Slavery (December 2004)

http://www.historynow.org/12_2004/index.html

Essay on Martin Luther King Day in the Holidays issue (June 2005):

http://www.historynow.org/06_2005/historian.html

Abolition (September 2005):

http://www.historynow.org/09_2005/index.html

Postwar civil rights movement (June 2006):

http://www.historynow.org/06_2006/index.html

Another useful general source is a volume co-edited by Dr. Taylor, the author of the essay you've just read. It includes Langston Hughes' "Nazi and Dixie Nordics" and many other valuable pieces:

Civil Rights Since 1787 : A Reader On The Black Struggle. New York : New York University Press, 2000.

General studies of the war's impact on African-Americans include:

Morehouse, Maggi M. Fighting In The Jim Crow Army : Black Men And Women Remember World War II. Lanham : Rowman & Littlefield, 2000.

Brandt, Nat. Harlem At War: The Black Experience In World War II. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1996. This focuses on the experience of service personnel and civilians from New York City.

Weir, William. The Encyclopedia Of African American Military History Newton. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2004.

These focus on specific branches of the armed services. First, the Air Corps:

Francis, Charles E. The Tuskegee Airmen : The Men Who Changed A Nation. Boston, MA : Branden Pub. Co., 1988.

Gropman, Alan L. The Air Force Integrates, 1945-1964. Washington, DC : Smithsonian Institution Press, 1998.

Sandler, Stanley. Segregated Skies : All-Black Combat Squadrons Of World War II.
Washington, DC : Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992.

Scott, Lawrence P., and William M. Womack Sr. Double V : The Civil Rights Struggle of the Tuskegee Airmen. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1994.

Next, the Army:

Gibran, Daniel K. The 92nd Infantry Division And The Italian Campaign In World War II. Jefferson, NC : McFarland, 2001.

Colley, David (David P.) Blood for Dignity: The Story of the First Integrated Combat Unit in the US Army. New York : St. Martin's Press, 2003.

And the Navy and Marine Corps:

Downey, Bill. Uncle Sam Must Be Losing The War : Black Marines Of The 51st. San Francisco, CA : Strawberry Hill Press, 1982.

Miller, Richard E. The Messman Chronicles : African Americans In The U.S. Navy, 1932-1943. Naval Institute Press, 2004.

Nelson, Dennis Denmark. The Integration Of The Negro Into The U.S. Navy. New York, Farrar, Straus and Young, 1951.

The following books deal with African American women on the home front and in the service:

Honey, Maureen, ed. Bitter Fruit : African American Women In World War II. University of Missouri Press, 1999.

Moore, Brenda L. To Serve my Country, To Serve my Race : The story of the only African American WAACS stationed overseas during World War II. New York : New York University Press, 1996.

Putney, Martha S. When The Nation Was In Need : Blacks In The Women's Army Corps During World War II . Metuchen, NJ : Scarecrow Press, 1992.

The story of the Pittsburgh Courier's "Double V" campaign richly deserves a good booklength study. Until that happens, look at these resources:

Buni, Andrew. Robert L. Vann Of The Pittsburgh Courier: Politics And Black Journalism. University of Pittsburgh Press, 1974. Vann was the founder of the Courier who died in 1940.

Simmons, Charles A. The African American Press : A History Of News Coverage During National Crises, With Special Reference To Four Black Newspapers, 1827-1965. Jefferson, N.C. : McFarland & Co., c1998.

Washburn, Patrick S. "The Pittsburgh Courier's Double V Campaign in 1942." American Journalism 3(1986), no. 2. : 73-86.

Here are two recent biographies of A. Philip Randolph:

Kersten, Andrew Edmund. A. Philip Randolph : A Life In The Vanguard. Lanham : Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2007.

Pfeffer, Paula F. A. Philip Randolph, Pioneer Of The Civil Rights Movement. Baton Rouge : Louisiana State University Press, 1990.

Internet and Audiovisual Resources:

Be sure to check my recommendations for websites dealing with African American history in the earlier History Now issues I've listed above. I'll confine myself, here, to sites dealing with specific issues raised by Dr. Taylor's essay:

The official Tuskegee Airmen Website's photos date from recent reunions of the unit's veterans, but the site provides an excellent booklist:

http://www.tuskegeeairmen.org/uploads/booklist.pdf

The Wikipedia article on the Airmen is sound, with reproductions of a squadron poster and service patches:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuskegee_Airmen

Although many of Black Aviation's recommended Internet links don't work any more, luckily the site with half a dozen contemporary newspaper articles on the fliers is still in fine shape:

http://www.blackaviation.com/blackhistory.html

You shouldn't have much trouble getting copies of the 2002 PBS film on the Tuskegee Airmen (They Fought Two Wars ) or 1995 theatrical film starring Lawrence Fishbourne and Cuba Gooding about the unit. PBS even provides an "index" to its special:

http://videoindex.pbs.org/program/program.asp?item_id=37615

An older audiovisual item, African-American Heroes of World War II, will be harder to find, but it's well worth some trouble. It combines three short films: "From These Beginnings," which deals with the training of the Tuskegee Airmen; " Strictly G.I.," which tells the story of popular black radio programs that were recorded in Hollywood and shipped overseas every week for broadcast on the Armed Forces Radio Network; and a 1995 film on the Tuskegee Airmen.

The National Park Service has has a good section on these aviators on the website for Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site at Morton Field in Tuskegee, Alabama:

http://www.nps.gov/museum/exhibits/tuskegee/airoverview.htm

The website for the 2007 Ken Burns' series on WWII has a useful segment on the African American experience:

http://www.pbs.org/thewar/at_war_democracy_african_american.htm

And the lesson plans there include one on the Double V campaign:

http://www-tc.pbs.org/thewar/downloads/double_v.pdf

The 2003 PBS special The Perilous Fight provides a section of rare color photos and movies of African American participation in the War:

http://www.pbs.org/perilousfight/social/african_americans/

The National Archives online "Pictures of African Americans in World War II" include all branches of service, men and women, and home front. You'll find hundreds of images with a good introduction and excellent captions. This is a real winner:

http://www.archives.gov/research/african-americans/ww2-pictures/

For those of you interested in African American women in the WAACs, there's a superb bibliography , compiled by Dr. Janet Sims-Wood at the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center at Howard University:

http://www.founders.howard.edu/moorland-spingarn/Wwii.htm

The Center for Military History has a good online history of the WAACs:

http://www.army.mil/CMH/brochures/WAAC/WAAC.htm

The Library of Congress provides a more "select" reading list on "African American Women in the Military and at War." Be sure to take a look at the Internet suggestions -- there are even helpful hints on how to search each site:

http://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/SciRefGuides/africanamericanwomenwar.html

Kathy Sheldon prepared a useful "brief history" of African American women in military at site of the Women in Military Service for American Memorial:

http://www.womensmemorial.org/Education/BBH1998.html#4

For service in the Navy, see the U.S. Naval Historical Center Website:

http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/prs-tpic/af-amer/afa-wwii.htm

For the work of the Pittsburgh Courier, look at the site for the PBS film The Black Press: Soldiers without Swords:

http://www.pbs.org/blackpress/news_bios/courier.html

The Wikipedia article on Double V needs work, but it's still very helpful:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DOUBLE_V

William F. Yurasko has mounted an intriguing Website on "Double Victory at Home Victory Abroad" based on his own research:

http://www.yurasko.net/vv/courier.html

Good materials for the March on Washington movement and A. Philip Randolph are scattered among many familiar sites:

The A. Philip Randolph Institute provides a good brief biography:

http://www.apri.org/ht/d/sp/i/225/pid/225

American Memory's "African American Odyssey," for instance, Includes a poster for the March on Washington:

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aaohtml/exhibit/aopart8.html

This University of Maryland site provides excerpts from a speech in which Randolph called for the march:

http://www.bsos.umd.edu/aasp/chateauvert/mowmcall.htm

The Tamiment Library site has a march sticker:

http://www.laborarts.org/collections/item.cfm?itemid=110

The Newberry Library site includes an organizing flyer for the march:

http://www.newberry.org/scholl/wakeupflyer.html