In 1946, Isaac Woodard, a decorated Black soldier with the rank of sergeant, was returning home to South Carolina after serving in WWII. He was pulled from a bus for arguing with the driver. The local chief of police ruthlessly beat him, leaving him unconscious and permanently blind. The incident made national headlines and, when the police chief was acquitted by an all-white jury, the obvious injustice would change the course of American history.
Isaac Woodard story like other Black soldiers was not a path with no resistance. In the reading “Fog of War: The Second World War and the Civil Rights Movement” by Kevin M. Kruse and Stephen Tuck shares the complexities surrounding race relations in the armed forces and the efforts made so that all men could serve. “During World War II, the NAACP and other civil rights organizations fought “for the right to fight.” However it appeared that Americas ideal patriot was and should remain in the form of a white man. It was not until President Truman’s 1948 Executive Order 9981, which called for “equality of opportunity”regardless of race (which was defiantly a win) but also an outcome of shortages in the armed forces.
Questions arose in both the antiwar community as well as the Black community on the logic behind serving for a country that continued to segregate, oppress, and marginalize. Following the end of WWII and the start of the Cold War there was pressure on America to respond to ongoing segregation as soldiers were exposed to opposing views outside the U.S. and since the communist party had long denounced segregation (7). But ultimately what America feared most “communism” was making its way into American society gaining support from Black communities who would question the involvement of Black soldiers fighting in proxy wars such as Korea and Vietnam. However, choice was not an option “the escalation in the draft portended not simply a U.S. readiness to battle Communists, but endless participation in war by young Black men.”(11)
While I do not think the battlefield killed Jim Crow, I think the events following WWII, the blinding of Isaac Woodward, and the rise of antiwar groups including increased Black Organizations who used mass direct-action non-violence, and lastly the voices of Black leadership such as Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr created lasting impact, and propelled the Civil Rights movement into a new era.
I liked how you emphasized the impact of the fear of communism on the policy surrounding black soldiers. I think that this played a large role in American politics at the time. It also influenced how the Rape of Nanking was portrayed.