Discrimination on the Home Front
After war broke out in Europe in 1939, the United States forged ahead, together as a whole, for a common cause. These ideals became even more prevalent after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. However, individual views regarding race and ethnicity were not always so unified throughout the war.
Decades before the war even began, reformers in the South were on a crusade to end bigotry against African Americans. Even with such activism, it was difficult to create change in the traditional views of the South. People still held onto the beliefs that African Americans were of a lower class. Many blamed the Jim Crow laws that had been in place since the Civil War. These laws created a racial barrier that favored whites and segregated other races.
Jim Crow laws reinforced the notion that African Americans were lesser than white Americans. At the helm of this racist ideal was the Ku Klux Klan. The KKK had reached a membership of 3 million in the 1920s, when fears of immigrants ran rampant. The Klan played upon the American public’s frustration at immigrants’ willingness to take jobs for much lower wages. Using terrorist methods, the Ku Klux Klan persecuted, tortured and killed many African Americans, Jews, Catholics and immigrants.