|
      |
     |
African Americans
The armed forces of the United States fought with segregated units, but growing African-American protest would force the military to make a few changes. Although the Marine Corps had refused to accept any blacks at all, after 1942, as casualties in the Pacific mounted, and pressure from civil rights groups intensified, they were finally allowed to serve -- in segregated units. Fighting and dying like other American soldiers, African-Americans began to earn the respect of others, and demand it. At home, protests forced the defense industry toward more equal hiring practices.
The armed forces of the United States fought with segregated units, but growing African-American protest would force the military to make a few changes. Although the Marine Corps had refused to accept any blacks at all, after 1942, as casualties in the Pacific mounted, and pressure from civil rights groups intensified, they were finally allowed to serve -- in segregated units. Fighting and dying like other American soldiers, African-Americans began to earn the respect of others, and demand it. At home, protests forced the defense industry toward more equal hiring practices.
78 records found for “African Americans” |
 |
 |
Black Marines of the 51st Defense Bn. -- John Gray's unit -- with a gun named "Lena Horne." 1945.
Source: National Archives (127-N-121743)
|
 |
|
Cpl. Carlton Chapman is a machine-gunner in an M-4 tank with the 761st Tank Battalion doing battle near Nancy, France. November 5, 1944.
Source: National Archives
|
 |
 |
Poster depicting Dorie Miller, who received a Navy Cross for his efforts at Pearl Harbor. Done by David Stone Martin.
Source: National Archives (WDNS-208-PMP-68)
|
 |
 |
African American Marines train at Montford Point Camp, Camp Lejeune, New River, North Carolina. March 1943
Source: Library of Congress (LC-USW3-023006-D)
|
 |
|
New African American Marine recruits at Montford Point Camp, Camp Lejeune, New River, North Carolina. March 1943.
Source: Library of Congress (LC-USW3-022971)
|
 |
 |
Despite the bravery of African Americans in all of America’s previous wars, despite the argument made by the NAACP and others that “a Jim Crow army cannot fight for a free world,” the armed forces of the United States remained strictly segregated.
|
 |
|
Wounded American soldiers aboard an LCT are ferried to a hospital ship off Anzio, Italy. January 31, 1944.
Source: National Archives (111-SC-278921)
|
 |
|
At the Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyard in Baltimore, Maryland, welders help assemble the SS Frederick Douglas, a Liberty ship. May 1943.
Source: Library of Congress (LC-USW3-24141-C)
|
 |
|
Second Lieutenant Mildred L. Osby of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps, Washington, D.C. November 1942.
Source: Library of Congress (LC-USW3-010677)
|
 |
 |
Barbara Covington was born on February 16, 1924 in Sacramento. Her mother's family came to Oroville, California in the 1870s. Her father James William Covington had been president of the NAACP in Sacramento in the 1920s, but died when Covington was 3-1/2 years old. Covington moved with . . .
|
 |
 |
Sacramento's Barbara Covington and Jeroline Green at a Halloween dance. Both worked at McClellan Air Force Base during the war.
Source: Barbara Perkins
|
 |
|
Barbara Covington at a picnic at McClellan Air Force Base in Sacramento. Covington worked there as a typist.
Source: Barbara Perkins
|
 |
 |
Dressing up was hard to do when shoes were made of cardboard and came in only a few colors.
|
 |
|
There was wonderful patriotism and people willing to fight.
|
 |
|
African American soldiers of the 93rd Infantry Division cross the Laruma River on Bougainville with mortar shells. April 4, 1944
Source: National Archives (111-SC-196150)
|
 |
|
Thanks to African-American blood, Daniel Inouye survived his wounds.
|
 |
|
A Graves Registration officer attempts to identify the bodies of Americans killed in the Ardennes. January 11, 1945. Collecting and burying corpses was a task often left to African American soldiers.
Source: National Archives (111-SC-199094-A)
|
 |
|
African American Marines in dress blues, Harlem, New York, New York, June 1943.
Source: Library of Congress (LC-USW3-31097-C)
|
 |
|
African American soldier in Normandy, June 14, 1944.
Source: National Archives (080-G-252559)
|
 |
|
A newsboy in Redding, California sells an extra with news of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941
Source: Library of Congress (LC-USF34-071204)
|