World War II had ended. The forces of the Axis powers had been defeated and freedom was declared the winner. The world celebrated the end of the war, and so did black people in America and abroad. Many blacks Americans had fought in the war. They had seen themselves as part of some moral crusade against injustice. They had marched triumphantly through the streets of Paris where they were received as heroes. It seemed as if for once, they had gained the social equality which they had sought. But upon return to the United States, reality showed itself to have remained unchanged. Jim Crow was still enforced with strong conviction. These same black men who had walked with such pride as liberators through France, returned to find that they were nothing more than 2nd class citizens in the very land they had fought for. The irony of their predicament was not lost to them. All over the world, people of color were throwing growing restless with European colonial domination-from Africa to Asia. Many blacks in the United States felt that enough was enough. The time to allow America to change had long gone. It was time to take matters in their own hands. |
The Greensboro Four