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Movement Not Milestone:The Impact of United States’ Wars onAfrican-American Access to Higher EducationEric N. ReevesCTCH 821: History of Higher Education in the United StatesGeorge Mason UniversityDr. Mary Frances ForcierMay 15, 2014Introduction“The status of any group in a "democracy" may be determined by the extent to which it shares in making, interpreting, and enforcing the law, and its participation in national defense.” This role in democracy is one that had long been denied to African Americans, in spite of their long and faithful service to our nation. They have repeatedly been called upon to serve, but never fully employed in those specialties that most directly impacted the success of combat operations. Instead, they were relegated to positions of service and labor, and denied the opportunity to share proportionate risk in defending the country against its enemies. Upon their return, after having fought and bled for the country, they were returned to their status as second class citizens.In large part, the reason has been a balancing of fears. Whites in America have long viewed criminal behavior as an inherent characteristic of African Americans. This has led to balancing our fear of defeat by a foreign enemy with the fear of managing a large population of African American combat veterans; fear of not bringing to bear sufficient firepower against our enemy against the fear of training African Americans in the use of the latest weapons technology; fear of preserving the status of white military officers against the need for increased manning of the officer ranks. These fears have been perpetuated through hundreds of years of slavery and decades of “freedom.” The result has been a compromise that has weakened our nation’s armed forces, handicapped our wartime efforts, and embittered generations of African Americans.World War II is considered by many to be a milestone in African American relations in the United States. Gunnar Myrdal, a Swedish Nobel Laureate sociologist, predicted that the war would act as a “stimulant” to the protests already seen in the US, and a redefining of the status of African Americans as a result of their participation in the war. Charles E. Silberman wrote that the war was a "turning point" in American race relations, in which "the seeds of the protest of the 1950s and 1960s were sown.” The Second World War did play a significant role in the development of greater civil rights for African Americans; however, it is the intent of this paper to demonstrate that those pivotal factors of World War II that impacted African Americans – supportive national leadership, military service, access to education and training, migration – all had precedents set in our nations previous wars, and that impact of World War II is better represented on a continuum of development, rather than as a sole catalyst for change. Collectively, these factors represent a cultural “saga” that African Americans live with to this day.Revolutionary WarThe early years of our nation were built around the notion that slavery was a natural and proper condition for African Americans. As our first Commander in Chief, George Washington grew up in this environment and owned slaves his entire life, beginning at the age of eleven. Over time, his ideas evolved to the point where he wanted to gradually acquit himself of any slaves. These ideas evolved over time, but were most significantly impacted by his role in the Revolutionary War, wherein he “risked his life, his family, a sizable fortune, and a stable future for freedom from England and some idealistic concepts about the rights of man.” During his wartime travels, Washington observed agricultural successes that occurred without the use of slaves. He also witnessed African American soldiers in action, fighting in the Continental Army against the British. Within seven months of taking command of the army, Washington approved the enlistment of free African Americans, a move which he and his other general officers had initially opposed. Between 1775 and 1781, African American soldiers participated in practically every major military action of the Continental Army. Alexander Hamilton was the first to recommend to Congress the use of African American troops, stating “The Negroes will make very excellent soldiers. This project will have to combat prejudice and self-interest. Their natural faculties are as good as ours. Give them their freedom with their muskets. Humanity and true policy equally interest me in favor of this unfortunate class of men.” As the British stepped up operations in the South, Colonel John Laurens petitioned General George Washington for the use of African American soldiers as well, “Had we arms for 3,000 black men as I could select in Carolina, I should have no doubt of driving the British out of Georgia and subduing East Florida before the end of July.” Washington, arguing more from practically than from any sense of doubt about their abilities, replied, “Should we begin to form battalions of them the British would follow us in it, and the contest must then be, who can arm the fastest. And where are our arms?”As the colonists became more deeply enmeshed in their own fight for freedom, they increasingly questioned their right to enslave others. In return for African Americans service to the military, most states either freed them upon the end of their enlistment or at the end of hostilities with the British. Out of three hundred thousand Continental troops who fought in the Revolutionary War, five thousand were African American. African Americans were not formed into segregated organizations, but were used to fill the depleted ranks as reinforcements for the Continental regiments. They fought side by side with whites and, for the first item, in some limited capacity, were viewed as equals. However, there remained a distinction between legal protection – a theoretical right to life, liberty, and property – and political and social equality. Southern colonists, being more reliant on slave labor for their plantations, objected to the idea of service for freedom and denied African Americans this opportunity. Consequently, even those who morally sided with the North and the idea of independence for the colonies were influenced to remain loyal to the British. In spite of Southern attitudes, the British Army also adopted a “freedom in exchange for military service” policy, which resulted in an estimated fifteen to thirty thousand African American slaves joining the British Army. Basic education in reading and writing was generally discouraged as it was seen to be incompatible with the institution of slavery. Much of what education did exist was self-education or education provided by slave owners in violation of state laws. However, many slaves brought with them those skills that were required to make plantations economically self-sufficient. They had received training as blacksmiths, carpenters, coopers, shoemakers, tanners, spinners, and weavers, and were able to use these skills to support the military organization to which they belonged. These skills were found to be of great value to their military commanders, and often contributed to a greater willingness by either side to enlist a slave into their organization. When the war ended, the ranks of African Americans in the military were decimated, and in 1792 the United States Congress passed an Act restricting military service to “free able-bodied white male citizens.” Their service and heroism of African Americans was largely forgotten by the population at large. The spread of the emancipation movement during and after the Revolutionary War was supplemented by certain Quakers with renewed demand for African American education. The Quakers were one of the first groups to advocate broader education of freed slaves. This was later supported by the Catholics, especially Jesuits in Louisiana. Participation in the Revolutionary War filled African Americans with a greater sense of self-determination, and with the bits of education that they gained here and there from Catholics, Episcopalians, Methodists, Quakers and others, they began definite efforts for their own uplift.Inter War/Antebellum (1781-1860)By 1800, the northern states had either abolished slavery or instituted measures to gradually reduce it. By 1810, the African American population in the United States consisted of 1,181, 362 slaves and 186, 448 freemen. A significant number of free African Americans migrated to northern cities where they had better economic opportunities and greater access to formal education. Between 1848 and 1860, more than 5,000 African Americans migrated to the West with the California Gold Rush. This presaged the greater migrations to the North that would occur in conjunction with the Civil War, World War I, and World War II.When James Madison entered his presidency in 1809, it was in the wake of the passage of the Act of 1807, a comprehensive attempt to abolish the slave trade. Like George Washington, Madison expressed in conversation and in his writings, his struggles over how best to eliminate slavery. A slave owner himself, Madison wrote in the Federalist, “[W]e must deny the fact, that slaves are considered merely as property, and in no respect whatever as persons. The true state of the case is, that they partake of both these qualities: being considered by our laws, in some respects, as persons, and in other respects as property. In being compelled to labor, not for himself, but for a master; in being vendible by one master to another master; and in being subject at all times to be restrained in his liberty and chastised in his body, by the capricious will of another, the slave may appear to be degraded from the human rank, and classed with those irrational animals which fall under the legal denomination of property. In being protected, on the other hand, in his life and in his limbs, against the violence of all others, even the master of his labor and his liberty; and in being punishable himself for all violence committed against others, the slave is no less evidently regarded by the law as a member of the society, not as a part of the irrational creation; as a moral person, not as a mere article of property.” Madison continued to struggle with the issue of slavery throughout his presidency.At the beginning of the nineteenth century, Britain’s continuing war with France led them to impress American merchant sailors into the British Navy. In response, Congress issued the nation’s first declaration of war. The Army was still bound by the law of 1792, and continued to deny enlistment by African Americans. However, this war was primarily a naval engagement and, due to the Navy’s chronic shortage of manpower, had no legal constraints regarding the enlistment of African Americans. Many African Americans from the North joined the Navy, eventually comprising about one-sixth of the naval forces, and fought in all areas of naval battle and operations. As during the Revolutionary war, many slaves in the South envisioned better prospects away from their captors and approximately 3000-3500 slaves escaped to the British who promised them freedom and land in British possessions. African Americans continued the tradition they began during the Revolutionary War, and fought with bravery alongside the white service members.During this timeframe, the persistent institution of slavery in the South negated the need for a structured higher education system for African American students. Fear of “learned” African Americans piotnetially leading uprising caused the slave owners to continue to prohibit the teaching of reading and writing. In the North, white philanthropists established the Institute for Colored Youth (Cheyney University of Pennsylvania) (1837), the Ashmun Institute, (Lincoln University, Pennsylvania) (1854) and Wilberforce University (Ohio) (1856) to provide religious education and limited training in basic skills. These institutions met with limited success due their poor financing and because nationally the vast majority of African Americans were still slaves.Civil WarAbraham Lincoln has the distinction of having the only presidency “bounded by the parameters of war.” He ran on a political platform that opposed the slavery policies of his predecessors – Pierce and Buchanan - but he was more adamant about states’ rights and acknowledged that only they could outlaw slavery within their own borders. While he was opposed to slavery, he made it clear throughout 1861-1862 that the North was fighting the war to preserve the Union and refused any compromise that would allow Southern secession. In his letter to Horace Greeley on August 22, 1862 Lincoln explained that, “I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution… My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union…I have here stated my purpose according to my view of official duty; and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men everywhere could be free.” Frederick Douglas wrote what many African Americans feared: “The only danger which we apprehend to the North, is a spirit of compromise, (so called,) which always means, unjustly conceding to wrong a large half of what justly belongs to right, for the sake of peace and preserving the Union.” As hostilities between the North and South increased, the Union experienced a decrease in the enlistment of white volunteers. President Abraham Lincoln responded by asserting in the Emancipation Proclamation that that participation of freedmen and former slaves in the war effort was a necessary measure. Consequently, in March 1863, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton began the systematic recruitment of African-Americans. Although, hesitant at first, the South experience a similar revelation of the value of the slave as soldier. In September 1964, Henry Allen, Governor of Louisiana, wrote to James Seddon, the Confederate States Secretary of War, requesting that they “put into the army every able-bodied negro man as a soldier.” Allen remarked, “We have learned from dear bought experience that Negroes can be taught to fight…They will make much better soldiers with us than against us.”The Union initiative to actively recruit freedmen and former slaves also began one of the most significant innovations of the time - “the institution of a national welfare program to aid and educate the oppressed, destitute, and illiterate Negro.” Recognizing that a newly freed African American population could not function efficiently without a rudimentary education, Major General Ulysses Grant appointed John Eaton as the Superintendent of Negro Affairs in the Department of the Tennessee (consisting of the state of Tennessee, as well as portions of Mississippi and Kentucky). In an effort to attract instructors for the former slaves, Eaton was empowered to furnish teachers with meals, transportation, and housing, and to confiscate the homes of rebels to use as schools.Many of the Northern officers also felt it was their moral duty to help educate their recently-freed soldiers. They appointed teachers, hired assistants, organized schools, and instituted well-developed educational programs. Being exposed to education for the first time in their lives, most exhibited keen interest in learning how to read and write. In one Louisiana brigade, more than 500 African-Americans learned how to read and write in less than six months. As organized schools expanded within the Union Army, African-Americans were taught reading, spelling, writing, mathematics, grammar, geography, history, sewing, and sometimes gymnastics. “These improvements in learning fostered self-dependence, higher morality, family cohesion, cleanliness, thrift, and political awareness among the freedmen.”By the time the Civil War began, African American adults outside the South had established social structures that provided them access to education in several other forms – civic, intellectual, and spiritual. Free African Americans, with the means to do so, were able to improve their education through church and other clubs and societies. They learned to take “pride in their cultural heritage, enhance their confidence and self-image, and develop consensus on appropriate behavior and living standards.” Most in the South were developed under protest from the old slaveholder who “cried out against them, using the most violent invectives and denunciations, showing that the measure struck a radical blow at their favorite system.” Many of these African American groups and societies served as a means of self-protection through their collective action against the laws and acts of violence directed against them. After the Civil War, more HBCUs were established to provide for the education of the newly freed slaves. Most of these institutions were established in the southern states under the auspices of black churches, white philanthropies, and the Freedmen’s Bureau (Federal Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands). The Freedmen’s Bureau helped to establish Howard University (Washington, D.C.), Atlanta University (Georgia) (Clark Atlanta University), St. Augustine’s College (North Carolina), Fisk University (Tennessee), and Johnson C. Smith University (North Carolina). Churches such as the American Missionary Association, the Disciples of Christ, and the Methodist Episcopal Church founded colleges such as Tougaloo College (Mississippi), Dillard University (Louisiana), and Talladega College (Alabama) for religious education and training..Many writings about African-American migration focus on the movement that occurred during the World War I and World War II eras; however, migration from the South plays a prominent role throughout African American history. Between 1879 and 1881, approximately sixty thousand African Americans migrated to Kansas and the Oklahoma Indian Territories from Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Alabama, Tennessee, and North Carolina in 1879. The agricultural depression in the lower Mississippi Valley provided an economic motivation for the exodus, but a far greater reason was the continuing oppression, injustice, and violence heaped upon African Americans.World War IIncreasingly African Americans began to view armed conflict as their only means of breaking free from “the fetters of this era of new slavery” and were advised by religious leaders to “spend their money for guns and military education.” Woodrow Wilson made no distinction between educated and accomplished African Americans and whites as far as his personal relationships were concerned; however, he saw a great difference between the larger masses of African Americans and whites who he thought “were progressing at different paces and on different evolutionary levels of civilization.” Wilson saw the “race question” as primarily a large-scale social problem define by centuries of history and fundamental differences in cultures. He believed this issue was one that he could not be expected to resolve during his tenure as President. While he was involved in addressing the more egregious issues that arose, after the outbreak of World War I, Wilson tended to refer matters involving African Americans to his department heads and his private secretary. In 1916, a bill was submitted to the United States Congress intending to restrict the enlistment or re-enlistment in “either the Army or Navy, any person of the negro or colored race.” Senator Thomas Taggart sent a letter to the Secretary of War requesting support in opposing such a bill. On August 30, 1916, Newton D. Baker, Secretary of War, responded: “Those who are familiar with the history of our country from the armies organized by George Washington in the American Revolution down to the present day know that brave and often conspicuously gallant service has been rendered by colored troops. In the most recent instance, at Carrizal, in Mexico, these colored troops conducted themselves with the greatest intrepidity, and reflected nothing but honor upon the uniform they wore.”During World War I, four hundred thousand African American soldiers were drafted or enlisted and two hundred thousand served in France under white officers and twelve hundred officers of color. African Americans acquired the training necessary to serve in an increasingly more complex and mechanized military environment, and served in all branches of the military available to them - cavalry, infantry, artillery, signal corps, medical corps, aviation corps, hospital corps, ammunition trains, stevedore regiments, labor battalions, depot brigades, engineer regiments, as regimental clerks, surveyors and draftsmen.African Americans had gone into World War I with high morale, generated by the belief that the democratic slogans literally meant what they said. Most African Americans succumbed to the "close ranks" strategy announced by the crusading NAACP editor, W. E. B. Du Bois, who advocated subduing racial grievances in order to give full support to winning the war. But the image of a new democratic order was smashed by the race riots, lynchings, and continued discrimination. The result was a mass trauma and a series of movements among African Americans in the 1920s which were characterized by a desire to withdraw from a white society which wanted little to do with them.The 1910s and 1920s also brought major changes to the HBCUs, spurred primarily by nearly four hundred thousand African American members of Armed Forces who returned from World War I seeking higher education opportunities. Black colleges had been predominately controlled by white administrators and teaching staffs, but the return of these men, many of whom had served in leadership positions during the war, contributed to a changing complexion of leadership at the HBCUs. These veterans sought a variety of higher education opportunities to continue and deepen the training they had received in the military. By 1915, Howard University and Meharry Medical College had established professional schools for medicine, dentistry, and pharmacy, and Howard offered law degrees. In addition to these professional degrees, Howard and Fisk began and expanded offerings in undergraduate and graduate programs. About 40 percent of the students at Fisk University were enrolled in scientific fields in 1915 Other HBCUs dropped their teacher education and training programs; expanded their course offerings in liberal arts, sciences, and other subject areas; and began to offer college degrees.The beginning of the war also opened up new economic opportunities for African Americans. As the fighting spread, European customers required a continuous flow of munitions and food, which subsequently increased demands on American companies. The pool of European immigrants that had formerly provided labor for these companies was now drying up, as the influx of worker that might have come to the United States had instead chosen to remain in Europe an defend their homelands. As the war effort accelerated, American men volunteered or were drafted into military service. This combination of influencers opened the doors for African Americans enter industries previously denied to them. As company owners and managers suppressed their own prejudice to attract the workers they needed, word of the willingness of northern companies to hire black workers spread across the South.A migrant's place of residence in the South often influenced where he or she settled in the North. Since most migrants had little money, they used the cheapest and most direct route north. Afro-Americans living along the Atlantic seaboard usually traveled up the East Coast to live in cities like Philadelphia, New York, and sometimes Boston. Many residents of Georgia and Alabama settled in Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Detroit. Mississippi and Louisiana residents frequently relocated to Chicago. By the end of World War I, about 500,000 black Southerners had moved north. This migration would continue through the next decade until, by 1930, approximately 1.6 million African Americans had migrated from the rural South to the industrial North. This northern migration contributed to labor shortages on southern farms, and in mining, lumber, and manufacturing industries, which saw further urbanization by African Americans from the farms to the industrial centers of the South.World War IIMary McLeod Bethune, one of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s national advisor’s, noted that the Roosevelt presidency represented “the first time in their history that African Americans felt that they could communicate their grievances to their government with the expectancy of sympathetic understanding and interpretation.” It was during the New Deal that racism was fully exposed as a national issue and Roosevelt took steps, albeit cautiously, to battle racial injustice. He appointed a greater number of blacks to positions of responsibility within his government than any of his predecessors, appointed an African American as a federal judge; promoted a black man to the rank of Brigadier General in the Army; and was the first president to publicly call lynching “a vile form of collective murder.” Overall Roosevelt’s administration tripled the number of Africa Americans working for the federal government, including thousands of black engineers, architects, lawyers, librarians, office managers, and other professionals.When the war crisis of the 1940s came along, the memories of World War I were recalled with a great degree of bitterness by the African American community. Whereas World War I was primarily a European war, World War II was a global war and a fundamental struggle of hemispheres. In World I the political supremacy of the "white" race was not challenged. In this war, non-white races demonstrated the ability to engage in sophisticated military operations with advanced technology armaments. However, when war began in Europe in 1939, many African Americans viewed it as a “white man’s war,” and tended to adopt an isolationist attitude. Ernest Calloway, educational director of the United Transport Employees of America, requested to be “exempted until “true citizenship” is conferred.” Calloway expressed the sentiments of many African Americans at the time by contesting that “the U.S. Army has withstood democratization, especially in its relations to Negroes, and there is no visible indication of an immediate change in this vicious racial status quo despite the fact that American democracy is preparing for its greatest struggle against the forces of ignorance, prejudice and dictatorship.”In 1940, over ten million adults in America had an education no higher than the fourth grade; one out of every eight adult males was illiterate. The status of African-Americans at that time didn’t make this fact an issue, but when the demands of the war became critical, and it was realized that the armed forces might lose the services of three-quarters of a million physically fit people because they were illiterate, it was decided to salvage these people for the war. Thus, an historic attack on illiteracy was undertaken. Tens of thousands of service men, both white and African American, were sent to school by the military. The latest, most scientific types of teaching materials were used. Subject matter was made vivid for the students by relating it to their military duties. Specially prepared textbooks, such as The Army Reader, describing in simple words a day with Private Pete, were used. Bootie Mack, a sailor, enlivened the pages of The Navy Reader. Besides its literacy program, the Army and Navy offered a wide range of training, much of it useful in some form for civilian life. Courses were given in psychology, postal service, water purification chaplain's service, carpentry, painting, map reproduction, drafting, fuels and ignition, accounting and auditing, medicine, physical therapy, optical repair, cooking and baking, instrument repair, tire rebuilding, Diesel mechanics, watch repair, navigation and a host of other subjects. Although African American, because of the military's racial policy, did not share in these programs as liberally as did whites, many did manage to obtain valuable types of training that they probably would not have been able to get in civilian life. For African Americans in the armed forces this meant, along with whites, schooling in mechanical skills for a mechanical war. It was a long-sought opportunity, and hundreds of thousands eagerly pursued it.In a fashion similar to that beginning during the First World War, a second great migration began in 1940 and lasted until 1970. As the war progressed, large-scale defense production required increased labor in the automobile, rubber, and steel industries. By this time, many African Americans had acquired urban and technical job skills, and saw a new opportunity to escape the discrimination that still existed, especially in the South. California was especially attractive as workers who had been limited by segregation to low-skilled jobs in some cities were able to get training for highly skilled, well-paid jobs in California shipyards. During that time, approximately five million African Americans move from the South to the North, Midwest and West. By the end of this Second Great Migration, more than eighty percent of African Americans lived in cities. Fifty-three percent remained in the South, forty percent lived in the Northeast and North Central States and seven percent lived in the West.In spite of the need for increased industry, “charges of racial discrimination by private employers and by the nation’s armed services were put before congressional committees.” Roosevelt responded by issuing Executive Order 8802, which created the Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC). This order stated that the federal government would not hire any person based on their race, color, creed, or national origin. The FEPC enforced the order to ban discriminatory hiring within the federal government and in corporations that received federal contracts. Millions of African Americans and women achieved better jobs and better pay as a result. The war brought the race issue to the forefront. The Army and Navy had been segregated since the Civil War. But by 1940 the African-American vote had largely shifted from Republican to Democrat, and African-American leaders had become recognized as part of the Roosevelt coalition. Following World War II, the demand for higher education increased rapidly. The G.I. Bill, originally intended to prevent the mass of returning soldier from flooding the job market, symbolized a new era of mass access to higher education. The number of veterans taking advantage of GI Bill benefits far exceeded the expectation of the government, as well as the college and universities, and induced strains on the academic infrastructure. Historical neglect of and inadequate financial support to HCBU were further exacerbated by the strain of the Great Depression and the War. African American veterans had the opportunity to attend many colleges and universities in Northern states; however this was logistically impossible for many. Consequently, HBCUs, still predominately located in the South, continued to expand throughout the 1940s to serve their needs. By the end of World War II, African American veterans accounted for about one third of the enrollment at HBCUs. The decline in tuition revenues resulting from decreased enrollment, were somewhat offset by aid received from several philanthropic organizations—such as the United Negro College Fund, the Peabody Educational Fund, and the Julius Rosenwald Fund. However, even this aid could not fully bring these organizations up to the levels of their white counterparts.ConclusionAfrican American soldiers returned from service in World War II much as their predecessor had returned from previous wars, to a country that would generally discount their service to the United States and to the countries of Europe and Asia. It was the global perspective of this was that perhaps played the most significant role in the change of attitudes of the African American community. Where formal education had been denied, exposure to global issues and perspectives increased the awareness of what was attainable to those willing to fight for it. Combined with what was seen as a pattern of betrayal after each war, the seeds of the civil rights movement had been germinating for over a century.The role of our national leadership during each of these conflicts as is related to African American service, was consistent in terms of the overall impact on African Americans. In each case, the President was generally supportive in their view of the need to abolish slavery, but the differences in society’s respective views of slavery impacted how the leadership would respond. During the formation years of our nation, they failed to institute broader initiatives that would abolish not just the slave trade, but slavery itself. As we progressed into the modern era, leadership seems to have been influence more by electoral politics than the differences between them influenced primarily by the broader acceptance of slavery within the societies of their times.During each of our major military conflicts, African Americans distinguished themselves through numerous acts of courage. Their fellow soldiers and commanders recognized their value as men, not just as slaves. African Americans brought skills they had acquired on the farms and plantations where they worked and contributed to the betterment of their fellow soldiers. They availed themselves of every educational opportunity available to them, beginning with the fundamentals of reading and writing, and becoming progressively more skilled as our military conflicts became increasingly more technically advanced.Civilian universities were formed prior to the Civil War to educate the African American population that could obtain education in no other way. Their means for sustaining operations was negatively impacted during our engagement in wars, as resources and potential students were shifted to support wartime efforts. Yet after each conflict, African American veterans eagerly sought out the opportunity for higher education to augment and expand the skills they acquired during military service, and to add new skills with an enthusiasm for what they hoped would be a less discriminatory nation. The post-World War II G.I. Bill of Rights contributed significantly to this movement, as many financially disadvantaged African Americans now had the means to contribute to their own uplift and advancement.Finally, our nation’s wars contributed significantly to a one hundred and twenty migration of African Americans from the rural (and later industrial) South to cities throughout the country. Whether heading West with the Gold Rush, North for jobs supporting wartime industries, or elsewhere to escape the poverty and discriminated to which they had been subjected, this migration change our national landscape making more rich in cultural heritage, and at the same time, creating new social problems the extend into today.Collectively, these events comprise a cultural heritage that continues to impact the thinking and societal roles of many African Americans to this day. Having experienced generations of post-war neglect, African American military veterans of both world wars pressed for full civil rights and often led activist movements. In 1948 they gained integration in the military under President Harry Truman, who issued an Executive Order to accomplish it. Generations of military service contributed to this culmination of events, and should be recognized not just as a single milestone, but as a centuries-long movement toward freedom and integration in which military service provided impetus.BibliographyAtkins, James A. “Negro Educational Institutions and the Veterans’ Educational Facilities Program,” Journal of Negro Education 17, no. 2 (1948): 141-153.Blassingame, John W. “The Recruitment of Negro Troops In Maryland," Maryland Historical Magazine 5 no. 8 (1963): 20-29.---. “The Union Army as an Educational Institution for Negroes, 1862-1865,” The Journal of Negro Education 34, no. 2 (1965): 152-159.Blumenthal, Henry. “Woodrow and the Race Question,” Journal of Negro History 48, no. 1 (1963): 1-21. Clark, Kenneth B. "Morale of the Negro on the Home Front: World Wars I and II," Journal of Negro Education 12 (1943): 417-428.Cornish, Dudley T. 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New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1939.Welch, Kelly. “Black Criminal Stereotypes and Racial Profiling,” Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice 23, no. 3 (2007): 276-288.Wilson, Joseph T. The Black Phalanx: African American Soldiers in the War of Independence, the War of 1812, and the Civil War. Cambridge, MA: De Capo Press, 1994. ................
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