“Since the 1700s, the military and the U.S. government has struggled with engaging racial minorities in its various war efforts while all too often continuing to uphold racial hierarchies and subordination.”  –Christine Knauer, AT WAR, p. 168

Secret Memo Regarding Black Troops (1918)

“American opinion is unanimous on the ‘color question’ and does not admit of any discussion.”  –Memo to French military written by US liaison officer and quoted in WWI documents collected by WEB DuBois

NOTE:  By the end of WWI, nearly 200 Black Americans had been awarded the French Legion of Honor for military service during the conflict.

World War II –“Segregation Without Discrimination” vs. Double V

June 25, 1941 –EO 8802 prohibiting employment discrimination (FEPC)

February 19, 1942 –EO 9066 Japanese Internment

July 26, 1948 –EO 9981  Armed Services equality (desegregation)

Korean  War and Vietnam War

“Ultimately, Truman’s Executive Order 9981 and the Korean War initiated profound and consequential change with regard to race relations and racial equality in one of the most important American institutions within a relatively short period of time.”  –Christine Knauer, AT WAR, p. 182

“The intensification of the Vietnam War in the 1960s also coincided with the rise of the Chicano/Chicana movement.  Younger people especially, in cooperation with labor activists, increased their demands for an end to the discrimination and poverty Latinos experienced in the United States.  Moreover, their plight at home was seen as intrinsically linked to the fate of the people in war-torn Vietnam.  Both systems of colonization, oppression, and exploitation at home and abroad needed to be defeated.” –Christine Knauer, AT WAR, p. 184