World War II and the US Civil Rights Movement

Gabriel TordjmanDarwin’s Tea Party

Last update: 25 April, 2012

Background: Nazi Eugenics and World War II (1939-45)

• The Nazi Party came into power in Germany in 1932.

• A series of laws and measures shows the influence of eugenics and racism in Nazi Germany.

• Almost immediately, laws were passed which launched forced sterilization and other eugenic measures

• “The Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring” was passed in July 1933

Nazi Germany 1933-45Sterilization Laws

Nazi Germany 1933-45

Sterilization LawsThe law established eugenic courts throughout the country and obliged doctors and nurses to report anyone with a mental or illness or mental or physical disability

Nazi Germany 1933-45Sterilization Laws

• The eugenic courts could decide to impose forced sterilization on anyone considered genetically defective.

• By the end of the war about 400,000 people had been sterilized.

This poster from a Nazi publication drives home the message that the mentally or physically disabled are a heavy burden on society.

Nazi Germany 1933-45The Nuremberg Laws (1935)

– Classified who was/was not German/Jewish (one Jewish grandparent=Jewish; 4 German grandparents=German)

– Prohibited marriage and sexual intercourse between Jews and Germans (“Aryans”)

– Prohibited the employment of German females in Jewish households

– Stripped German Jews of citizenship rights (e.g., voting, legal rights, etc...)

Nazi Germany 1933-45The Nuremberg Laws (1935)

This chart was produced by German authorities to explain the Nuremberg classification of Jews/Germans and “Mischling” (mixed race).

Nazi Germany (1933-45)Euthanasia Program

• Beginning before the war, this program aimed to rid Germany of mental or physical “defectives” by killing them

• The program began with young children but soon was extended to adults and non-Germans.

A victim of the Nazi Euthanasia Program: hospitalized in a psychiatric ward for her nonconformist beliefs and writings, she was murdered on January 26, 1944. Germany, date uncertain.-US Holocaust Memorial Museum-http://www.ushmm.org/

Emmi G., a 16-year-old housemaid diagnosed as schizophrenic. She was sterilized and sent to the Meseritz-Obrawalde euthanasia center where she was killed with an overdose of tranquilizers on December 7, 1942. Place and date uncertain.-US Holocaust Memorial Museum-http://www.ushmm.org/

Nazi Germany (1933-45)Euthanasia Program

• The killing methods involved lethal injections of toxic drugs but gas chambers were also used.

• The “expertise” at mass killing, including use of gas chambers, was later used to kill millions in concentration and death camps during the war.

Nazi Germany (1933-45)Concentration and Death Camps

• The Nazis started building concentration camps in Germany almost immediately.

• Those considered enemies of the Nazis were sent there even before the war, including Jews, “Gypsies” (Roma), and other ethnic minorities as well as homosexuals

• Political opponents such as communists, socialists and some religious opponents who dared speak out were also sent there.

When was broke out and the Nazis conquered Europe they established concentration and death camps throughout especially Eastern Europe. Millions of Jews, Russians, Roma, and others deemed undesirable were sent their either to be killed immediately or to work to death.

Nazi Germany (1933-45)Concentration and Death Camps

Survivors of Auschwitz Concentration and Death Camp, liberated by the Soviet Union, 1945 “A Time of Terror. World War II and the Holocaust” http://dtsdapache.hershey.k12.pa.us/wpmu/hs_eng9/tag/concentration-camps/

Auschwitz Concentration and Death Camp

War and Ideology

• A key aspect of the war involved ideology and propaganda.

• Racial and eugenic ideology played a prominent role on the Axis side.

• The USA and the Allies fought against this ideology and for freedom and liberty against a totalitarian tyranny.

The 1936 Olympics in Berlin

The Nazis thought the 1936 Olympics in Germany would show the world the superiority of the “Aryan” race. Instead , it is most remembered for Jesse Owen’s (an African-American) record breaking performances.

World War II (1939-45)

• WW II broke out with the attack of Nazi Germany against Poland in 1939.

• The Allies: Britain and the British Empire (including Canada), France, Canada, the USSR and USA

• The Axis: Germany, Italy and Japan.

Impact of the War in the USA:African-Americans (1941-45)

• During the war African Americans and poor whites joined the army or found jobs that helped raise their living standards

• During the war and upon returning, the African American soldiers were more insistent on gaining respect and equality at home.

Impact of the War in the USA (1941-45):The Double V Campaign

Launched by an African-American newspaper in Pittsburgh, The “Double V” campaign, made the point that a victory against Fascism abroad was a victory against racism and discrimination in America.

Impact of the War in the USA (1941-45):The Double V Campaign

Marchers in Pittsburgh calling for an end to discrimination in hiring and connecting it to the struggle against Nazi and fascist ideology.

Impact of the War in the USA (1945-47):American Sports

• Desegregation occurred earlier in Major League sport.• Jackie Robinson broke the “the colour barrier” in Major

League baseball in 1947 playing with the Brooklyn Dodgers.• He started out with the Montreal Royals in 1946.

Impact of the War in the USA: The Civil Rights Movement

The Civil Rights Movement marks a renewed struggle of African-Americans to achieve equality and end racial discrimination in the USA. The Montgomery Bus Boycott is often taken as the beginning of this struggle.

Rosa Parks refused to sit at the back of the bus and helped launch the Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955-56)

Impact of the War in the USA: The Civil Rights Movement

Martin Luther King, Jr. and the March on Washington where he gave his famous “I Have a Dream” Speech. On the right is Jackie Robinson and his son, David, at the same March.

Impact of the War in the USA: The Civil Rights Movement

After the landmark Supreme Court decision Brown vs. Board of Education, segregated schools were declared Unconstitutional and black students were now allowed to go to previously white schools.

White protesters jeer at a black girl entering a previously all white Little Rock High School in 1957.

Impact of the War in the USA:Development of the Welfare State

• The struggle for racial equality in the 1950s and 1960s was echoed by the struggle for economic equality

• Beginning even before the war with Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “New Deal”, the US saw increased government spending on social programs like health care, education, housing, and unemployment insurance.

• In the 1960s, during a time of social upheaval, the trend continued

• President Lyndon Johnson launched the “War Against Poverty” and “The Great Society” programs

Impact of the War in the USA:Development of the Welfare State

Impact of the War:The Struggle for Equality in the World• The struggle for equality expanded globally• The struggle for racial equality was

accompanied by a global Decolonization movement in the 1950s and 1960s

• During this period many countries achieved independence from Britain, France and other previous imperial powers.

India and Pakistan achieved independence from Britain by 1949. Much of Africa achieved independence from Britain, France, Belgium and other European countries between 1950-74

Decolonization (mostly post-WWII)

Impact of the War:The Struggle for Equality in the World

The Charter of the United Nations, formed after the war pledged to rebuild a new world based on the principles of democracy and equality.

Impact of the War:The Struggle for Equality in the World

PREAMBLEWE THE PEOPLES OF THE UNITED NATIONS DETERMINED• to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which

twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and• to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and

worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and

• to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and

• to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,

...Charter of the United Nations, http://www.un.org/en/documents/charter/preamble.shtml

Impact of the War:The Struggle for Equality in the World

UN Building, New York

Impact of the War in the USA:The Continuing Struggle for Equality in the

World• The Struggle for

equality spread to Canada and Quebec as well.

• In Quebec, the upheaval of the 1960s was carried into the “Quiet Revolution” (La revolution tranquil)

The End