This lesson focuses on small-group document analysis to evaluate the impact of World War II on civil rights.
- Explain how the double-V campaign shaped civil rights efforts and Truman’s decision to desegregate the armed forces
- Analyze primary sources to form an argument
- Missouri Social Studies Learning Standards (9-12) 3a.I -- Analyze the evolution of American democracy, its ideas, institutions and political processes from Reconstruction to the present, including: struggle for civil rights
- College Board AP US History outline: WOR-4 Explain how the U.S. involvement in global conflicts in the 20th century set the stage for domestic social changes.
- Photograph analysis worksheet from NARA http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/worksheets/photo_analysis_worksheet.pdf
- Chronology of Desegregation of the Armed forces from the Truman Library
https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/online-collections/desegregation-of-armed-forces?section=2
- Photograph: World War II soldiers with captured Nazi flag. United States Army.
Harry S. Truman Library & Museum. Accession Number: 72-3951
- Letter: James G. Thompson, to the African American newspaper The Pittsburgh Courier, January 1942.
< http://www.americancenturies.mass.edu/centapp/oh/story.do?shortName=elliot1939vv>
- Truman’s Address in San Francisco at the Closing Session of the United Nations Conference, June 26, 1945
- Executive Order 9808 –establishment of President’s Committee on Civil Rights
https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/executive-orders/9808/executive-order-9808
- To Secure These Rights: Report of the President’s Committee on Civil Rights, October 29, 1947
- Letter: James G. Thompson, to the African American newspaper The Pittsburgh Courier, January 1942.
< http://www.americancenturies.mass.edu/centapp/oh/story.do?shortName=elliot1939vv>
Being an American of dark complexion and some 26 years, these questions flash through my mind: Should I sacrifice my life to live half American? Will things be better for the next generation in the peace to follow? Would it be demanding too much to demand full citizenship rights in exchange for the sacrificing of my life? Is the kind of America I know worth defending? Will America be a true and pure democracy after the war? Will Colored Americans suffer still the indignities that have been heaped upon them in the past? These and other questions need answering; I want to know, and I believe every colored American, who is thinking, wants to know...
The V for victory sign is being displayed prominently in all so–called democratic countries which are fighting for victory over aggression, slavery, and tyranny. If this V sign means that to those now engaged in this great conflict, then let we colored Americans adopt the double V V for a double victory. The first V for victory over our enemies from without, the second V for victory over our enemies from within. For surely those who perpetrate these ugly prejudices here are seeking to destroy our democratic form of government just as surely as the Axis forces.
- Truman’s Address in San Francisco at the Closing Session of the United Nations
Conference, June 26, 1945.
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Address in San Francisco at the Closing Session of the United Nations |
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June 26, 1945 |
< /executiveorders/index.php?pid=480&st=&st1=>
EXECUTIVE ORDER 9808 |
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ESTABLISHING THE PRESIDENT’S COMMITTEE ON CIVIL RIGHTS |
Four Essential Rights, image from To Secure These Rights, Oct. 1947
To Secure These Rights: Report of the President’s Committee on Civil Rights, October 29, 1947
Some Selections from Chapter 2: Short of the Goal
1. The Right to Safety and Security of the Person
Vital to the integrity of the individual and to the stability of a democratic society is the right of each individual to physical freedom, to security against illegal violence, and to fair, orderly legal process. Most Americans enjoy this right, but it is not yet secure for all. Too many of our people still live under the harrowing fear of violence or death at the hands of a mob or of brutal treatment by police officers. Many fear entanglement with the law because of the knowledge that the justice rendered in some courts is not equal for all persons. In a few areas the freedom to move about and choose one’s job is endangered by attempts to hold workers in peonage or other forms of involuntary servitude.
THE CRIME OF LYNCHING
In 1946 at least six persons in the United States were lynched by mobs. Three of them had not been charged, either by the police or anyone else, with an offense. Of the three that had been charged, one had been accused of stealing a saddle. (The real thieves were discovered after the lynching.) Another was said to have broken into a house. A third was charged with stabbing a man. All were Negroes. During the same year, mobs were prevented from lynching 22 persons, of whom 21 were Negroes, 1 white.
On July 20, 1946, a white farmer, Loy Harrison, posted bond for the release of Roger Malcolm from the jail at Monroe, Georgia. Malcolm, a young Negro, had been involved in a fight with his white employer during the course of which the latter had been stabbed. It is reported that there was talk of lynching Malcolm at the time of the incident and while he was in jail. Upon Malcolm’s release, Harrison started to drive Malcolm, Malcolm’s wife, and a Negro overseas veteran, George Dorsey, and his wife, out of Monroe. At a bridge along the way a large group of unmasked white men, armed with. pistols and shotguns, was waiting. They stopped Harrison’s car and removed Malcolm and Dorsey. As they were leading the two men away, Harrison later stated, one of the women called out the name of a member of the mob. Thereupon the lynchers returned and removed the two women from the car. Three volleys of shots were fired as if by a squad of professional executioners. The coroner’s report said that at least 66 bullets were found in the scarcely recognizable bodies. Harrison consistently denied that he could identify any of the unmasked murderers. State and federal grand juries reviewed the evidence in the case, but no person has yet been indicted for the crime.
Later that summer, in Minden, Louisiana, a young Negro named John Jones was arrested on suspicion of housebreaking. Another Negro youth, Albert Harris, was arrested at about the same time, and beaten in an effort to implicate Jones. He was then released, only to be rearrested after a few days. On August 6th, early in the evening, and before there had been any trial of the charges against them, Jones and Harris were released by a deputy sheriff. Waiting in the jail yard was a group of white men. There was evidence that, with the aid of the deputy sheriff, the young men were put into a car. They were then driven into the country. Jones was beaten to death. Harris, left for dead, revived and escaped. Five persons, including two deputy sheriffs, were indicted and brought to trial in a federal court for this crime. All were acquitted.
These are two of the less brutal lynchings of the past years. The victims in these cases were not mutilated or burned.
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The record for 1947 is incomplete. There has been one lynching, one case in which the victim escaped, and other instances where mobs have been unable to accomplish their purpose. On February 17, I947, a Negro youth named Willie Earle, accused of fatally stabbing a taxi driver in the small city of Greenville, South Carolina, was removed from jail by a mob, viciously beaten and finally shot to death. In an unusual and impressive instance of state prosecution, 31 men were tried for this crime. All were acquitted on the evening of May 21,1947. Early the next morning, in Jackson, North Carolina, another Negro youth, Godwin Bush, arrested on a charge of approaching a white woman, was removed from a local jail by a mob, after having been exhibited through the town by the sheriff. Bush succeeded in escaping from his abductors, and, after hiding for two days in nearby woods, was able to surrender himself safely into the custody of FBI agents and officers of the state. The Committee finds it encouraging to note that the Governor of North Carolina has made vigorous efforts to bring to justice those responsible for this attempted lynching.
While available statistics show that, decade by decade, lynchings have decreased, this Committee has found that in the year 1947 lynching remains one of the most serious threats to the civil rights of Americans. It is still possible for a mob to abduct and murder a person in some sections of the country with almost certain assurance of escaping punishment for the crime. The decade from 1936 through 1946 saw at least 43 lynchings. No person received the death penalty, and the majority of the guilty persons were not even prosecuted.
THE RIGHT TO VOTE
The right of all qualified citizens to vote is today considered axiomatic by most Americans. To achieve universal adult suffrage we have carried on vigorous political crusades since the earliest days of the Republic. In theory the aim has been achieved, but in fact there are many backwaters in our political life where the right to vote is not assured to every qualified citizen. The franchise is barred to some citizens because of race; to others by institutions or procedures which impede free access to the polls. Still other Americans are in substance disfranchised whenever electoral irregularities or corrupt practices dissipate their votes or distort their intended purpose. Some citizens -- permanent residents of the District of Columbia -- are excluded from political representation and the right to vote as a result of outmoded national traditions. As a result of such restrictions, all of these citizens are limited, in varying degrees, in their opportunities to seek office and to influence the conduct of government on an equal plane with other American citizens.
The denial of the suffrage on account of race is the most serious present interference with the right to vote. Until very recently, American Negro citizens in most southern states found it difficult to vote. Some Negroes have voted in parts of the upper South for the last twenty years. In recent years the situation in the deep South has changed to the point where it can be said that Negroes are beginning to exercise the political rights of free Americans. In the light of history, this represents progress, limited and precarious, but nevertheless progress.
This report cannot adequately describe the history of Negro disfranchisement. At different times, different methods have been employed. As legal devices for disfranchising the Negro have been held unconstitutional.
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- Bellwork: Project the image, “World War II Soldiers with Captured Nazi Flag.” Students should complete the photograph analysis worksheet individually. After students complete the analysis, discuss their observations as a class. (If projecting image on a SMART Board, students may annotate it for class discussion.)
- Briefly lecture on Double-V campaign and examine letter from James G. Thompson to the Pittsburgh Courier in January 1942. Students should look for ways to compare this letter with their observations in the image. (Good opportunity also to review A. Philip Randolph’s work during World War II, as well as FDR’s Executive Order 8802, which established the Fair Employment Practices Committee, prohibiting discrimination in wartime industry.)
- Distribute the speech, “Truman’s Address in San Francisco at the Closing Session of the United Nations Conference, June 26, 1945.” If necessary to condense for time, teacher may edit the document, focusing on Truman’s invocation of the Four Freedoms and the necessity of the organization to secure human rights. (If teacher has not previously taught Four Freedoms, it might be a good idea to go over FDR’s Four Freedoms speech and perhaps show the Norman Rockwell depiction of them.)
- Brief discussion of documents and that the creation of the UN drew attention to Jim Crow laws in the United States. Again come back to the Double V campaign and the political implications for creating an international organization that focused on human rights while denying rights to a large segment of the United States population. This certainly gained the attention of black leadership as well. National Negro Congress petitions UN in 1946 and Truman shortly thereafter issued Executive Order 9808, which established the President’s Committee on Civil Rights. The Committee issued its report, To Secure These Rights in 1947.
- Project the image, “Four Essential Rights” from To Secure These Rights. Students should complete a comparison chart of this image with key details in Truman’s Address at the Closing Session of the UN conference. Discuss the Four Freedoms again and how this also relates to the Double-V campaign.
- Jigsaw excerpts from To Secure These Rights. Chapter 2, “The Record: Short of the Goal” provides a good overview of some of the problems African Americans faced in 1947 and relates directly to Four Freedoms and some of the arguments of the Double-V campaign. Each group should take a selection from chapter 2, read closely and discuss in small groups as follows:
- What did the committee find regarding African American challenges in 1947?
- How do the committee’s findings relate to the Double-V campaign?
- How do you see seeds of the Civil Rights Movement in the committee’s report?
- Each group should select a reporter to share some of the key points of their discussion with the class.
- Preview some of the major civil rights achievements of the 1950s and 60s: Brown v. Board of Education, Civil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965. In what ways does To Secure These Rights show these acts to be necessary? Do you believe the report may have paved the way for future achievements? Why or why not?
- Briefly discuss Truman’s desegregation of the armed forces via executive order in 1948 as an outgrowth of this report. If time, have students examine the chronology of this order as compiled by the Truman Library.
- Tying it all together – Discuss the extent to which a compilation of wartime actions – Double V campaign, the Four Freedoms, the creation of the UN contributed to Truman’s actions with civil rights after the war. How significant were Truman’s actions in the scope of the Civil Rights Movement as a whole?
Short Writing: Students should respond to each of the following components of the question below using specific details from images and written documents examined in this lesson in each response. Each response should be about 50 words. For an AP Course, this would be graded in the same manner as the short answer section of the AP Exam, according to the following scoring guide used with the 2015 exam:
This short writing could be done immediately following this lesson, or as an assessment at the conclusion of examination of the Civil Rights movement. Completing the assignment later would allow the teacher to determine if the student can discuss the civil rights achievements of the 1940s in context of the Movement as a whole, but completing the assessment immediately following the lesson will give immediate feedback as to whether students individually understood the documents and the class discussion.
Short writing:
a. While we tend to associate the gains of the Civil Rights Movement with the 1950s and 1960s, World War II and the years immediately following are equally important to the Movement. Defend or refute the statement with specific details from this lesson.
b. To what extent might World War II be considered a turning point in civil rights? What historical evidence validates your claim?
c. Franklin D. Roosevelt articulated the Four Freedoms in January 1941, and both Truman and the President’s Committee on Civil Rights referenced them at the end of the War and during the post-war years. To what extent did these ideals provide a framework for the achievements of the Civil Rights Movement?