As the Nazis began to dominate the European continent, African Americans continued to grapple with the realities of life in a racist society. Jim Crow segregation and its quiet cousin, de facto segregation, ruled the land. Violence undergirded this social structure and prevented blacks from gaining some measure of parity with whites. World War II gave blacks an opportunity to reinvigorate the struggle against discrimination and, coupled with other social and political developments, to change a nation.

The Quest for Equality

The Great Migration of blacks, during the World War I era, from the South to the North and Midwest began a national demographic transformation. The process resumed with vigor in the 1940s as black Southerners flocked to the industrial centers of the North, Midwest, and far West. The build-up for war created new opportunities for blacks in expanding industries...