WWII+Research+and+Symposium+MTAB

=__Secondary Facts__=


 * 1 million African American, 300,000 Mexican Americans, 13,000 Chinese Americans, and 25,000 Native Americans served in the military.


 * African Americans were not allowed into combat till the beginning of April in 1943.


 * African Americans were forced into segregated service units supervised by white officers.


 * They were often given jobs such as messmen or cargo handlers.


 * African American woman also served as nurses, but it was inappropriate for black nurses to treat white soldiers.


 * The Tuskegee Airmen were an all-African American pilot training program created only under the pressure of Franklin D. Roosevelt.


 * By the end of WWII, 294 Medals of Honor have been given to Americans; none of them were African Americans.


 * Before January 13 1997, no Medals of Honor were awarded to African Americans.


 * More than 2 million minority workers were hired during the war years.


 * In the workforce, minorities were hired for low paying jobs even if they were more qualified.

=__Primary Documents__=



This is a Military Police waiting on his motorcycle ready to take calls from his area. This picture really shows how segregated the military was and how unfair minorities were treated. In the picture it shows that that was an office just for colored people, because they were not allowed to mix with the whites at that time. It’s horrible how the U.S. was fighting against the biggest raciest, Adolf Hitler, and yet they were being raciest themselves. It is also an example of how the minorities would be unfairly getting the non-combat jobs.

This is a picture of Doris Miller or "the first hero of WWII". After his training at the Naval Training Station in Virginia, he was assigned to a battleship to serve as a messman. Then on December 7 1941 the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Miller carried wounded sailors to safety, helped the mortally wounded captain of the ship, and then used a machine gun to fight back until it ran out of ammunition. He saved many lives and also shot down a Japanese plane. Miller was told to be a messman and yet he was the one who became the hero. This really proved that any African American could have been as brave and as well skilled as he was but America was too ignorant to see that. Even after this African Americans were getting the non-combat jobs and segregated units.


 * "Give respect before you expect it, treat people the way you want to be treated, remember the mission, set the example, keep going."**

This was said in the speech Bill Clinton gave during the presentation of Medals of Honor to black WWII veterans in 1997. The quote was originally said by one of the veterans, Joseph V. Baker when he was asked how he dealt with the lack of respect and honor during the time he served in the military. He was denied the Medal of Honor during the time simply because he was black. In fact, 1997 was the first time an African American ever got a medal of honor, and i think it should have never taken that long. This quote really says that even if you don’t get the respect you should, you need to remember what you are fighting for, and stick to it.