Also American
Struggle & ResistanceAchievement & Excellence

1940s

1940–1949
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Oppression
The GI Bill and its unequal benefits

Landmark veterans' benefits are administered to largely exclude Black servicemen.

Resistance
Executive Order 8802

Pressured by A. Philip Randolph's threatened march, FDR bans discrimination in defense industries.

Zoom in — years

1940
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1941
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1942
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1943
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1944
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1945
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1946
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1947
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1948
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1949
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Key events

  1. June 25, 1941
    Executive Order 8802

    Pressured by A. Philip Randolph's threatened march, FDR bans discrimination in defense industries.

  2. April 3, 1944
    Smith v. Allwright

    The Supreme Court bans the all-white primary, a key tool of disenfranchisement.

  3. June 22, 1944
    The GI Bill and its unequal benefits

    Landmark veterans' benefits are administered to largely exclude Black servicemen.

  4. May 3, 1948
    Shelley v. Kraemer

    The Court rules racially restrictive housing covenants unenforceable.

  5. July 26, 1948
    Truman desegregates the armed forces

    Executive Order 9981 ends segregation in the US military.

  6. June 20, 1943
    The Detroit race riot of 1943

    Wartime tensions erupt into deadly violence in Detroit.

  7. February 12, 1946
    The blinding of Isaac Woodard

    A Black veteran is beaten and blinded by police, galvanizing federal civil-rights attention.

  8. June 3, 1946
    Morgan v. Virginia

    The Supreme Court bars segregation on interstate buses.