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  , , C. W. Greenlea, director of a black United Service Organizations () center in Atlanta,Georgia,announced the imminent deployment of almost one thousand black veterans of the Second World War to the doorsteps of the city’s black citizenry. Their mission was to encourage black registration and voting in preparation for the upcoming Fifth District congressional and gubernatorial primaries in Georgia. Sponsored by a new organization of recently returned black veterans named the Georgia Veterans League (), the door-to-door canvass promised to be a historic civic event.“A huge ‘task force’ of Negro ex-servicemen”in partial service uniforms, reported the Atlanta Daily World, would be “mustered” out for “a unique ‘war’ mission.” In talking to local reporters, veterans made clear the connection between this activity and their recent participation in World War II. “Veterans feel that the democracy they fought for is worth working for here at home,”declared one John B. Turner, and “registering and voting are essential to getting democracy.”1 Veterans in the  organized this “arm for democracy” drive, explained the chairman of the ’s Civic Action Committee, to“defeat”the“enemy”of “ignorance, laziness, fear or any other excuses people might have for not being real citizens.”2 Above all, veterans were staking a claim to Georgia’s future:“We love Georgia and we are going to stay here and live in peace in spite of what the Ku Klux Klan, Talmadge, or any other un-Christian Georgia fa[s]cists boast about it.”3 2: The Ballot Must Be Our Weapon Black Veterans and the Politics of Racial Change The highly motivated black veterans who led the ’s “arm for democracy” voter drive appeared not only in Atlanta but in nearly every town, city, and rural crossroads in Georgia after the war. In organizing to defend their access to veteran benefits, to protest racial discrimination and hatred, but especially to expand black political influence, Georgia’s black veterans voiced a strong moral claim as veterans and as citizens to the political rights, opportunities, and justice they felt should reward their military service. That claim was born in the crucible of war. Georgia’s black veterans were well aware of the irony in fighting for democracy through the vehicle of a segregated military. Their experiences with segregation and discrimination within the armed forces heightened their frustration with southern racial practices even as the skills and experience afforded by military training instilled ambitions for a better life after the war. Together, these influences produced a powerful sense of civic and economic entitlement. Yet black veterans returned home to find that few white southerners were as convinced of the value of black participation in the war as they were. This reality could be a painful realization, for veterans and for their families.“Out of all this Your Boy and my Boy when call on to go an die on the Battle field we never hesistate [sic] on Sendin Him,” noted R. B. Dunham of Surrency, Georgia, the father of a black veteran;“when we are call on we are ready to help them to defend the good name of our country.”But,“as soon as the battle is fought and the victory is won and we return back home,”he bitterly lamented,“we are denied our rights as citizens and all manner of punishment is put upon us and nothin much done about it [sic].”After all this, he concluded,“It is hard to stand what we Negroes has to stand.”4 Southern white intransigence and the lure of opportunities elsewhere convinced many black veterans to abandon what they knew in Georgia for what might be in the North and West. Many chose, however, to remain in the South, where they quickly realized that fulfilling their postwar dreams of economic security and full citizenship meant first waging another battle, this time against the enemies of democracy in their own backyard. A federal district court decision overturning the all-white Democratic primary in Georgia in early 1946 seemed to provide a ready avenue. Motivated both by their experiences in the war and by the harsh reality of homefront conditions, these veterans made black voting in Georgia’s first postwar elections their primary weapon in storming the citadels of southern racial tradition. In registering voters and in supporting moderate or progressive white candidates for office, black veterans pursued a politics of issues unusual for Georgia and the one-party South. Their activism helped...

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