Book Displays: Equal Justice Initiative 2024: Jan

Calendar photo caption: By 1945, more than 1.2 million Black Americans served in the U.S. Armed Forces. (Creative Commons-Share Alike 3.0 Germany)

Black veterans who risked their lives to defend their country have long faced discrimination, abuse, humiliation, and violence at home. Dozens of Black veterans have been killed by white people across the U.S. Many have survived near-lynchings and thousands have suffered violent assaults and social humiliation. 

Racial discrimination extended to veterans' benefits as well. Signed into law in 1944, the G.I. Bill was designed to reward military service and assist veterans with housing, education, and employment. The broad scope of social benefits provided by the federal government in this comprehensive legislation was unprecedented, and the G.I. Bill is often credited with creating the American middle class. 

Because the bill left all administrative responsibility to states, however, state authorities had virtually unchecked power to discriminate against Black veterans. In the 18 mostly Southern states where segregation was mandated by law, Black veterans were denied opportunities for economic and educational advancement. 

Numerous universities refused to accept Black veterans, who were steered away from higher education, and blanks routinely denied home loans for Black service members. One survey of 13 Mississippi cities found Black Americans received only two of the 3,229 home, business, and farm loans administered by the VA in 1947. 

Little has been done to acknowledge the discrimination that denied Black veterans the G.I. benefits provided to white veterans or the violence inflicted on them simply because they embodied the hope and possibility of Black empowerment and social equality.