As historian Stephen Ambrose wryly notes, "Soldiers were fighting the world's worst racist, Adolph Hitler, in the world's most segregated army.
These social activists hoped that giving black people a chance to prove themselves in the arena of war would facilitate a victory over racism at home. In 1941, Civil Rights pioneers including the NAACP convinced the military to recruit and train all-black combat units as an experiment. In Easy's words, "They said we didn't have the discipline or the minds for a war effort, but they were really scared that we might get to like the kind of freedom that death-dealing brings." Easy recalls that he enlisted in the army because he wanted to be a part of "the hope of the world." But like most black soldiers, he was hard-pressed to retain his patriotism in the face of the blatant racism he experienced in the segregated South. The white government administration as well as heads of the Armed Forces were convinced that black men were incapable of correctly following orders and handling the responsibility of combat. Like many black soldiers, Easy was trained as a soldier but denied the opportunity to engage the enemy directly. Indeed, Easy's first experiences in the war are as part of a statistics unit. Black officers could enlist but were usually considered "unfit for combat" and relegated to desk jobs. To help us better understand Easy's memories and his attitude towards his experience as a soldier, let us examine the history of African-American soldiers in World War II.īefore World War II began, the United States Army was completely segregated. Over and over, his memories inform his views of race and racism, physical violence, and his will to survive and gain independence. Throughout Devil in a Blue Dress, Easy Rawlins thinks back on his days as an African-American soldier in World War II.
Harrison, Captain Irvin McHenry and 2nd Lieutenant James C. Reproduced at According to the source, this photograph depicts "Officers of the 761st Medium Tank Battalion, await action near Nancy, France on 5 November 1944. Army Military History Institute, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania. Photo courtesy of the Photo Library, U.S.
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