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Fighting for Hope:

African American Troops of the 93rd Infantry Division in World War II and Postwar America
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This fascinating history shows how African-American military men and women seized their dignity through barracks culture and community politics during and after World War II.Drawing on oral testimony, unpublished correspondence, archival records, memoirs, and diaries, Robert F. Jefferson explores the curious contradiction of war-effort idealism and entrenched discrimination through the experiences of the 93rd Infantry Division. Led by white officers and presumably unable to fight -- and with the army taking great pains to regulate contact between black soldiers and local women -- the division was largely relegated to support roles during the advance on the Philippines, seeing action only later in the war when U.S. officials found it unavoidable. Jefferson discusses racial policy within the War Department, examines the lives and morale of black GIs and their families, documents the debate over the deployment of black troops, and focuses on how the soldiers' wartime experiences reshaped their perspectives on race and citizenship in America. He finds in these men and their families incredible resilience in the face of racism at war and at home and shows how their hopes for the future provided a blueprint for America's postwar civil rights struggles.Integrating social history and civil rights movement studies, Fighting for Hope examines the ways in which political meaning and identity were reflected in the aspirations of these black GIs and their role in transforming the face of America.

PrefaceAcknowledgmentsList of AbbreviationsIntroduction: Recasting the African American Experience in World War IIPart I: The Crucible1. The Great Depression and African American Youth Culture2. Why Should I Fight? Black Morale and War Department Racial Policy3. Of Sage and Sand: Fort Huachuca and the U.S. 93rd Infantry DivisionPart II: The Hand that Rocks the Cradle Holds the Shield4. Service Families on the Move5. War Maneuvers and Black Division PersonnelPart III: Race and Sex Matter in the Pacific6. War, Race, and Rumor under the Southern Cross7. Relative Security in the Southwest PacificEpilogue: Black 93rd Division Veterans and Former Service Families after World War IINotesEssay on SourcesIndex

""An invaluable contribution to military history, African American history, and American social history.""

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