![]() Foster!Ĭlashes between soldiers and police became commonplace in the South. In 1944, Tampa Bay residents read an eye-popping headline: “Tampa Negro Has 7 Sons in Service.” The article saluted Albert Foster, a “57-year-old Negro, of 1939 Green St., West Tampa.” Foster’s seven sons volunteered for military service, three of them as doctors in the Medical Corps. Historian Marvin Dunn described Miami: “In May 1943, a huge parade and rally in Colored Town kicked off a major war bonds drive.” A 1944 headline in the Jackson County Floridian announced, “Colored People to Accept Quota of $5,000 in Bonds.” Anything was better than this hell hole.”Īcross Florida, African Americans contributed to the war effort. Warren Bryant concluded, “Frankly we were delighted when orders came for us to go. After arriving by train, a “big, red-necked sheriff” pontificated about Southern manners and morals, especially pointing out that social life was limited to one area of town - the Black district. One Black soldier remembered his “introduction” to Tampa. A prosperous commercial district existed along an area known as The Scrub, an area north of downtown between Nebraska and Central avenues. Tampa seemed an ideal setting for Black troops. An NAACP official reported, “The post’s policy is complete segregation of the races.” By 1945, MacDill counted over three thousand Black service members, but only a single Black officer who served as chaplain. MacDill and Drew fields prepared pilots and training crews for B-17, B-26 and B-29 air fleets. Ironically, contemporaries hailed the coming of the military to Cigar City as a beam of optimism. Tampa was a powder keg of racial tensions. Both newspapers launched “Jim Crow” editions called “The Negro News Page,” written by Black reporters and delivered only in Black neighborhoods. Petersburg Times and the Tampa Daily Times (the city’s afternoon paper) seized an opportunity to expand readership. We are treated more like prisoners of war than members of the armed forces.” One such letter in the voluminous Papers of the NAACP bore the title, “Mistreatment of Soldiers in Dixie.” Written by soldiers serving in the engineering aviation battalion, the letter noted, “Above all we have Southern White Crackers as officers over us who abuse us and treat us worse than we would treat the lowest of dogs. The NAACP fought valiantly in defense of African American soldiers. The Pittsburgh Courier, a respected Black newspaper, printed a letter: “Please tell me how the President of the United States knowing that we are at war, allows the Negro soldier to be treated so intolerably? Does he condone the treatment of those soldiers in Alabama and those in Tallahassee, Florida?” Articulating the goals of fighting on two fronts was relatively easy the reality of confronting segregation in the Jim Crow South and U.S. African American leaders pledged a Double V campaign - victory against fascism and totalitarianism but also victory at home against racism. Pearl Harbor galvanized an America deeply divided over military preparedness and the fate of Europe. Ownership of one’s home, a central tenet in the American dream, was elusive. Of Florida’s 85,464 Black female wage earners in 1940, two-thirds labored as domestics - maids, laundresses and cooks. ![]() Twenty-two Florida counties lacked high schools for Black students.Īfrican American females faced even more daunting occupational prospects. ![]() In the 1941-1942 term, white teachers in Florida earned $1,282 annually while Black teachers were paid $671. Inequality in education was especially acute. ![]() The 1940 Census tallied 2,015 white engineers but no African Americans. A 1940 roster of Black professionals in Florida included one chemist, two veterinarians, 24 pharmacists, 39 dentists, 85 physicians and 979 clergymen. Racial disparities touched almost every sector of society. On the eve of WWII, 514,000 African Americans resided in Florida, along with 1.4 million whites. The word “Negro” was considered polite, but newspapers rarely capitalized the word. Not a single Florida classroom was integrated. Lee’s birthday and April 26, Confederate Memorial Day. Hillsborough County’s courthouse was flanked by a statue of Johnny Reb. Vestiges of the Old South and New South festooned cemeteries and monuments on the eve of WWII. ![]()
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