We Exist Series 5

1. Home
2. Items
3. Draft registration WWII: Walter Francis Wiggin

Draft registration WWII: Walter Francis Wiggin

Click to view full screen

Download JPG View on Timeline View on Map

Title:

Draft registration WWII: Walter Francis Wiggin

Date Created:

1942

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. Included on the registration card were the names and addresses of the places of employment of each registrant which gives insight into the employment trends of African Americans during that period. 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.

Subjects:

World War II Veteran Employment

Location:

47 Camp St., Providence, RI

Latitude:

41.83804363

Longitude:

-71.40391091

Source:

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

Source Identifier:

AAMS021_WFHdraft-anc

Type:

Image;StillImage

Format:

image/jpg