Historian Allan M. Winkler, in his 1986 book Home Front U.S.A.: America During World War II, provides the following saying, which was familiar among black Americans during World War II (1939–45), "Here lies a black man killed fighting a yellow man for the protection of a white man." This saying reflected the wartime frustrations of many minorities in the United States. Americans on the home front generally supported the Allies' fight against the Axis powers of Germany, Italy, and Japan during World War II. The country was united in its patriotic desire to win the war. However, American minorities felt a contradiction in the wartime experience. While they were fighting overseas to save democracy, freedoms at home were still limited for people of color. Strong racial prejudices, centuries old, still existed in the United States, and racial conflicts on the...