We call upon the president and congress to declare war on Japan and racial prejudice in our country. Certainly we should be strong enough to whip them both.

~The Pittsburgh Courier

Directions: Using the Segregated Military during World War II TEXT, answer the QUESTIONS TO PONDER:

  1. Analyze why African Americans could work in a supporting role in the war but was not welcomed on the front line unless absolutely necessary.
  2. If segregation existed in the military during World War II, speculate why an African American would want to join the war effort?
  3. Imagine you are a African American veteran from World War II and you just heard the news that the military was desegregated 3 years after the war ended, what feelings might you have?

US Studies by the Minnesota Partnership for Collaborative Curriculum is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.