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Draft registration WWII: Joseph Cyrus Fisher

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Title:

Draft registration WWII: Joseph Cyrus Fisher

Date Created:

1918-09-12

Description:

When the Selective Training and Service Act became the nation’s first peacetime draft law in September 1940, civil rights leaders persistently urged President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) to allow Black men the opportunity to register and serve in integrated regiments. Participants in every war the United States have been a part of, African Americans had done so segregated and the Secretary of War, FDR appointee Henry Stimson, was not interested in changing the status quo. FDR decided that Black men could register for the draft, but they would remain segregated and the military would determine the proportion of Blacks inducted into the service (https://www.history.com/news/black-soldiers-world-war-ii-discrimination). African Americans were simultaneously fighting racism in the United States and in the US military (examples include the all-Black railroad guards and the famous Tuskegee Airmen) while fighting for their country overseas. During WWII more than 2.5 million African American men registered for the draft and African American women volunteered in large numbers. Over one million African American men and women served in every branch of the US armed forces during World War II.

Subjects:

World War I Veteran Employment

Location:

39 Lafayette Street, Portland, ME

Latitude:

43.66739701

Longitude:

-70.24864096

Source:

Bob Greene Papers, African American Collection, Jean Byers Sampson Center for Diversity in Maine, University of Southern Maine Libraries.

Source Identifier:

AAMS021_JCFdraft-anc

Type:

Image;StillImage

Format:

image/jpg