The NAACP vs. the United States Military: The Fight for Equality for Black Soldiers and Beyond

Date

2022-01-05

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Southern New Hampshire University

Abstract

This Capstone project will be used to view the work of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) within a narrow time frame to expose the association’s active protests of the United States military. Emphasis will be placed on the relationships between the NAACP, the black veterans, and the black press to reveal how those relationships aided in the association’s fight to end segregation in the military and create black agency. Most literature focuses on the riots and mutiny of WWII as being the catalyst for the Civil Rights Movement. There is tremendous merit in this assessment. The relationships that formed between the NAACP, black veterans, and black press before the catalyst events of WWII are often not brought into the catalyst assessment. The growth and momentum of the NAACP, along with the relationships the association formed with black veterans and the black press also played a significant part in the affirmative action that resulted in the desegregation of the military against. By focusing on World War I, World War II, and the post war years, the significance of how the catalyst of WWII and the push to end segregation in American society can be analyzed further.
The NAACP and its unique use of legal tactics, its growth as an organization, and the relationships it formed, illustrate the magnitude of influence the organization gained during the wars. Multiple primary and secondary sources will be used to highlight protests and legal cases waged by the association against the military. Oral histories have also been utilized to emphasize the injustices faced by black soldiers during the World Wars and what the NAACP fought. By viewing the work of the NAACP during the wars and post war years, greater understanding of the activism the next generation used to desegregate American society can be analyzed more fully. The eventual desegregation of the military was a catalyst for what many have described as a “social experiment” in race relations and the political response to America’s emergence as a world leader. The relationships and agency that the NAACP, black veterans, and black press developed during the World Wars were also a vital part of the push to desegregate American society in the 1950s and 60s.

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