Wartime Civil Rights
Fighting fascism abroad while battling racism at home was the approach taken by black communities across the country during World War II. Securing democracy in Europe and Asia while not enjoying it in the United States did not seem just. Jobs were plentiful as the wartime economy hummed along at a fevered pitch. But when employers and unions kept Jim Crow hiring policies in place, African Americans did not hesitate to protest. Here picketers rally for defense jobs outside the Glenn Martin Plant in Omaha, Nebraska, in the early 1940s. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library/Art Resource, NY.