Half American: The Epic Story of African Americans Fighting World War II at Home and Abroad, by Matthew F. Delmont

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'Half American' by Matthew F. Delmont

The book’s title comes from a letter written by a Black cafeteria worker to the Pittsburgh Courier, one of the nation’s leading Black newspapers. Pearl Harbor had just been bombed, and the writer knew he would be drafted. “Should I sacrifice my life to live half American?” he asked.

Matthew F. Delmont, a history professor at Dartmouth, looks deeply into the situation faced by Blacks as the U.S. entered World War II. Not only was the Army segregated, with few Black officers, but a report from the Army War College deemed Blacks as “mentally inferior to the white man” and “lacking the physical courage of the white.” The Navy relegated Blacks to serving the officers; the Air Corps wanted nothing to do with them. Conditions in the defense industries were often worse still.

Half American breaks ground by uncovering Black resistance to their country’s pervasive racism, including a threatened march by 100,000 Blacks on Washington to demand civil rights. To prevent any embarrassment from such a public expression of discontent, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an executive order decreeing the end of discrimination in defense industries. It was less than what the march’s organizers wanted but more than African Americans had received from any president since Reconstruction.

The military remained segregated, but Blacks fought in combat and served in logistical roles; Black scientists and workers were recruited for the Manhattan Project. While the war was ongoing, the NAACP’s Walter White said, “All of us are deeply concerned at the appalling lack of information among white Americans regarding the enormous part the Negro is playing.” Years later, the role of Blacks in winning the war is still little known. Half American may open some eyes to the full story.