In John Woodrow Wilson’s “Street Car Scene” (1945) shows a black Navy Yard worker in transit either to or from work. Despite his obvious patch indicating his involvement with the armed forces, he is still seen with disdain by the white passengers on the bus. This picture shows the war efforts of blacks. Just as there were black soldiers abroad, there were blacks involved in the war efforts domestically as well.
Despite being in service to their country, this did not gain the respect of whites. Blacks were still faced with discriminatory treatment and did not receive the same benefits as whites. Blacks also faced segregated living quarters in regiments. It was these conditions that led to the Double V Campaign. Blacks wanted “victory of racism abroad and victory of racism at home”(Donnally). The campaign pointed out the hypocrisies of the United States government. The argument centered around how a country fighting against the discrimination and hatred of Nazi Germany have such poor treatment of its own minority citizens?
The campaign was met with resistance by the Roosevelt administration, who claimed that all efforts and attention had to be focused on the war. This denial by the administration would set the scene for the height of the Civil Rights movement, which would come in the 1950s and 60s.
Works Cited
Bailey, Beth. Farber, David. “The "Double-V" Campaign in World War II Hawaii: African Americans, Racial Ideology, and Federal Power”. Journal of Social History, Vol. 26, No. 4 (Summer, 1993), pp. 817-843
Donnally, Jennifer. “WWII and the Homefront”
Metmuseum:John Woodrow Wilson
http://www.pbs.org/blackpress/news_bios/courier.html
Works Cited
Bailey, Beth. Farber, David. “The "Double-V" Campaign in World War II Hawaii: African Americans, Racial Ideology, and Federal Power”. Journal of Social History, Vol. 26, No. 4 (Summer, 1993), pp. 817-843
Donnally, Jennifer. “WWII and the Homefront”
Metmuseum:John Woodrow Wilson
http://www.pbs.org/blackpress/news_bios/courier.html