Through Our Eyes: African American Men's Experiences of Race, Gender, and Violence

1. Little Men

Chapter 1 Little Men War During the 1940s, the profundity of race, gender, and violence occupied a worldwide stage as man’s inhumanity to man was once again on full display. The world was in the grips of the Greatest War: The contested terrain was no less than global domination, for ideas of racial superiority and hegemonic manhood were vested in the strength of nation-states to employ ruthless and murderous violence. As the United States sought to defend the virtues of democracy over totalitarianism by winning the war against fascism and a new world order, Americans were summoned to wage an international battle for equality of opportunity, freedom, and justice. From the beginning of unrest in post-World War I Europe, blacks in the United States followed closely and noted the rise of fascism, especially in Germany. During the 1936 Olympic Games, Hitler quickly left the Olympic Stadium to avoid shaking Jesse Owens’s hand after he won four gold medals in track events. And the superiority of Aryan manhood took another symbolic blow in 1938, when Joe Louis knocked out German Max Schmeling to regain the world heavyweight boxing title. Beyond symbolism, blacks understood all too well what was at stake. Fascism was spreading by invasion and occupation throughout Europe and Asia, and the strategic importance of Africa could hold the key to international dominance. In 1941, the Japanese attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor engaged the United States fully in the Second World War, and blacks eagerly threw their support behind the global struggle for equality, freedom, and justice. Blacks, however, first had to wage that struggle against Jim Crow segregation and discrimination at home. Immediately, blacks found their support of the war effort marginalized and largely excluded. Entrenched and persistent racial segregation barred blacks from taking full advantage of employment opportunities—except for the most menial of jobs—in both the industries that manufactured war materials and the armed forces. Responding to this blatant racism, A. Philip Randolph, president of the first black labor union, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, and Bayard Rustin, a political activist and founding 34 member of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), issued a call for blacks to March on Washington, D.C. Randolph argued vehemently that democracy in America was an utter failure. He pointed out that blacks were “flogged by Jim Crow and lynching; disfranchised by poll taxes and white primaries; suffocated by ‘goodwill and a white God;’ and impoverished by ‘charity,’ when all they wanted was equality—social, political, religious, and economic equality” (Anderson, 2003, pp. 8–9). Under the slogan “We Are Americans Too,” Randolph delivered a keynote address at a conference held by the March organizers: There must be no dual standards of justice, no dual rights, privileges, duties or responsibilities of citizenship. No dual forms of freedom . . . Our goals include the abolition of discrimination, segregation, and Jim Crow in the Government, the Army, Navy, Air Corps, U.S. Marine, Coast Guard, Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps and the Waves, and defense industries . . . We want the full works of citizenship with no reservations. We will accept nothing less. (Randolph, 1941) In the face of growing black anger, resentment, and frustration President Roosevelt acknowledged the political difficulties and hypocrisy of maintaining America’s rigid system of racial oppression at home while challenging racial bigotry and injustice aboard. In his attempts to also appease southern white legislators, whose support he needed in Congress to fund the war effort, Roosevelt walked a carefully constructed tightrope as he addressed “the Negro dilemma.” To minimize the obvious hypocrisy, Roosevelt appeared to have capitulated to the demands of March organizers, who threatened to bring 100,000 blacks to the “White House lawn.” Reluctantly, Roosevelt signed Executive Order 8802, which declared: “There shall be no discrimination in the employment of workers in defense industries and in Government, because of race, creed, color, or national origin.” This was the first presidential directive on race since Reconstruction, and it established the Fair Employment Practice Committee (FEPC) to monitor discriminatory practices within all national defense work. This directive, however, offered limited enforcement powers. Racism in both the war industries and the U.S. military persisted, for this antidiscrimination directive did not extend to the armed forces, which remained largely racially segregated for most of World War II. The Aftermath of War In the aftermath of the Second World War, more than 50 million people lay dead, white male hegemonic power...