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Double V campaign

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Black man making V symbol near posters for war bonds.
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Beyond the Battlefield: Double V and Black Americans’ Fight for Equality

A civil rights initiative during World War II known as the Double V campaign advocated for dual victories: over fascism abroad, and racial injustice in the U.S.
via Retro Report on March 7, 2024
Tuskegee Airmen, Ramitelli, Italy, March 1945; photograph by Toni Frissell. From left to right: Richard S. ‘Rip’ Harder, unidentified airman, Thurston L. Gaines Jr., Newman C. Golden, and Wendell M. Lucas.

‘We Return Fighting’

The ambivalence many Black soldiers felt toward the U.S. in WWII was matched only by the ambivalence the U.S. showed toward principles on which WWII was fought.
by Gary Younge via New York Review of Books on September 28, 2023

For Democracy, At Home and Abroad

On VE Day, we remember black Americans' Double V campaign: victory in Europe against fascism, victory at home against racism.
by Robert Greene II via Jacobin on May 8, 2018
Black soldiers in battle.

Double V: Military Racism

Today, the military is perhaps the largest integrated institution in the US. But how it came to be this way reveals a history of racism and resistance.
by Eric Foner via London Review of Books on February 22, 2023
Black man standing beside barbecue stand, Pittsburgh 1933.

Pittsburgh Reformers and the Black Freedom Struggle

Historian Adam Lee Cilli effectively illustrates the centrality of Black Pittsburgh within the larger Black Freedom Struggle.
by Ashley Everson via Black Perspectives on February 9, 2023
confederate flag on a fence

Why the Confederate Flag Flew During World War II

As white, southern troops raised the battle flag, they showed that they were fighting for change abroad—but the status quo at home.
by Matt Delmont via The Atlantic on June 14, 2020

These Photos Capture the Lives of African American Soldiers Who Served During World War II

Pittsburgh photographer Teenie Harris focused on the patriotism of men who fought for the country abroad while being discriminated against at home.
by Dominique Luster via Smithsonian Magazine on May 22, 2020
Soldiers in the 15th New York.

Lynching in America: Targeting Black Veterans

Black veterans were once targeted for racialized violence because of the equality with whites that their military service implied.
via Equal Justice Initiative on November 11, 2016
The U.S. Marine Corps marching band plays during a ceremony in 2004.

American Music, American War

A roundtable discussion about David Suisman’s “Instrument of War.”
by Gayle F. Wald, Matt Delmont, David Suisman, Gustavus Stadler, Joseph M. Thompson, Lisa Gilman, Deborah Paredez via Public Books on December 4, 2025
The stairs leading to the segregated section of a cinema in Belzoni, Mississippi, in 1939.

The Writers Who Went Undercover to Show America Its Ugly Side

In the 1940s, a series of books tried to use the conventions of detective fiction to expose the degree of prejudice in postwar America.
by Samuel G. Freedman via The Atlantic on July 10, 2023
A portrait of Jackie Robinson in his Brooklyn Dodgers uniform, circa 1945.

Jackie Robinson Was More Than a Baseball Player

Jackie Robinson is popularly portrayed as the man who broke baseball’s color line by quietly enduring racist abuse. But that narrative is much too narrow.
by Michael Arria, David Naze via Jacobin on May 12, 2023
Isaac Woodard, an African American army veteran, with his mother after being blinded by a South Carolina police chief in 1946.

After Victory in World War II, Black Veterans Continued the Fight for Freedom at Home

These men, who had sacrificed so much for the country, faced racist attacks in 1946 as they laid the groundwork for the civil rights movement to come.
by Bryan Greene via Smithsonian Magazine on August 30, 2021
Mounted police clashing with strikers, one carrying an American flag, outside an electrical plant in Philadelphia, 1946

Cops at War: How World War II Transformed U.S. Policing

As wartime labor shortages depleted police forces, and fear of crime grew, chiefs turned to new initiatives to strengthen and professionalize their officers.
by Stuart Schrader via Modern American History on June 28, 2021
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Changing Hearts and Minds Won’t Stop Police Violence

The way Americans have long discussed racism is a huge part of the problem.
by Matt Delmont via Made By History on June 5, 2020

A Revolution of Values

Martin Luther King Jr. proposed a fix for America’s poisoned soul: ending the Vietnam War.
by Peniel E. Joseph via Lapham’s Quarterly on April 6, 2020

The Forgotten All-Star Game That Helped Integrate Baseball

The battle for the integration of Major League Baseball started long before Jackie Robinson.
by Stephanie Liscio via Deadspin on July 19, 2019

Yes, Politicians Wore Blackface. It Used to be All-American ‘Fun.’

Minstrel shows were once so mainstream that even presidents watched them.
by Rhae Lynn Barnes via Washington Post on February 8, 2019

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