African Americans, 1947: We want to be free!
The US Army which won World War Two, and prided itself on its victory over the Nazi racists, was itself segregated. African Americans were hived off into separate units, often working as cargo handlers or cooks, and commanded by white officers. Not until 1948 did the US government decide to desegregate its armed forces. Not until after the end of the Korean war, in 1954, was desegregation carried through. Since the defeat of radical reconstruction in the Southern states after the US civil war of 1861-5 which abolished slavery, the now-formally-free African Americans in the South had faced an...