[0:02]During the Second World War, more than a million African Americans served in the United States military. While so many were risking their lives for freedom abroad, black people at home were being denied equal protection of the law. The cruelty of this contradiction led to the Double V Campaign.
[0:28]African Americans have fought in every major war since the nation's founding. During World War I, black leaders had encouraged African Americans to put aside their concerns about civil rights and to demonstrate their patriotism. African Americans fought in that war and they had come back and been very, very disappointed. The people thought racial integration was gonna get jump started after World War I. Instead what you found was the Red Summer of 1919 where black people were dehumanized, brutalized, murdered. During World War II, African Americans were still being recruited to fight in segregated units. So they took a different tack. In January 1942, one of the most influential black newspapers in the country, the Pittsburgh Courier, published a letter. It was titled, 'Should I Sacrifice to Live 'Half-American'?' In the letter, a young black man named James G. Thompson, asked, would it be too much to demand full citizenship rights in exchange for the sacrificing of my life? His letter resonated with the public, and the overwhelming response to it led the newspaper to launch its famous Double V Campaign. The Double V campaign. Victory over fascism abroad and victory over racism at home. The rhetoric of democracy becomes very, very much emboldened nationally and internationally. African Americans who are fighting overseas demand that they're compensated. Not in a monetary way, but in terms of the currency of democracy. World War II ended in 1945 with victories abroad in Europe and Japan. And here at home, a form of victory came three years later when President Harry Truman signed an executive order designed to commence the desegregation of the military. But this was only the beginning. Black veterans returned home determined to lead the battle for civil rights, and the war against Jim Crow was set in motion.
