“We cannot fight to crush Nazi brutality abroad and condone race riots at home. Those who fan the fires of racial clashes for the purpose of making political capital here at home are taking the first step toward Nazism.” ~ Vice President Henry Wallace
When World War II began on September 1, 1939, The Pittsburgh Courier immediately connected the United States’ treatment of African Americans and Nazi Germany’s treatment of Jewish people.
Drawing the connection between fascism abroad and Jim Crow at home, African American activists and service members declared the necessity of “double victory”, defeating the Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan during World War II overseas and systematic racism on the home front.
In 1942, The Pittsburgh Courier, a leading African-American newspaper at the time, launched the “Double Victory” campaign. The campaign became a rallying cry for black journalists, activists and citizens to secure both victory over fascism abroad during World War II and victory over racism at home.
Advocates of the Double Victory campaign understood that Nazism would not be completely vanquished in Germany until white supremacy was defeated everywhere, including in the U.S. South.
“In the freest country in the world, where even the President rages against racial discrimination, no citizen of dark color is permitted to travel next to a white person, even if the white is employed as a sewer digger and the Negro is a world boxing champion or otherwise a national hero…[this] example shows us all how we have to solve the problem of traveling foreign Jews.” ~ Chicago Defender
“The Double V,” short for “The Double Victory,” was a term first mentioned in an activist’s letter to The Pittsburgh Courier. The letter read, “Let colored Americans adopt the double VV for a double victory; the first V for victory over our enemies from without, the second V for victory over our enemies within.
A “double V for victory” sign, with the first V standing for victory of enemies from without and the second V for victory over enemies within, meaning those in the United States who limited the freedoms of African Americans.
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To learn more about “Double Victory” and the experience of African Americans during WWII, you can purchase and read the “African American Experience During World War II” by Edward Brownlee.
References:
- Matthew Delmont, Why African-American Soldiers Saw World War II as a Two-Front Battle, Smithsonian Magazine, August 24, 2017 https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/why-african-american-soldiers-saw-world-war-ii-two-front-battle-180964616/