Read complete books and articles on: African Americans and World War II

At Questia, we offer:

Exclusive access to more than 67,000 books and 1.5 million articles.
Trusted resources from leading publishers.
Time saving tools to do better, faster research!

14 of the Best Books and Articles on: African Americans and World War II

as selected by Questia librarians

1.

The Afro-American and the Second World War » Read Now
by Neil A. Wynn. 180 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library
2.

Harlem at War: The Black Experience in WWII » Read Now
by Nat Brandt. 278 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

By the spring of 1943 more than a half million blacks were in the U.S. Army, but only 79,000 of them were overseas. Most were repeating the experience of their fathers in World War I - serving chiefly in labor battalions. Domestically, clashes between blacks and whites vying for the same jobs in...
Read More

By the spring of 1943 more than a half million blacks were in the U.S. Army, but only 79,000 of them were overseas. Most were repeating the experience of their fathers in World War I - serving chiefly in labor battalions. Domestically, clashes between blacks and whites vying for the same jobs in boomtown defense-plant cities and the wretched treatment of northern black draftees in the South - where Jim Crow discrimination was prevalent - were all too common. In Harlem at War, Nat Brandt vividly recreates the desolation of black communities during World War II and examines the nation-wide conditions that led up to the Harlem riot of 1943. Wherever black troops were trained or stationed, Brandt explains, "rage surfaced frequently, was suppressed, but was not extinguished". Using eyewitness accounts, he describes the rage Harlemites felt, the discrimination and humiliation they shared with blacks across the country. The collective anger erupted one day in Harlem when a young black soldier was shot by a white police officer. The riot, in which six blacks were killed, seven hundred injured, and six arrested, became a turning point in America's race relations and a precursor to the civil rights struggle of the 1960s.
Show less
3.

A-Train: Memoirs of a Tuskegee Airman » Read Now
by Charles W. Dryden. 424 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

How does a black American prepare for a career in a profession traditionally closed to blacks? And how does he or she cope with the frustrations and dangers that subsequent experiences generate? A-Train is the story of one of the black Americans who, during World War II, graduated from Tuskegee Army...
Read More

How does a black American prepare for a career in a profession traditionally closed to blacks? And how does he or she cope with the frustrations and dangers that subsequent experiences generate? A-Train is the story of one of the black Americans who, during World War II, graduated from Tuskegee Army Flying School and served as a pilot in the 99th Pursuit Squadron. Charles W. Dryden has prepared an honest, fast-paced, balanced, vividly written, and very personal account of what it was like to be a black soldier, and specifically a pilot, during World War II and the Korean War. Colonel Dryden's book commands our attention because it is a balanced account by an insightful man who enlisted in a segregated army and retired from an integrated air force. Dryden's account is poignant in illuminating the hurt inflicted by racism on even the most successful black people. As a member of that elite group of those young pilots who fought for their country overseas while being denied civil liberties at home, Dryden presents an eloquent memoir of the experiences he has shared and the changes he has witnessed.
Show less
4.

Deadly Sky: The American Combat Airman in World War II (Discussion of the Tuskegee Airmen begins on p. 332) » Read Now
by John C. McManus. 435 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

In his study of aerial combat in World War II, McManus illustrates how the dangers facing the airmen might come from within the aircraft as well as without: piston engines and airframes, for example, were not reliable.
5.

A Rising Wind » Read Now
by Walter White. 150 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

...which arrived with the Americans and British. Since before...Tunis, and other North African cities segregation had...the Negro of World War II was not a laughing...
6.

"Keep 'em Rolling": African American Participation in the Red Ball Express, in Negro History Bulletin » Read Now
by Edna Greene Medford, Michael Frazier. 5 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

...the 20th century. Most African Americans who served in the armed forces during World War II were, like Greene, non-combat...indelible impression on the African Americans...
7.

Wilber Miller's Story: Black Air Force Civilians in World War II, in Negro History Bulletin » Read Now
by Richard E. Miller. 4 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library
8.

The Chicago Defender: Filling in the Gaps for The Office of Civilian Defense, 1941-1945, in Western Journal of Black Studies » Read Now
by Caryl A. Cooper. 8 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

...during World War II, the Chicago...explained that, as African-Americans, it was their...During World War II, civilian defense...responsibilities to African-Americans? Was...
9.

The "Double-V" Campaign in World War II Hawaii: African Americans, Racial Ideology, and Federal Power, in Journal of Social History » Read Now
by Betn Bailey, David Farber. 27 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

...World War II Hawaii: African Americans, racial ideology...World War II the policies affecting black Americans--and thus...imposed on African Americans...least some African...
10.

A Time to Live; a Time to Die: The Sad Saga of Staff Sergeant Ruben Rivers, in Negro History Bulletin » Read Now
by Dale E. Wilson. 6 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

...Hunt. Ironically, none of the 1.25 million African Americans who served in World War II received any of 433 Medals of Honor awarded...Furthermore, only two of the 23,000...
11.

African American Soldiers in the National Guard: Recruitment and Deployment during Peacetime and War » Read Now
by Charles Johnson. 218 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

This detailed history of the many achievements of African-American guardsmen in U.S. history from the late 19th to the mid-20th centuries fills an important gap in our knowledge about the involvement of African American militias in wartime and peacetime service. Using extensive primary and secondary...
Read More

This detailed history of the many achievements of African-American guardsmen in U.S. history from the late 19th to the mid-20th centuries fills an important gap in our knowledge about the involvement of African American militias in wartime and peacetime service. Using extensive primary and secondary sources, this account describes the establishment of African American militia groups in 1877, their role in the Spanish American War and in quelling civil disturbances and disasters up to 1914, their service in World Wars I and II and in the years between the wars, and their reorganization and integration into the National Guard in 1949 and 1950.
Show less
12.

The Negro in Depression and War: Prelude to Revolution, 1930-1945 » Read Now
by Bernard Sternsher. 344 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

...States into World War II served more to expose...equality for all Americans, including Negroes...any other group of Americans. But that is not...the mass of men. II White...
13.

Blacks in World War II, in Ebony » Read Now
by Kevin Chappell. 2 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library
14.

The Black Press: Setting the Political Agenda during World War II, in Negro History Bulletin » Read Now
by Charles G. Spellman. 5 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

...during World War II. When the...news about African Americans in the segregated...during World War II was the single...source for African Americans. The black...agenda for...