https://progressive.org/dispatches/how-african-american-wwii-veterans-were-scorned-by-the-g-i-b/
How African American WWII Veterans Were Scorned By the G.I. Bill
by Brandon Weber
November 10, 2017
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joined the military during World War II as volunteers or draftees. Another 1.5 million registered for the draft. But when the war was over, many of those servicemen and women failed to receive their fair share of the benefits under the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944 —the G.I. Bill.
Also known as the G.I. Bill Of Rights, the G.I. Bill provided financial support in the form of cash stipends for schooling, low-interest mortgages, job skills training, low-interest loans, and unemployment benefits.
But many African Americans who served in World War II never saw these benefits. This was especially true in the south, where Jim Crow laws excludedblack students from “white” schools, and poor black colleges struggled to respond to the rise in demand from returning veterans. After World War II, blacks wanting to attend college in the South were restricted to about 100 public and private schools, few of which offered education beyond the baccalaureate and more than a quarter of which were junior colleges, with the highest degree below the B.A.
But those exclusions were by no means limited to states South of the Mason-Dixon line—or to education. Historian Ira Katznelson has documented how and why black Americans have received far less assistance from social programs than white Americans, and argues that the G.I bill was deliberately designed to accommodate Jim Crow laws. He cites a study declaring it was “as though the GI Bill had been earmarked ‘For White Veterans Only.’ ”
Thousands of black veterans were denied admission to colleges, loans for housing and business, and excluded from job-training programs. Programs funded by federal money were directed by local officials, who especially in the south, drastically favored white applicants over black.
In 1947, some 70,000 African American veterans were unable to obtain admission to crowded, under-resourced black colleges. The University of Pennsylvania—one of the least-discriminatory schools at the time—enrolled only 40 African American students in its 1946 student body of 9,000.
The University of Pennsylvania—one of the least-discriminatory schools at the time—enrolled only 40 African American students in its 1946 student body of 9,000.
The GI bill included support for banks to provide veterans low-cost, zero down-payment home loans across the United States. But of the first 67,000 mortgages secured by the G.I. Bill for returning veterans in New York and northern New Jersey alone, fewer than 100 were taken out by non-whites. The G.I. Bill helped place 6,500 former soldiers in Mississippi on nonfarm jobs by fall of 1947, but while 86 percent of the skilled and semiskilled jobs were filled by whites, 92 percent of the unskilled ones were filled by blacks.
In all, 16 million veterans benefited in various ways from the G.I. Bill. President Bill Clinton declared it “the best deal ever made by Uncle Sam,” adding that it “helped to unleash a prosperity never before known.”
For white people, that is. The lack of access to a family home meant a long-term loss of wealth for black Americans. A family home purchased in 1946 in a good neighborhood with a strong tax base and solid schools, became financial wealth to pass onto family members, borrow against to start a business, or to send kids to college.
Of course, it was not only black veterans who lost opportunities to begin building family wealth. Many African Americans who stayed home to work in the factories, which were bustling at the time, were refused employment in the war production industry. Eventually, civil rights activists forced President Roosevelt to issue an executive order in June of 1941 banning employment discrimination and to create a temporary Fair Employment Practices Committee to prevent defense manufacturers from practicing racial discrimination.
This is why programs like affirmative action need defending. While affirmative action won’t replace that lost generational wealth, it can help to right some of the inherited inequity.
While affirmative action won’t replace that lost generational wealth, it can help to right some of the inherited inequity.
Though both black and white soldiers went overseas in World War I and in World War II, the advantage given to those coming from white families was clear. Much like redlining in real estate, the inherent disadvantages to people of color created many, many more barriers to the ability for them to climb the social ladder.
The civil rights movement along with the expansion of federal funding for higher education in the postwar decades have attempted to equalize the distribution of G.I. Bill benefits. More than one million U.S. veterans now receive benefits under the plan. That number will likely increase with this year’s passage of the “Forever G.I. Bill”, which eliminates the fifteen-year limit on benefit use. The bill also includes tuition reimbursement for veterans who earned non-transferable credits at now-shuttered schools, like the for-profit ITT Technical Institute.
But these developments of course come too late for black WWII veterans. Too many were steered away from education, too many were unable to buy, enjoy, and pass down a home in a thriving neighborhood to their children. We live with the remnants of those policies and the racial inequities they exacerbated to this day.
How African American WWII Veterans Were Scorned By the G.I. Bill
by Brandon Weber
November 10, 2017
joined the military during World War II as volunteers or draftees. Another 1.5 million registered for the draft. But when the war was over, many of those servicemen and women failed to receive their fair share of the benefits under the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944 —the G.I. Bill.
Also known as the G.I. Bill Of Rights, the G.I. Bill provided financial support in the form of cash stipends for schooling, low-interest mortgages, job skills training, low-interest loans, and unemployment benefits.
But many African Americans who served in World War II never saw these benefits. This was especially true in the south, where Jim Crow laws excludedblack students from “white” schools, and poor black colleges struggled to respond to the rise in demand from returning veterans. After World War II, blacks wanting to attend college in the South were restricted to about 100 public and private schools, few of which offered education beyond the baccalaureate and more than a quarter of which were junior colleges, with the highest degree below the B.A.
But those exclusions were by no means limited to states South of the Mason-Dixon line—or to education. Historian Ira Katznelson has documented how and why black Americans have received far less assistance from social programs than white Americans, and argues that the G.I bill was deliberately designed to accommodate Jim Crow laws. He cites a study declaring it was “as though the GI Bill had been earmarked ‘For White Veterans Only.’ ”
Thousands of black veterans were denied admission to colleges, loans for housing and business, and excluded from job-training programs. Programs funded by federal money were directed by local officials, who especially in the south, drastically favored white applicants over black.
In 1947, some 70,000 African American veterans were unable to obtain admission to crowded, under-resourced black colleges. The University of Pennsylvania—one of the least-discriminatory schools at the time—enrolled only 40 African American students in its 1946 student body of 9,000.
The University of Pennsylvania—one of the least-discriminatory schools at the time—enrolled only 40 African American students in its 1946 student body of 9,000.
The GI bill included support for banks to provide veterans low-cost, zero down-payment home loans across the United States. But of the first 67,000 mortgages secured by the G.I. Bill for returning veterans in New York and northern New Jersey alone, fewer than 100 were taken out by non-whites. The G.I. Bill helped place 6,500 former soldiers in Mississippi on nonfarm jobs by fall of 1947, but while 86 percent of the skilled and semiskilled jobs were filled by whites, 92 percent of the unskilled ones were filled by blacks.
In all, 16 million veterans benefited in various ways from the G.I. Bill. President Bill Clinton declared it “the best deal ever made by Uncle Sam,” adding that it “helped to unleash a prosperity never before known.”
For white people, that is. The lack of access to a family home meant a long-term loss of wealth for black Americans. A family home purchased in 1946 in a good neighborhood with a strong tax base and solid schools, became financial wealth to pass onto family members, borrow against to start a business, or to send kids to college.
Of course, it was not only black veterans who lost opportunities to begin building family wealth. Many African Americans who stayed home to work in the factories, which were bustling at the time, were refused employment in the war production industry. Eventually, civil rights activists forced President Roosevelt to issue an executive order in June of 1941 banning employment discrimination and to create a temporary Fair Employment Practices Committee to prevent defense manufacturers from practicing racial discrimination.
This is why programs like affirmative action need defending. While affirmative action won’t replace that lost generational wealth, it can help to right some of the inherited inequity.
While affirmative action won’t replace that lost generational wealth, it can help to right some of the inherited inequity.
Though both black and white soldiers went overseas in World War I and in World War II, the advantage given to those coming from white families was clear. Much like redlining in real estate, the inherent disadvantages to people of color created many, many more barriers to the ability for them to climb the social ladder.
The civil rights movement along with the expansion of federal funding for higher education in the postwar decades have attempted to equalize the distribution of G.I. Bill benefits. More than one million U.S. veterans now receive benefits under the plan. That number will likely increase with this year’s passage of the “Forever G.I. Bill”, which eliminates the fifteen-year limit on benefit use. The bill also includes tuition reimbursement for veterans who earned non-transferable credits at now-shuttered schools, like the for-profit ITT Technical Institute.
But these developments of course come too late for black WWII veterans. Too many were steered away from education, too many were unable to buy, enjoy, and pass down a home in a thriving neighborhood to their children. We live with the remnants of those policies and the racial inequities they exacerbated to this day.
Unsurprisingly, Bill O'reilly grew up there and conveniently neglects to mention that it was segregated when talking about being self made...
