racist discrimination. We continue to blame the exploited for their plight while celebrating the perpetrators of crimes against humanity as pillars of society.
Germans shine a spotlight on their Nazi past and their government makes reparations to survivors of Nazi crimes. While here in America, the KKK and neo Nazis march to protect monuments to 'heroes' of the Confederacy. And Republicans perpetuate and expand racist voter suppression schemes initiated by Dixiecrats.
Isn't it past time for Americans to prioritize truth and reconciliation, restorative justice and reparations, here at home?
38
There’s a reason why you never see black soldiers in those old footages of joyous WW2 sticker-tape parades.
When they came home, the black soldiers were quietly ushered from the back of the ships. The big celebrations were reserved for white soldiers only.
Also, wearing their uniform was especially dangerous for black soldiers going South. They were routinely attacked for “not knowing their place” (look at what happened to Isaac Woodard Jr).
84
Outstanding article, and kudos to Alexis Clark for excellent writing. I had a great uncle who served in occupied Germany in 1948. His stories about what he endured convinced me to join the Navy when I graduated from college in 1982. As a black man and a veteran I'm always grimly amused when remembering my great uncle's service in a racist army that destroyed a nation built on the foundation of racism and anti-Semitism. But, as he always said, it was far better to be a black man in Germany in 1948 than to be a black man in North Carolina in 1948.
52
My South Texas dad learned and unlearned a lot thanks to joining the US army and going to Germany in 1958-1960. Growing up in South Texas near the Mexican border, he unlearned a lot of the ingrained, cultural racism against Hispanic and Black Americans prevalent in small town America. I wondered why he did not absorb and pass down the racist thoughts and ideas like the people in his hometown or like his parents (my grandparents) and gathered from him that being together with people of different races 24 hours a day made him realize that there really wasn't a difference between men and that once you realize where prejudice comes from, that it is a incredibly destructive emotion that will destroy the life and community of otherwise decent people. In the army, my dad came to realize that everyone around him struggled, they all bled the same color but most importantly, that the person you think that you are prejudice against may be the person that will save your life and he could no longer see the point of maintaining his small-town values. He also mentioned the unfathomable destruction he witnessed in post-war Germany, the human cost and the destruction of all the ancient beautiful structures and art, all in the name of fighting "the other", how utterly pointless and depressing it all was. For this viewpoint and so much more that was passed on to me, I will forever be indebted to the US Army for breaking the cycle of prejudice within my family.
76
Even as late as 1970, there was evidence of residual Jim Crow policies among the G.I.'s in Germany. Whites only clubs were still operating. The difference mainly was by that time, African-Americans stationed there after tours in Vietnam just didn't put up with it. There were struggles between white and black G.I.'s, with many of them violent, but black resistance held there own and then some.
8
The Regular Army was riddled with Southerners after the Civil War (just look at the names of military bases in the South). They brought the beliefs that had started the war with them. Whether through cowardice, cynicism, or blind sentimentality, over the years Northern politicians ensured the particularly ugly institutional racism of the South would continue to infect all American institutions.
11
And sadly Trumpublicans want to bring these days back. Why?
26
@Curry
The nonsense ‘progressives’ actually believe...
2
The racist legacy in our military is the sole reason why I refuse to serve in our military. There is no way I would ever wear a uniform while racism is still baked in our military then and even now.
Outrageous to know this hypocrisy was a staple of our military !!!
BLM
10
@David Nice try. The military is a hotbed for Neo-Nazis and white nationalists. But I guess it's easier to feign outrage at someone else's outrage.
15
@David Not sure how you come up with this bit of delusion. America in February 2020 is still very much a racist society; what makes you think its military is any different?
7
Interesting story.
Another tragic tale around that time period in history, and as it relates to Black American servicemen serving
in Europe, was the tragic fate of the late civil rights icon' Emmitt Till's father. According to Author John Edgar Wildman Till's father was similarly killed 1945 on what Wildman suggest were false rape charges: https://www.npr.org/2016/11/12/501622050/emmett-tills-father-was-also-hanged-a-new-book-tells-his-story
12
@DAWGPOUND HAR Was not aware of that. Thanks for sharing.
1
Don’t forget the vicious beating of Isaac Woodard Jr.
Many black vets had to take off their uniforms when they returned to the Deep South after the war.
6
@Susi correct. Not many are aware of this matter with the Till family. So maybe many will now know of it.
Really a scary thing when you consider the odds such similar events occurred in the same family.
1
I was drafted in 1954 and assigned to a psychological warfare company in Germany. Transferred to a military intelligence unit because of my fluency in German located close to the East German border. In Kronach ,a small village, I was amazed to find that both the beer bars and the German women who frequented them "respected" American segregation patterns. Some served African American soldiers, others white soldiers. Some women dated Black GI's, some white. There seemed to be no cross-overs. Later, in Paris, I befriended Richard Wright who questioned me at length about this phenomenon. He intended to write about it but sadly died soon thereafter.
Herbert
Weiss Emeritus Professor. CUNY
;
23
@Prof. Herbert F. Weiss Did you happen to discuss James Baldwin with Richard Wright?
I'm reading a biography of Baldwin right now, and it repeatedly discusses their friendship (which arguably is better described as a frenemyship)... Baldwin criticized Wright's work and to a certain extent Wright himself in his essays more than once, which offended Wright, particularly as he had been very welcoming to Baldwin in NY when he was already a well-established writer and Baldwin was just beginning his career.
It's fascinating, because even though the tensions between them were never resolved, they still interacted in Paris, because the expatriate community there was relatively small, and anyone who regularly made the rounds of bars, cafes, restaurants, and clubs was bound to run into some of the same people again and again.
2
We repeatedly hear about "The Greatest Generation". Well, they were bigoted and racist as well as "great". My father and five of his siblings served in WWII, and their greatest motivation wasn't patriotism, but to escape life on the farm. Let's honor them but not make them into saints.
60
@Jeff
Exactly.
7
Really interesting article and gives more context to the African-American history and their contribution in the army. Few silver linings: Truman and the US Govt did the right thing by signing and desegregating the armed forces albeit it took 6 years for full integration. I bet Lonnie G Bunch Jr. was a better soldier and a wrestler than some of his white counterparts.
9
So much for the ever exalted "Greatest Generation".
8
As a whole, perhaps. But what about the racism that was so pervasive that black bars and white bars and German ladies who exclusively dated white or black men was a thing? Would you deny that? If not, doesn't it reduce the so-called greatest generation to just another, with its ordinary share of heroes, scoundrels, and those who like most of us nowadays simply held on for the ride?
5
Treatment by the Germans wasn't always so great either. There were a lot of racial misconceptions. When I arrived in Germany, late 70s, there was an old, black master sergeant there. I think he ran one of the motor pools. Anyway, he was winding down the end of his 30 year career and his first was the late 40s. He would love to talk to anyone who would listen (in retrospect, I wish I had recorded him!). He would tell stories about what the Germans thought was true about black soldiers. Including that black soldiers had tails. Many years later, when actually working on my degree, I researched some if this, and discovered it went beyond Germany, and was mostly perpetuated by southern white soldiers (and sailors).
15
@rino was there in the mid to late 70s. once in a while a child would grab at my nether parts because his parents may have told them we had tails. the kids were checking. never knew whether it was a prank or not.
1
@rino I suspect that a lot of that ignorance was easily overcome once Germans saw how the black soldiers actually came across.
Years ago, I saw a documentary (I wish I remembered its name) in which an elderly white British man spoke of his interactions with American soldiers stationed in his area during the war... with British drollery, he said, "I liked the American soldiers very much... well, except for the white ones."
His point was that many of the white American soldiers carried themselves with a sense of entitlement and rudeness toward the locals, whereas the black soldiers were generally more well-behaved and polite, without that sense of entitlement.
6
This story of the American military’s history of integration is more easily understood on the broader cultural stage of the time by watching American movies from the 40s/50s and early 60s. Blacks were usually portrayed as servants, prone to ignorance, superstition, and eye rolling fear. They were sly, and lazy, uneducated and easily confused. To watch these films now is a shocking realization of the absolute acceptance of white superiority then and its constant need in some quarters for that reaffirmation now.
16
My grateful, respectful thanks to African American men and women who served in US armed forces in and after WWII.
Your service in defense of liberal democracy was despite the cruel, violent, insulting, humiliating and profoundly disrespectful treatment by too many white Americans.
With love and a heartfelt wish your sacrifice and dignity will always be remembered and celebrated.
32
This reminds me a story my German mother (born 1926) told me. End 45 she had to see for my grandfather who had been hospitalised 50 kilometers outside her hometown in Northern Hessia in the deep countryside. No public transport and black American soldiers were the only willing to provide a ride and it seemed to her that all army petrol trucks were driven by black American soldiers.
17
This article brought back memories of conversations with my German grandmother about WWII and life in it’s aftermath. She was grateful to the occupying American soldiers restoring order and freedom. She had a difficult time reconciling why black service members were treated as second class. My dad loved listening to radio stations in the early 50s that were playing black music. It was looked down upon by many elders but an expression of teenage rebellion for him.
9
Really shameful that the US continued to segregate its Army while continuing to use African-Americans for propaganda, convenience, and cannon-fodder in Europe.
Not at all unlike how the British used Indian soldiers in WWI & WWII, especially fighting the Japanese in SE Asia including the battle of Kohima.
16
I worked in Stuttgart, Germany for more than five years. There are many older Germans who still remember fondly the kindnesses they were shown by black GI's post WWII. As a whole, being black and living in Europe is a lot less stressful than living in America, even today.
57
Not practicing what it preaches is a long-standing American tradition that continues through today. Starting with racism itself.
36
As a GI in Mannheim Germany, 1955-1956, I was very much involved in racial relations as an interpeter in German-American legal disputes. It seems a minor miracle how racial relations had improved since integration in the army in 1954. The only segregation I encounterd was when my best friend, an African-American, took me to a gasthaus frequented by African-Americans. (At the other corner was a gasthaus for Whites only.) As soon as I had entered the gasthaus, here was a very unfriendly request to get out of there. I respected this reaction since it showed that segregation still occasionally reared its head. Otherwise racial relations within the headquarters of the 34th AAA Brigade were tolerable, and a number of African-American GIs had German girlfriends. As I recall, there was a African-American lieutenant in the quartrmaster´s section.
6
A shameful era that we don't seem to have 'conquered' fully yet. No contrition?
5
Black Americans have been a part of our society for well over 400 years and have enriched us in countless ways in the arts, sciences, business, and sports.
All we get out of the ‘progressive’ press, of course, are endless articles about racism and discrimination as if that is the sum total of their experience.
Ten days left in Black History Month. How about some articles describing their heroism, achievements in science and business, positive impacts on our nation, etc.?
19
@EGD right on. I think that is a HUGE POINT.
1
It is especially sad to read this in 2020, when our progress on racial equality seems to be sliding backwards every day
11
The hypocrisy of this country is never on greater display than when discussing black military servicemen fighting for freedom for others whether inside the borders or outside.
16
One thing that I just learned from reading "Swing Shift" by S. Tucker, was that the white leadership in Germany was upset about black troops dating white German women. The military actually banned African American servicemen from marrying German women - even if they were already pregnant. Pretty horrific.
6
The unequal treatment of AA's with regard to the GI bill after WWII was real -- it is so blatant ... in your face ... It really explains the times. It's effect lasted through so many Presidents .. R & D
I have always though that this should be the way we attempt to repay those who served by providing college scholarship programs to the now offspring of those solders now in high school
12
In this age when everything is taken as political, I wonder how this piece will be read by today's Republicans? As an implicit indictment of white people, which given their quick evolution in to an ethnoparty, must sting? As a weapon to attack Democrats, who were nominally the party of racists then, before the party realignment after the Civil Rights Act? Or as "fake news"?
Some of us do strive to perfect this union, this great American experiment in democracy. And others would prefer to forget the past and the burdens it puts on today, simply because its convenient or because they won't pay the cost that others are made to bear.
7
Excellent article. Again it shows the good and the bad of American history simultaneously. US forces helped defeat the Nazis. The occupation forces brought Germany back into the community of allied nations. However, Jim Crow white supremacy still dominated American society and was blatantly apparent in our armed forces. The Soviets understood this and used it in their propaganda. President Truman deserves praise for Executive Order 9981. Meanwhile, Africans Americans contributed so much to building this nation and defeating the Axis menace. African Americans also played a crucial role in the Union victory during the Civil War. African Americans are the heart and soul and the moral consciousness of this nation. We are so much better now, but there is still so much more to do. Diversity is our strength.
14
I was stationed in Germany in 1973 for 2 years and you could still feel the remnants of WW2 hanging thinly in the air. But one of my best buds was George, one of us black, one white, and he and I hung off base in the town and never had a wit of a problem (unless one of us were late for roll call in the morning.
I do think black servicemembers did relish the 'freedoms' they experienced off base compared to the unspoken oppressive rules put upon them in the states and I remember many did have German nationals as girlfriends and wives and elected to be discharged in country to enjoy an unfettered life.
In the article what struck me was how the USSR would use the obvious hypocracsy of U.S. equality of race as propaganda. Maybe it is this kind of hypocracsy that has created an ingrained view by Russia of what the U.S. is today.
10
"All men are created equal."
The Declaration of Independence
(where 'our' actual "exceptionalism" is 'best' evidenced)
6
And that quote came from a slaveowner.
@Chris
So it is, if you missed my point, that exceptions are the broken heart of "American exceptionalism."
1
David Goldenberg in his seminal book, “The Curse of Ham: Race and Slavery in Early Judaism, Christianity, And Islam (Jews, Christians, And Muslims from the Ancient to the Modern World)” seeks to discover how dark-skinned peoples, especially black Africans, were portrayed in the Bible and by those who interpreted the Bible--Jews, Christians, and Muslims, covering a 1,500-year period, from ancient Israel (around 800 B.C.E.) to the eighth century C.E., after the birth of Islam. By tracing the development of anti-Black sentiment during this time, Goldenberg uncovers views about race, color, and slavery that took shapes over the centuries--most centrally, the belief that the biblical Ham and his descendants, the black Africans, had been cursed by God with eternal slavery.
Curse of Ham arguably explains the entrenched belief of the white race be it British, French, German or American considering the blacks as less than human and had no compunction dealing with the black race as they would treat a beast.
Utter cynical hypocrisy of the West stand exposed when Kipling defended the British colonial empire in his book White Man Burden as “colonial imperialism as the moral burden of the white race, who are divinely destined to civilize the brutish, non-white Other who inhabits the barbarous parts of the world”
4
I had the good fortune of meeting and interviewing two of the original crew members of the USS Mason - the only all-Black US Naval warship of World War II.
They ran nonstop anti-German U-Boat submarine warfare patrol missions in the deadly North Atlantic for over two years.
Their most vivid memories were of their total acceptance and welcome by the local town people of the British Isles when they were in port for resupply and refueling.
For most civilians, it was the very first time they had ever met a Black person and they would respectfully ask permission to touch these American Sailors’ skin to see if their color would come off.
Very often they would insist that these Black Americans be their guests in local pubs and in their humble homes for a meal as a sign of their appreciation for their service and sacrifice in fighting their common enemy - Hitler’s Nazism.
Fifty years later - “The Men of the Mason” - were formally recognized and thanked for their unique contribution to England’s freedom at a State Dinner by Queen Elizabeth in Buckingham Palace.
44
That’s the story of my grandpa.
He fought to liberate Europe, only to return to the tyranny of Jim Crow Alabama (he later fled to NYC). Meanwhile, his white comrades were feted with huge parades, military promotions and generous benefits from the G.I. Bill (education, housing, loans, etc). That bill was responsible for the largest expansion of the American middle-class, but black vets were effectively shut out. It took an executive order by Truman to desegregate the military in 1948 but the damage was done.
Black WW2 vets were essentially ignored and disrespected until those token ceremonies during the Clinton years.
I kept asking my grandpa why he was willing to fight for a country that treated him like dirt. His replies were “it was just youthful exuberance”, “there was not much to do” and “maybe white folks would respect me more.”
44
" Be Color Blind "
That's what we were told to end racism.
It will never happen if the media, every day, stirs the racism pot for political reasons.
I am white but if I were Black I would be sick and tired of being judged by things of the past that I had nothing to do with.
7
@Joe Paper Can you name a single problem that has ever been solved by simply pretending that it didn't exist? Because that is what you are proposing. We may not be responsible for the past, but we continue to benefit and suffer from it in ways that remain extremely unequal.
If you were black, you would be sick and tired of a whole bunch of things, but especially white people who sought to demean your lived experience by pretending to be "color blind".
6
@Jay Sands... Jay I think society is more colorblind than the media. I believe the elites in the media are hurting racial progress more than anything else. I think the media uses the victim card for political and commercial reasons causing what should be very strong people to be weak and reliant on government. Please give it some thought.Do your research. Try to be exposed to all opinions. Do not be afraid of what others will think of you.
1
@Joe Paper But you're not Black. Black people do not have the luxury, as you do, of living in a white skin. We do want to live our lives, work and raise our families and live. Too often, we are judged, erroneously and unfairly by our skin color. And we absolutely will NOT forget or dismiss the 400 plus years of persecution our ancestors faced as we toiled to build this country.
7
What's sad is that most Americans, black or white, do not know this history. They do not know much about World War II. But then, most Americans don't know much at all.
More people believe in ghosts than in the law of gravity. Go figure.
15
Please also write articles about the African and African diaspora colonial troops who fought in WW2 on behalf of Great Britain and France. The discipline and heroism of black soldiers from the US, Carribean, and Africa helped save Europe and the world from Nazi domination. The front lines involvement of black and other non-white nationalities in defeating Hitler is not known by most people.
16
I think the Vietnam war has been the corner stone between whites and blacks relationship.
3
An old friend of mine once told me that the changes brought about by the civil rights movement in Huntsville, AL went relatively smoothly, as compared to the rest of Alabama, because of the ameliorating effect of former nazi party members who helped developed the the U.S. space program. This assertion was butressed by later exposure to the book, "We Could Not Fail: The First African Americans in the Space Program.
The more sardonic side of my personality remains amused by the thought of ex-nazis trying to convince Alabamans to chill out their racism.
14
This racist behavior by the US military was nothing new. During WWI, black troops were assigned mostly to tasks such as unloading ships. The 369th (a NY regiment, the Harlem Hellfighters) was even transferred to French command because racist US units did not want to serve in combat alongside black troops. After the armistice, black troops were assigned to digging up graves to rebury the bodies in military cemeteries.
In WWII, after the Normandy invasion, American troops misbehaved badly, from drunkenness to rape and other crimes, such that the French civil authorities asked that they be moved on out of the area. See Mary Louise Roberts, What Soldiers Do: Sex and the American GI in World War II. US military authorities responded with courts-martial and executions that included disproportionate numbers of black soldiers. The NYT published an article on the way the European campaign had been presented to GIs as an erotic adventure.
4
Old news to anyone who grew up in the mid 20th century.
8
@David Sadly, many of today's aged privileged white snowflakes refer to those days as the "Good Old Days". They remember it exactly as it was, and liked every bit of their privilege. And they are not quite ready to give it up, hence, tRump.
9
During WWII German prisoners of war were allowed to attend USO shows for the troops. This included seating the German POW’s in front of the African-American soldiers. That’s all you need to know.
43
While we reminisce, here's food for thought.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_land_loss_in_the_United_States
1
Excellent eye opener. Truth must be extracted before understanding of who we really were and are begins. Thanks for shedding light on this darkness with your outstanding journalism.
2
This is American Exceptionalism at its core: democracy applies to all Except non-whites.
14
This is why my blood boils when I hear folks knock black NFL players for kneeling during the anthem while declaring veterans fought and died for their freedom. No, WW2, Korean and Vietnam vets fought and died to maintain white privilege.
46
There's an excellent movie, released in 1984, called "A Soldier's Story," based on the 1981 play by Charles Fuller, which won the Pulitzer Prize. It's a murder mystery, but much more, set in segregated Army base in the South during WWII. When I saw it Off-Broadway in 1981, it broke my heart when the men were so happy and proud to go overseas - to be cannon fodder for this country that treated them so badly?
Play is now on Broadway, I'm happy to say.
There's a recent book by Susan Neiman called Learning from the Germans," how US and Nazi Germany "swapped" tactics on how to mistreat untermenschen. Indeed, Hitler said he picked up tips from good ole USA.
13
President Truman was affected by the blinding of the black veteran Isaac Woodard in 1946. The U.S. military was integrated before the public schools in the southern states. Change has to start somewhere...
14
Integration of the armed forces didn’t actually happen until the 1954 Brown decision... and that was “integration by name only”
Ask any Vietnam vet how racially cohesive our military really was.
It certainly says something that an occupied defeated country that functioned like an ethnostate seemed to treat black soldiers better than their white counterparts.
11
I grew up in Munich in the 70ies and I can't overstate the influence American, and especially African-American soldiers have had on culture and our image of the US. Radio stations, jazz clubs, movies, artists touring Germany, and countless marriages, etc. There are a number of artists who have developed their career based on this influence.
Maybe this is why, we never perceived the US as "white". We always admired its diversity and thought of it as the number one advantage. After moving to the US myself, I sometimes find myself surprised to which degree some parts of white America seem to think the rest of the world is considering the US as white. Thats far from true. When people in other countries still love the US its for its diversity and real or perceived tolerance.
To me it's heartbreaking to learn, that the very same troops who liberated Germany from fascism, have been subject to segregation at the VERY SAME TIME. I remain thankful to them, and for the West-Germany I was able to grew up in.
44
I'm happy for the focus on this issue. I've been reading two books: Half Blood Blues, which is fictional and Spain in our Hearts, a historical account of the Civil War in 1936. What is astonishing in both cases is how little is taught in American schools about the contribution of African Americans servicemen and women In WW ll and with the Lincoln Brigade in Spain.
6
My father served in Germany in WWII and he quietly stated that while in theater he actually at times felt more safe and relaxed that at home in post WWII Mississippi.
29
The mind numbing white racism towards blacks in the US reported in this story is shameful. Blacks wanted to stay in Europe because there was no Jim Crow, outside the US military. Having served in the Navy in the 1980s one could see a great deal of comradery between the races but there still was an under current of racism that adversely effected black sailors.
4
The US is a difficult place to live despite the national propaganda about being the greatest country in the world.
16
These histories need to be told-- the proponents of make America great again, do not know our history.
Yes, the US was 'better' in many ways than other nations, but WWII as so many are praising now had many bad marks for us.
1. US did not allow immigration of Jews. In fact, Hitler had laughed and said, 'they don't want them either' and the US sent so many back to their death. (even after the war, many ships trying to immigrate to US and middle east were still sent back to Germany.
PS. head of the Boy Scouts and that time, did not even recommend Jewish children to come. Children! In fact so many Jews volunteered for some of the most dangerous assignments.
2. As, I might add, US solder of Japanese heritage.
3. the treatment of our Black soldiers. Not only WWII, but the Civil War as well, owes much of its final success to our heroic Black soldiers.
Even in the US in the 1950 many clubs, hotels, etc were still 'restricted'--no Black and no Jews.
Many of us know this story you have written about, but many don't. So, thank you for publishing this. We all need to hear it --and remember.
And to know our work for equal rights for all our citizen free of bias is STILL A GOAL.
18
Fighting racism with racism, U.S fought nazi racism being racist themselves in the country and the army abroad.
U.S history is full of contradictions between what they say they are and what they are.
Hopefully, history will teach us something about these mistreatments and wrongdoings.
4
Excellent article! Makes you wonder why the heck any African Americans ever served voluntarily? Unending insult upon insult.
10
I don't even have to read this. The gall of it all is that Blacks fought and died for this country only to be hated, ostracized, and racially profiled by this very country. THEN on top of that, Blacks were brought over here from Africa, against their will, stripped of their languages, identity, their families, and when this country was done using them to BUILD this country, the signs by ignorant racists read "go back to Africa." The ignorance of it all is mind-boggling and the fact that the ignorant racists don't see this is even more mind-boggling.
20
Let us also remember that the Nazi legal codes used to alienate and persecute Jews were inspired by American Jim Crow laws. Nazi legal scholars studied these American statutory schemes and used them as a blueprint for Nazi Germany's legal infrastructure on the treatment of Jews.
51
Makes me sick to my stomach.
4
This NYT article is still an illustration of what America is about. White Americans continue to use an extreme amount of energy to keep black Americans in their place to this day. Why? You have done just about everything evil one can do to another person that is seen as different than you based upon their hue.
Your inhumanity to other humans have made you collectively over time less than human, and you subliminally know this.
White Americans only way for redemption is to confront their historical past of Horrors to others. They won't do it, they can't, it's too ugly for them to even take a glimpse.
So, you elect a President DT that continues to promote this kind of hatred that makes you feel secure in your beliefs.
Meanwhile, the rest of the world looks in disbelief, finally realizing that this is what the real America was always about.
You show no shame, you think this is normal, you are Number 1, USA, USA.
33
Tell you what, after fighting Nazis, Jewish soldiers faced virulent Anti-Semitism in the U.S. military, even as they were sent to a defeated Germany to promote democracy — and to search for the remnants of their family homes and for members of their own families who perished without a trace in Nazi concentration camps.
Ask me how I know...
America’s ‘heritage’ of racism, Anti-Semitism and xenophobia didn’t take a holiday just because FDR belatedly decided to enter World War II — only after the nation’s own ox was gored at Pearl Harbor. But for that, America might well have continued to look the other way — and even then, its “America First” advocates continued to bar the door to hundreds of thousands of Jews fleeing the Holocaust, condemning them to their miserable fate.
26
Well done, Alexis...keep up the good work.
4
Unfortunately, this military segregation is part of the American experience. African Americans should never feel like second class citizens, evidenced by the service and heroism of their predecessors. I recall the story of the Tuskegee Ace who returned home on a ship, and when disembarking was faced with a “whites to the right, negroes to the left” sign. In our pursuit of a “more perfect” nation, Truman was able to see and act on desegregation despite resistance from southerners in his own party.
Not fair. Not right. But America’s black citizens are fully vested in our country’s imperfect fabric.
10
Not to be forgotten is the fact that the racial defintions propounded by the Nazis about who was a Jew were largely based on American definitions of who was a "Negro".
14
This illuminating article tells us that there white troops who were almost as hateful toward black American troops as they were toward their German enemy. To put it another way, those racist white troops had more in common with the Nazis they had just defeated than with their fellow (black) Americans.
22
This part of the history must be brought forward as well:
https://www.history.com/news/how-the-nazis-were-inspired-by-jim-crow
8
The truth at last: except for a few Nazi holdouts the German people were farcmore accepting of blacks and black culture than white Americans in Germany.
Yet Germans are still vilified today while “Good War” propaganda conceals endemic racism of many American white troops of that era. A corrective has been long overdue.
29
The executions of Black GIs for rape in Europe during WW2 is part of this collective shame.
How many white soldiers were executed for rape?
Vietnam Vet
11
please remind readers (and all Americans) that the GI Bill that helped so many returning soldiers really only helped white male soldiers. if the GI Bill had been implemented fairly we may have created a more equitable society than the segregated and unfair one we live in today. Growing up in the '60s in Baltimore I never would have guessed at the poverty, mass incarceration and systemic racism we condone 50 years on.
77
Interesting story here... Per the article, "it was not until 1954 that the military was actually integrated." Indeed, I've heard old hands refer to the Army through the Korean War as "the Confederate Army." Referring to the numbers of Southern whites who served as senior NCOs and officers. Also, there's an intriguing angle on how Soviet Cold War propaganda actually spurred a US reaction; a major civil rights shift in the Army and other armed forces, which certainly impacted public perceptions in the broader US populace.
29
Non-segregated units had better discipline and unit cohesion then. Especially in the combat infantry units where iron discipline must prevail....Or die! Our modern infantry does not have that vital element, except in the small, elite special forces units,.. that is!
8
Growing up in a small urban city, and while attending public schools in the late 50s, all through the 60s, then in the early seventies, we had a number of students whose mothers were German, and their fathers were of African descent. I have to say they all blended in well back then as far as I could tell.
22
The GI bill was meant to help returning soldiers. "Though the bill helped white Americans prosper and accumulate wealth in the post war years, it didn't deliver on that promise for veterans of color. In fact, the wide disparity in the bills implementation ended up helping drive growing gaps in wealth, education and civil rights between white and black Americans." The gap is still visible today.
72
Lots of ethnics were also discriminated upon in the Military during WWII, including my first-generation Italian American Father who was drafted during the War. He had lots of stories about the Military that he told me and my children and sad to see that "select groups" seem to get all the Press.
Discrimination was widespread during that period....sad but true! Terrible times on all fronts.
20
@Steve Good point-Just ask those Japanese Americans who put in internment camps
5
You are trying to minimize the horrific treatment of African American soldiers that served America and the injustices they face not only in America but as active members fighting for freedom for others and being denied the same human rights of freedom in America. That is irony. Yes, your grandfather fought but was he ever beaten for wearing his uniform or received hostile threats of death for just being a man to defend a country that viewed him as less than human. So, stop attempting to say that your ancestor encountered the same fate because he did not. Look at the contradictions and hypocrisies that have made America. Free labor for over 350 years from people of African descent and another 80 plus years of legalized segregation called “Jim Crow.” Walk in those shoes, first and then tell me about how everybody has encountered issues of discrimination.
16
@Steve This is for Black history month.
2
History matters. Learning about the treatment of black Americans, and especially our government's sanctioned systemic racism, allows us to see that the struggle for equality has been a heavy lift against massive entrenched forces; and it is ongoing still, despite the progress made. Reparations make sense.
22
Relative to this article, some readers may already know that during the war, Lena Horne entertained troops for the USO and walked off when the Army refused to integrate the audience. Get this, in the audience, the German POWs sat in front while Black Servicemen sat in the back. The story is that she went to where the Black Servicemen sat in the back and performed for them. What a classy lady she was. I love these articles because they teach as well as remind us about how far we have come as a nation, and how much there is still to be done. In retrospect, bitterness really has no useful purpose. Forgiveness does. To quote the fabulous Lily Tomlin- “Forgiveness means giving up all hope for a better past.”
90
@David
Black Americans have endured slavery and domestic terrorism aka Jim Crow and continue to struggle with their long lasting effects and no one has been held accountable , blacks have received no recompense yet they are instructed to offer forgiveness. No other groups are told to forgive, in fact, apologies, accountability and recompense are the order of the day.....if you are not black. No one would dare tell Holocaust survivors or Jews in general to forgive the Nazis, or tell Japanese-Americans or Native Americans to forgive the US government for its transgressions against them. The double standard remains in full effect.
28
@David
John Wayne dodged the World War II military draft that Joe Louis submitted to. So did Frederick Trump, Sr.
Ronald Reagan served making Hollywood movies about black military serving men like Vernon Baker, Edward Carter, Jr. , Charles L. Thomas, George Watson, John R Fox, Willy F. James, Jr,, Ruben Rivers, Benjamin Davis, Jr.and Doris Miller.
10
Times weren't much better during my three plus years in the Army -- 1968-1972. I can honestly say, I ended up as a Captain who served with African-American officers of equal rank. But aside from a couple of Majors, I don't recall serving with any Black 0-5 or above field grade officers. Fortunately times seem to be better now.
15
@Alan Day My time in Europe - '63 to '66 - was fraught with racial problems on our post. Growing up on the west coast, I was surprised by the overt racism that I saw in Germany. The mess hall was voluntarily segregated and if you ever saw a white and black soldier sitting together, they were in the band, of which I was a member.
7
In 1979 I served under who was (then) the highest ranking black officer in the Army ... Lt. Gen. Julius W. Becton. I enjoyed my time in his HQ. I remember him always being courteous, even to the lower enlisted. Rank appropriately of course.
6
My black African American father and uncles served in World War II in Europe and the Pacific.
And he and they were all still separate and unequal to any white European American in every phase of civil and secular life in Chicago Illinois.
With the exception of working for the U.S. Post Office or as local public bus drivers, cops, teachers or janitors.
Public schools were as segregated as was education, health and housing. Color aka race discrimination in the provate sector was legal.
And the G.I. bill didn't work to educate black G.I.'s nor to get them business nor mortgage loans.
His and their bitter anger simmered through the discrimination disrespect, marginalization and the ethnic cleansing terrorism directed at them.
Members of my family have fought in every American war since the Revolution and we are still waiting to be as divinely naturally created equal persons with certain unalienable rights of life,liberty and the pursuit of happiness as the Czech Ivana and the Slovenian Melania Trump.
91
I honor the black men and women that served in the US Army during WWII and the German occupation afterwards ... it allowed the construction of a democratic, free and peaceful Europe in which I live today!
And we must continuously protect the human values you unconditionally fought for, especially this moral principle that all men and women are equal and have the same rights, independent from race, gender and orientation!
27
Interesting article. My former PE teacher is an African American who served in Germany, in the 1950’s, and brought home a German bride. He could not buy a home, in California no less, until the mid-60’s. None of us all-White ‘knucklehead’ students knew what he faced but we never heard him complain. He was too proud to admit the discrimination he experienced and responded by displaying character, kindness, and tough love for his students...
67
What a great article. As a teacher, I constantly have to fight the such ideas that for blacks, things were only bad in the South, that once laws passed everything changed, that it wasn’t that bad, and that it no longer exists. White students are shocked when they read news articles and first person accounts from that time period. Then I ask them to compare them to recent events. It becomes very clear this society has never seriously dealt with racism, the legacy of slavery, and the legacy of Jim Crow.
71
Isn’t it odd to read this 75 years later? We actually have a history in which the POTUS had to sign an executive order desegregating the military. Southern lawmakers thought otherwise. We were truly backward. What will those that read these pages say about us 75 years from now?
35
Truman had no choice but doing it by executive order. A desegregation bill had no shot of passing in a very racist Congress. Most of the population was also opposed to it... and it almost cost Truman reelection later that year against Dewey.
19
It seems that today, like then, there are too many who believe that some are not American enough. Those people are not American enough to enjoy the equal protection of the laws enumerated in the 14th amendment. Those people are not American enough to participate fully in American society and chase the American dream. They are not American enough to exercise their right to vote without overcoming substantial obstacles to voting, or to enjoy the right of representation in the legislature (a right that Jefferson called “inestimable to the people”) without fighting endless battles in court.
So it’s no surprise that free blacks in the antebellum South were not really free, that black WWI veterans were lynched in the Red Summer of 1919, and that the segregationist dog whistles of Nixon’s Southern strategy are now the official rhetoric from the Party of Trump.
39
We had a neighbor, Earnest in New Jersey who was a Red Ball veteran. He married Erna, an Austrian woman and brought her back with him when he left the service. His wife told me of just some of the resistance they encountered from US officials in Europe.
They first lived in Harlem when they returned to the US. Erna loved Harlem. When they moved back to New Jersey where Earnest grew up, Erna experienced much more racism and often remarked wistfully about missing Harlem.
44
The knowledge that men--and women--who served this nation in war, who laid their lives on the line for us, were treated like dirt or worse when they returned is only a reminder of our nation's still divisive legacy of slavery. While most vicious in the South, the racism that these soldiers, sailors, and airmen encountered should be an embarrassment and a lesson to our nation. Unfortunately, as is obvious from watching any Trump rally or so-called White House Prayer Breakfast, or watching this President's attacks on immigrants or services that he and his foul supporters think especially benefit Blacks and Latinos, like Food Stamps and Medicare, racism remains a powerful force in this nation still today.
Before I retired just a few years ago, I worked at the largest private employer in a region of a northern state. With over 900 employees, there was not one Black and the only Latinos were cleaning the bathrooms. This in spite of a majority minority city being just 19 miles away and a constant stream of job applicants with darker skin.
Yet there are many Americans who deny racism exists today or that it even ever existed. Now the bigots have their own Federalist Society racist judiciary appointed by our racist President to ensure that discrimination will win in the courts. When will fair play and equal opportunity ever be embraced by all Americans? Or are we headed for another Civil War?
61
Children do not know prejudice. It is a learned manifest. The cutest story I ever read online was about a young white boy who got a haircut identical to his close friend, a young black.
The young boy laughed and said, "Now my teacher won't be able to tell us apart!" He didn't have a racial bone in his body because he wanted a haircut just like his pal to "Fool" the teacher.
It's too bad the world is still so prejudiced and bigoted about the color of someone's skin. It's time to get these so called
"differences" between white and black out in the open, and Muslim as well. The only people who can openly talk about these subjects are the comedians like Chris Rock. They can openly discuss the common stereotypes and mis-beliefs that we all have about each other. We need more of that dialogue. Because ultimately the Truth will set us all free.
20
This discrimination against black GIs continued into the 1970s, and also included other minorities, as well. And the unfortunate reality is that it has been reinvigorated by some, over the last three years.
19
For another story about how black troops were treated on their return from WWII, see the film or read the book, "Mudbound". It takes place in Mississippi in the 1940s when a black American hero soldier returns to his hometown. The white people's treatment of his sharecropper family brought me to tears. What is it about whites that make us vilify blacks? Why do we do that? Better yet, how do we stop doing that?
48
Let us remember that despite policies in place, not everyone thought of blacks as inferior or second-class citizens. My father flew 36 missions over Europe as a bombardier. In 1968 we welcomed a young black teen from Harlem into our home in Westchester in a system called "The Fresh Air Fund," where disadvantaged youths were housed with willing participants from the suburbs. Warren spent the next three summers with us, and myself and my two older brothers learned from him and he from us. When I said to him "You're chocolate!" as a 6-year-old, he came right back with "You're vanilla!" and that was the end of that. No one got defriended and no one videoed it for millions to see.
I know it's a drop in the bucket but some reading the article might think "Those rotten white people!" but not all or were like this.
25
@Zellickson I remember The Fresh Air Fund as a kid. Just the name kept me from ever going into that "program." Kids went back home feeling more deprived than when they arrived to spend a summer with families who had everything they didn't. These are the kinds of things that instill "separateness" in kids and Americans in general. That old, "boy I'm glad I'm here and not there with them." It's terrible when that kind of psychology is the only thing thought of to bring some "fresh air" to underprivileged children. Children who are deliberately left underprivileged in the supposedly richest country in the world where wealthy people give money to museum after museum and never a book or an extra dollar to public schools in those underprivileged communities. Hypocrisy is learned in the home first.
12
@DA You know, I've often wondered if the Fresh Air Fund made it more difficult for children who went back to their homes after the vacation, and their parents who had to explain why they didn't have what that white family had.
2
@DA Fine, my Dad was wrong, you're right, he should have just done nothing, white man bad.
4
Thanks for this article. Too few people understand just how awful these African-American soldiers were treated by the military and their fellow citizens back at home. They were truly at war abroad and at home but the enemy was a formidable foe, racism. Unfortunately, this enemy of human rights and dignity exists today, albeit not in such obvious forms all the time.
12
this is all true.
there are many stories from ww2 about white americans serving in the military causing problems in europe because they brought their racism with them.
they would start fights in bars and dance halls if the white women-- in whatever country americans were in--accepted a dance invitation from black soldiers.
or dating them.
after writing the above paragraphs, i'm a bit surprised to see this story.
seems to be 'old news'.
it's not as if this was unknown.
or is the american propensity for not knowing anything that didn't happen during their lifetimes, or perhaps, during adulthood?
18
@brupic The propensity is not to teach anything that will truly bring "Americans" together as one people and rid a cancerous culture of bigotry and hate against those who are different. It's easier to take from them what you need of what they have, and leave them without what they need to be better citizens. Sharing is not a human nor a typically American trait. The truth shall set us all free to live in peace and prosperous harmony.
1
@brupic
This history is not part of the history taught in schools as you probably know. Plus the transgressions of white GIs have been papered over by a “greatest generation” description that is clearly a lie when the actual facts such as this article are brought to light.
2
@Lynn in DC
that greatest generation thing drives me batty.
in the entire history of the world?
from a purely american standpoint,what about jefferson, adams, madison, franklin, washington et al. might be more than one generation, but....
post war--for 15-20 or so years--was not the finest hour for the usa at home.
the usa was part of an alliance in ww1&2.
it denigrates the others who were actually on the ground from day ONE during ww2....brits, canadians, aussies, kiwis, poles who fought for the RAF--and more. the soviets did more to beat the nazis than the other countries combined. the usa can take most of the credit for japan.
ps--here, there (&)everywhere was mccartney's greatest love song.....
2
You can see a performance of the 7800 Infantry Platoon in the 1950 film The Big Lift.
5
I think this history calls for refining the generic epithet, racism, as the intractable, seemingly ineradicable stranglehold of the Southern States on the Department of Defense.
5
@Carter Nicholas politics does not always produce a good result. sometimes it can take generations - but some people can learn. Truman is a great example of this change with growth. He did learn, grow and risk his election on doing the right thing.
1
Back in the latter part of 1966, I took a train to the Memphis Naval Air Station to take a required physical berfore I could be accepted into the Aviation Officer Candidate School of the U. S. Navy. I sat next to a black Air Force recruit who also was reporting for duty. Somehow I thought it significant then, and it was I suppose.
The military has long been a way for minorities to advance their status in the U.S.
5
Alexis Clark wrote: "Still, the fight to move beyond menial jobs and receive top ranks in the armed forces would continue for African-Americans well into the Vietnam War."
^ Interesting article.
However, The Times readership frequently reads a great deal about African-Americans who fought in either World War II or the Vietnam War and yet very little about those black troops who fought in earlier wars. It would be enlightening to read more about the experiences of black troops who returned to America after fighting for democracy in World War I.
Now, I understand the bulk of The New York Times' readership are Baby Boomers and that Boomers prefer to focus on the history of—or, at least, the history contiguous to—their own lifetimes such as World War II and Vietnam. Nevertheless, it would be edifying if The Times offered its readers more wide-ranging content that transcends the Boomers' limited time-frame. What about the experiences of black troops in the American Civil War, the Spanish-American War, World War I, et cetera?
With each passing year, there are fewer Boomers in the world and, consequently, there are more of us from other generational cohorts who are more interested in learning about the experiences of bygone persons who lived outside our own generational time-space.
9
Who's the true patriot. Reading this makes me sad.
4
As a former person from a British colony. I have never accepted that the two world wars were for humanity. The second world war was not to fight Germany for its holocausr. Both these wars were fought by two colonial powers, and a Communist dictator all white supremacists who believed that any one but European whites were inferior and they fought to save theirown power. And America joined them to save the white colonial power in Europe and eliminate Japanese power in the East. History is written by the victors to glorify themselves.
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I suspect it's not a coincidence that the military was integrated in 1954 the same year Brown vs Board of Education was decision was handed down in the Supreme Court.
New York City public schools are still mostly segregated. We have a long way to go...
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@HL Most public schools are segregated all over the country. It is the intertwining of race and class as an outcome of income levels that separate people into homogeneous neighborhoods. Capitalism does this, not schools.
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It’s not just about class.
High-income black people don’t necessarily live alongside rich white folks. Quite the contrary actually: They’re not really welcome in those neighborhoods.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/21/us/milwaukee-segregation-wealthy-black-families.html
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@HL actually it was in 1948 by executive order 9981
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Black women, as well as men, served in the U.S. armed forces in World War II. A new documentary film, "The Six Triple Eight," tells the story of the 6888th Women's Army Corps Battalion, which trained at Fort Oglethorpe in Georgia and served overseas in Britain and France. The primary duty of these 600 black women was at the Birmingham Airport in England, sorting mail sent from the home front to troops in the European Theater. Working three round-the-clock shifts, the women sorted some two million pieces of mail in three months, helping to raise the morale of the troops. The 6888th received very little recognition for its service to our country until recent years.
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@Bearded One Thanks for the info, I was unaware of The Six Triple Eight".
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@Bearded One
Today, in 2020, the US armed forces are now integrated by race, and discrimination on the basis of race is prohibited by law.
While of course there is still room for improvement in relations among all races, it is important to recognize that as far as discrimination is concerned we have come quite a long way in the 80 years since the 1940s.
Indeed, we recently had a period of 8 years when we had a black commander in chief of the armed forces, President Barack Obama.
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@Mon Ray
There is a significant white nationalist influence in today’s military that perhaps was not part of the recruits’ screening process.
The black president was subjected to a level of hate and vitriol that none of the other presidents experienced. The birther campaign and “you lie” public insult during the SOTU address come to mind, there are many others.
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I was an army 'brat' in the 60s-70s. By the 70s, the draft was eliminated, leading to an increase in Blacks and Latinos in the military. From my teenager point of view, the situation was much better. Soldiers with German wives were allowed to stay indefinitely, not obliged to rotate back to the not-so-good old USA, it seemed to me, integration was done as best as possible. Upon return to USA, I went to a still-segregated school in Louisiana (1964), black soldiers were mistreated by the locals, nothing had changed there. Going to integrated army schools, we learned there are good and bad people and it is not related to race or color. This has stayed with me. De-facto segregation should no longer exist in the school system. Any changes come from the young.
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@Jean louis LONNE Yes, I was a white Foreign Service brat in Ankara, Turkey in the early 1960s having previously lived in Fairfax, Virginia where I attended a segregated elementary school. The DOD schools I attended 6th-8th grade were my first exposure to an integrated environment. In the 8th grade I had my first African American teacher. These experiences were my introduction to a different and better world than the segregated Virginia of my early youth.
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After WWII we lived in Veteran’s Village at the state university while my father went to school. My first playmate in life was a black boy there, who I was too young to remember but we have photos. My parents caught grief because of this and because they were nice to them (we apparently had a car and would take them grocery shopping, that kind of thing).
My father, years later, said only “he fought too.”
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There is valuable information here -- worth being reminded of. The discussion and context of racism and discrimination and racism could be enlarged with a mention of the "Double V" campaign and its broken promises and then the structural and legislative discrimination in the post-war GI Bill. The housing and educational discrimination experienced by black WW II veterans who tried to take advantage of GI Bill benefits had a impact that continues today.
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@Mark Levy
Black World War II veteran George W. Dorsey and his seven months pregnant wife Mae Mary Dorsey were lynched in Georgia along with another black couple in 1946 .
Black World War II veteran Medgar Evers was lynched in Mississippi in 1963.
Black World War II veteran Lemuel Penn was lynched in Georgia in 1964.
See [email protected]
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@Mark Levy
Peter Cooper Village/Stuyvesant Town in Manhattan was constructed to provide affordable housing for returning WWII veterans (this after blacks and Puerto Ricans had been living in the area were forced to relocate), however black veterans were not allowed. Black veterans sued but lost the case as similar housing was constructed for them in, wait for it, Harlem.
Every time I walk by there on my way to the VA Hospital, I am filled with disgust when I think about what the black veterans before me had to endure. They fought, were maimed, and died for they considered to be their country only be treated as less than both abroad and when they returned home.
There is a good book called "When Affirmative Action was White" by Ira Katznelson and "The Color of Law" by Richard Rothstein on the segregation during that time.
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The housing and education discrimination against entitled black vets is a huge part of the wealth gap in place today. White WWII vets in many cases moved quickly from lower eonomic status that had been worsened by the depression, to solid middle class (and well above) due to those GI benefits. White boomers benefited from the unprecedented generational wealth this created for American white society. Not so for the black vets and their progeny. Full disclosure: I am white, I believe in facts. Thanks NYT for this informative story.
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A really interesting read. I recall a former German prisoner of war telling me (40 years ago)about the racism that he had observed in the US Army and about an African-American guard telling him that "he was a first-class prisoner compared to themselves, who were treated as second-class prisoners". I didn't really want to believe him back then (I was 15 years old), but this article reminded me of that story. Perhaps it was true after all...
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@P Battiau Believe or don’t believe - that’s a choice you get to make and be grateful. Black GIs didn’t get to make that choice.
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@P Battiau Not "perhaps" my friend, it was and still is all VERY TRUE.
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@P Battiau Perhaps an emotional block prevents you from seeing a negative side of America, or a lack of literacy skills and critical thinking, but whatever the cause, as a history teacher trained to corraborate evidence, these accounts are verifiably true.
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