Submitted by: Submitted by tifan
Views: 568
Words: 1128
Pages: 5
Category: US History
Date Submitted: 05/04/2010 01:59 PM
The struggle for black freedom was an ongoing and tiresome journey, but the rewarding results were well worth the miles. The dictionary gave four definitions of manhood, but the one that stood out the most stated that manhood is the composite of qualities, such courage, determination, and vigor, ordinarily attributed to an adult male. To struggle as it is defined is to make a strenuous effort or to strive at something; not giving up. These words described the many African American men that pushed forward no matter the burdens that were placed upon them.
African American men had to endure being belittled because of their race. They were not allowed to fight for their country in the early years of war but could only be a servant to Caucasian officers. All because one man’s belief that the black man was not intelligent enough to take on such a task. This concept soon changed because the war needed more manpower. Black men and white women soldiers were then called into the line of duty. This was only the beginning of the many changes to come. Black men were very adamant about serving in the war believing and hoping this would gain respect and citizenship. This only put African Americans on the front line while the whites sat in the background with minimal effort while in combat.
Soon afterwards, the Great Depression set in which only caused things to get worse for African Americans. While the unemployment rate decreased for whites, it was basically at a standstill for colored people. In these trying times, the employers were able to pick and choose their employees and those first choices were obviously not African Americans. There were very few black employees, and they were not trained for these jobs and resulted to low pay. The blacks were only hired to do cleaning work. As a result, A. Philip Randolph came up with the idea to fight workplace discrimination and at first was not successful, but he was very persistent. Randolph was told by President Franklin...