What did service in World War II mean for black soldiers in their battle for equal rights at home?

This question was explored Tuesday evening at Tusculum College during a lecture by Dr. Jennifer Brooks, author of "Defining the Peace: World War II Veterans, Race, and the Remaking of Southern Political Tradition."

Fighting in World War II was a paradox for black service men as they defended freedoms they didn't have at home, and the war gave them a strong resolve to change those inequalities, said Dr. Brooks, associate professor of history at Tusculum.

The question is not what we remember, but what we don't remember about the war," she said during her presentation, part of Tusculum College Arts Outreach's Acts, Arts, Academia 2005-05 performance and lecture series.

Most Americans have an understanding of World War II as the "good war," in which democracy defeated the threats of fascism, the reasons for the war were clear, the nation stood together to defend freedom, and the war effort fueled a long period of economic prosperity, Brooks noted.

The nation was fighting to preserve freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from want, and freedom from fear, President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared, and that understanding of the meaning of the war has dominated the thoughts of many, she said.

However, for black veterans the war had a racial significance as they struggled for civil rights at home. "The failure to reward these veterans with the freedom they were fighting to preserve is a smear on the face of American democracy," Brooks said.

Freedom was not the reality for African-Americans living in conditions of inequality in the southern states prior to the war. This racial inequality and the lack of economic opportunities meant that many black men in the South were eager to enlist for military service, Dr. Brooks said.

Surveys by the U.S. Army of service men for tests conducted during the war reveal that some black soldiers enlisted for patriotic reasons, she continued, but a significant number indicated that they were fighting with a hope that it would change social conditions at home once the war was over.

More than a million African -Americans served in the military during the war, and three-fourths of these were in Army service and supply units. There is a myth that black soldiers did not fight in combat and that service and supply units were safe, Dr. Brooks said.

However, the historical evidence shows that this is not true as black soldiers did serve directly in combat in tank units, infantry units, and as airmen, she noted, and the service and supply units were often at the front under enemy fire.

This leads to the question of why the myth about black soldiers' service in the war developed, Brooks continued. "To recognize their service in war at home was to have an obligation to the soldiers, and that obligation would have to be colorblind. And the South was not colorblind in the mid-twentieth century."

Once they returned home, black servicemen experienced the same inequality they suffered before the war. "Black veterans in the South were routinely bilked of their G.I. benefits," she said, explaining that, for example, some businesses would take the G.I. funds for training black veterans for good jobs, but not provide the training, instead giving menial jobs to the veterans. In Georgia, black veterans only participated in six of the 246 on-the-job training programs offered in the state, Brooks also noted.

This created a lot of bitterness on the part of the black veterans, she said. While researching for her book, Brooks listened to tapes of interviews of black veterans in Georgia. "One of these veterans was Doyle Combs and his sense of anger and rage really emanated across the tape," she said, reading one of his comments: "'I went in combat, and I lost a portion of my body for this country when I didn't have no right to fight whatsoever cause I didn't have no rights in the United States of America, as a black man. I was going to vote regardless [of] what it take.'" (sic)

Confronted with continued equality, the black veterans became active. They formed organizations or joined others that were fighting racial inequality, and were active in voter registration drives, significant after the war after a court ruling allowed blacks in the South to vote in primary elections, Brooks said. She said that black veterans did not join the Veterans of Foreign Wars or American Legion posts because of the segregation in those organizations at the time.

During this period, many black veterans also joined the CIO and helped in the union's efforts for worker rights. Brooks showed a photo she had found in the National Archives showing the rare occurrence of a CIO picket line that had both white and black veterans dressed in their military uniforms and holding signs with slogans that linked their wartime service with the strike.

However, despite all the efforts of black veterans, they still lost, Brooks said, as there was a white backlash following the war that delayed civil rights reform for a decade. "But, black veterans re-emerged as leaders of the Civil Rights Movements in the '50s and '60s and that effort . . . brought lasting change," Brooks said.

It is now our duty to reward these black veterans for their sacrifice and tell their story, recognizing their service gave the war its democratic meaning, she said.

The Acts, Arts, Academia program is supported by Dr. Sam Miller in the memory of Mary Agnes Ault Miller, Society of Cicero, and Tusculum College Arts Outreach.