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Black press agitation for equality during World War II set stage for civil rights fight, historian sayss By
Kevin King
Patrick Washburn, a professor at Ohio University, speaks to USU students about the black press during World War II. Washburn spoke Thursday as part of the Department of Journalism and Communication's Media & Lecture Series. / Photo by Liz Hobson
Patrick S. Washburn, whose book A Question of Sedition was chosen by a panel of experts as one of the top 35 books of media history of the 20th century, educated USU students of the harsh realities of World War II in the United States during a lecture Thursday. Washburn, of Ohio University, spoke as part of The 2000-01 Media & Society Lecture Series and Black History Month. Many in the Armed Forces didn't want blacks in the services at all, he said. Washburn recalled the white attitude of the time: "'This is a Jim Crow Army for a Jim Crow country,' said the Armed Forces. In 1941, right after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, record numbers of African-Americans went to sign up for the armed services. This is what they were told. "'We have never had blacks in the Marines and we don't want you,' said the Marines. "'We have never had any blacks in the Army Air Corps and we don't want you,' said the Army Air Corps. "'Yes, we will take you, we have always had Negroes as kitchen help, but that is the only place that you can go,' said the Navy. "'Yes, we will take you, but we will take only one Negro for every nine others,' said the Army. They enlisted Negro women as nurses to attend to wounded Negro soldiers in the Army." Washburn said, "At that time in America, everything was segregated -- the housing, the training, the food areas, and they even segregated the blood." A catalyst for change was the publication of a letter from James G. Thompson, a 26-year-old cafeteria worker at the Cessna Aircraft Corporation in Wichita, Kan. He wrote to the Pittsburgh Courier, the nation's largest black paper, and his letter was published on Jan. 31, 1942. The letter said, "Being an American of dark complexion these questions flash through my mind: 'Should I sacrifice my life to live as half of an American? Would it be demanding too much to demand full citizenship rights in exchange for the sacrificing of my life? Will colored Americans suffer still the indignities that have been heaped upon them in the past' "Surely those who perpetuate these ugly prejudices here, are seeking to destroy our democratic form of government just as surely as the Nazi forces," said Thompson in the conclusion of his letter. The publishing of Thompson's letter started the "Double V Campaign" by the Courier, which encouarged the winning of two victories -- against anti-democratic forces abroad and at home. The Courier printed many Double V stories in 1942, and encouraged Double V campaigns nationwide. The FBI asked the Justice Department to prosecute the black press under the Espionage Act of 1917 under the premise that such agitation was hurting the war effort, but the attorney general rebuffed such efforts, said Washburn. The Double V Campaign set the stage and tone for the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, Washburn said. He noted that he spoke on the 57th anniversary of the week in which the first black reporter attended a White House press conference, and the first time that a group of blacks met with a U.S. president.
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