The Importance Of African Americans In World War II

African Americans had a key role in Americas success during world War II. Although not all African Americans were brought into the war, there were a large amount that joined. These soldiers that were accepted into the war were beneficial in several ways. At first, white Americans did not want to accept the African American soldiers into the war, but when desegregation was encouraged within the military, the war changed completely. Desegregation was an important factor in the war and should we have practiced it sooner, America would never have struggled during World War II. Americans thought that bringing African American soldiers into combat was a bad idea. This was wrong all on accounts. They limited their participation in the war. The African …show more content…
They were losing large amounts of men and were in need of support. This is when desegregation and black soldiers were really brought into discussion. By 1945, they were too many men. They had no other option than to put African American soldiers into combat. President Roosevelt was under pressure by Phillip Randolph. Randolph was insisting on an executive order presentation that banned discrimination of blacks in the defense industry. The African American people threatened to go to Washington DC to protest. Roosevelt was forced to make a compromise with Randolph to ban the discrimination within the defense industry. This was a big step for African Americans. Some challenges were introduced to determine how the black soldiers matched up with the white soldiers (Patriotism). They set up all black combat units to see the comparison of success with white combat units. Whites soon discovered how much of an advantage the African Americans would …show more content…
Many new soldiers were stationed front line. America showed true strength with the African Americans help. Many African American women also played a role in helping with the war. The Army Nurse Corps accepted a small amount of black women, but when given the chance, they had a large impact. The ANC was very segregated and there was a lot of discrimination (Moore 114). The first black women were deployed to West Africa in 1943. These women helped the only black soldiers when they were in need of it. At the end of the war, out of a corps of 50,000 nurses, only 479 of these women were African American (Moore 115). This is disappointing. If the war department would have considered desegregating the army sooner, these women could have played a much larger role than they already had. Women at home took over necessary roles that men had to do when they were not in