Minority Groups and the Civil Rights Movement

Fighting for democracy while facing discrimination

The Second World War helped lay foundations for the later Civil Rights movement, but it did not end racial inequality. Civil rights concern people's freedom and equal treatment. For African Americans, wartime employment and military service created opportunities to demonstrate their contribution to the country while exposing the discrimination they continued to face. For Japanese Americans, wartime government action brought forced removal and confinement.

The contradiction was important: the United States fought in defence of democracy abroad while racial segregation continued at home. Segregation meant enforced separation, including separate military units and racially divided neighbourhoods. Wartime changes made demands for equal treatment more pressing, but also provoked resistance from people determined to preserve existing racial divisions.

Japanese American internment: fear and prejudice

Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 brought the United States into the war and intensified fears of espionage and sabotage, particularly on the West Coast. Some government officials, military leaders and members of the public distrusted people of Japanese ancestry, treating their ancestry as a reason to question their loyalty.

These fears combined with long-standing anti-Asian racism. Japanese immigrants already faced restrictions on land ownership and were denied the right to become naturalised US citizens. Groups representing competing economic interests and opponents of immigration pressured the government to remove Japanese Americans from the West Coast. Internment therefore resulted from existing prejudice as well as wartime security fears; it was not a response to proven wrongdoing by all those affected.

On 19 February 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066. It authorised military commanders to establish military areas and exclude civilians from them. The order did not name an ethnic group, but its implementation led to the mass removal and confinement of Japanese Americans from the West Coast.

Forced removal and life in the camps

Approximately 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry, including men, women and children, were forcibly removed. Many were US citizens by birth. Families were given only days to organise their affairs and could take only what they could carry. Many sold homes, farms, businesses and possessions at a substantial loss, or left property behind without knowing when they would return.

Families were taken under military guard to temporary assembly centres, including racetracks and fairgrounds, before being moved to ten remote camps. This detention without an ordinary criminal trial is known as internment. Those confined had not been individually charged with crimes: the policy deprived people of liberty on the basis of ancestry rather than establishing individual guilt.

Manzanar in California shows what confinement meant in practice. Its housing area was surrounded by barbed wire and eight guard towers. By September 1942, more than 10,000 people were crowded into barracks. Residents shared toilets, showers and mess halls, with little privacy. They endured extreme summer heat, freezing winter temperatures and dust blowing through gaps in the buildings.

Internees established schools, religious organisations, gardens and recreational activities, and many worked within the camp. These efforts sustained community life, but did not make confinement voluntary. The last internees left Manzanar in November 1945, after the war had ended; many had spent three and a half years there.

Internment and the limits of American democracy

Internment exposed how wartime presidential and military powers could threaten civil liberties—the freedoms protecting individuals from unjustified government interference. Citizenship did not protect Japanese Americans from forced removal, confinement or property losses.

The contrast with military service was striking. Japanese Americans served with distinction in segregated units, including the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, while members of their families remained behind barbed wire. Their contribution challenged the assumption that Japanese ancestry meant disloyalty. In 1948, the Japanese American Evacuation Claims Act provided limited compensation for some property losses, but it did not undo the loss of freedom or restore everything families had lost.

Defence jobs and Executive Order 8802

War production increased demand for workers. African Americans moved from the rural South to northern and West Coast cities to work in factories and shipyards. These jobs offered opportunities beyond those previously available to many Black workers, but employers and fellow workers could still discriminate against them.

In June 1941, before the United States entered the war, President Franklin D. Roosevelt responded to complaints about discrimination by issuing Executive Order 8802. It prohibited discrimination by defence contractors and directed that Black Americans be accepted into training programmes for defence jobs. It also established the Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC).

This mattered because the federal government was using its authority to challenge discrimination in industries supplying national defence. Equal access to employment was becoming a matter of government policy, rather than being left entirely to employers. However, the order concerned defence employment: it did not desegregate the armed forces or abolish racial discrimination throughout American society.

Detroit: wartime opportunities intensified existing tensions

Detroit's factories made the city an important centre of war production. Large numbers of workers arrived seeking employment, but housing did not expand sufficiently to accommodate them. Black residents faced an additional obstacle: white opposition to their moving into white neighbourhoods confined many to overcrowded accommodation.

These tensions were visible before the 1943 riots. In 1942, more than a thousand white protesters opposed Black families moving into a housing project in a largely white neighbourhood. Some protesters were armed, and a cross was burned. In factories, racism also restricted cooperation. In June 1943, white workers stopped production in protest at the promotion of African American colleagues.

The war therefore did not create Detroit's racism, but migration, overcrowding and disputes over access to jobs intensified existing inequalities. Industrial prosperity did not mean that everyone shared equally in its benefits.

The Detroit Race Riots, June 1943

On 20 June 1943, fighting broke out between Black and white youths on Belle Isle, where large crowds had gathered. Although police initially brought the fighting under control, rumours spread and encouraged further violence.

One rumour claimed that white people had thrown a Black woman and her baby from Belle Isle Bridge. Another claimed that Black men had raped a white woman nearby. These stories fuelled retaliatory attacks. Black rioters attacked white individuals and businesses, while white mobs beat Black people and attacked their cars.

The violence also exposed unequal policing. White police officers sometimes watched while white mobs attacked Black men. Of the 34 people killed, 25 were African American and nine were white. Police killed 17 African Americans but no white people. Around 675 people were injured.

More than 3,500 troops arrived to restore order. Military intervention stopped the violence, but did not remove its underlying causes. A subsequent state investigation largely ignored the social inequalities behind the riots. Detroit demonstrated the limits of wartime progress: new jobs could exist alongside segregated housing, racist violence and unequal treatment by the authorities.

Military service challenged racial assumptions

Around one million African Americans served in the armed forces during the war. They initially served in segregated units and were often assigned support duties rather than combat roles. This meant that serving the country did not bring equal treatment within its military.

As the war continued, the need for personnel widened opportunities. African American soldiers served in the infantry, while the Tuskegee Airmen, trained through a programme in Alabama, became combat pilots and served with distinction. Their achievements challenged racist assumptions about Black Americans' abilities.

Military service and defence work thus helped establish foundations for further change. African Americans had made substantial contributions to victory, strengthening the case for equal opportunity. Nevertheless, neither successful service nor wartime employment automatically dismantled segregation.

Truman's 1948 order: a significant but gradual change

After Roosevelt's death, President Harry S. Truman took further action on civil rights. His administration's civil rights commission published recommendations in 1947, including stronger protection against racial discrimination. When Truman asked Congress to act in 1948, Southern senators threatened to block the proposals through prolonged debate, known as a filibuster.

Truman used his presidential authority to pursue changes without waiting for this legislation. On 26 July 1948, he issued Executive Order 9981, establishing equality of treatment and opportunity in the armed forces regardless of race, colour, religion or national origin. It set the policy of desegregation and established a committee to recommend the changes needed to implement it.

This was a major change in the relationship between African Americans and the federal government: the President was directing the military to end racial separation. However, military resistance meant that integration was not completed immediately in 1948.

Overall, the war was a foundation for the Civil Rights movement rather than the achievement of racial equality. Employment opportunities, military contributions and federal action strengthened the demand for change; Japanese American internment, Detroit and continuing segregation showed how much remained unresolved.