Race and 1940s America

While allowing an African-Americans to play baseball may not seem controversial now, it’s important to remember that much of America employed some form of segregation in the 1940s. While officially sanctioned or not, as a rule, African-Americans did not enjoy the same freedoms as their white counterparts.

Sign protesting integrated neighborhoods in Detroit, Michigan , 1942. Via The Library of Congress

Sign protesting integrated neighborhoods in Detroit, Michigan , 1942. Via The Library of Congress

In the South, where the Dodgers often held spring training, African-Americans were restricted to inferior amenities. Jim Crow laws kept African-Americans in perpetual social inferiority and bound them to a social code imposed by the white classes. Lynchings were not uncommon and African-Americans faced threats of violence on a regular basis.

Even in Brooklyn, neighborhoods were largely divided along ethnic lines. In 1940, African-Americans made up just 4 percent of Brooklyn’s total population. Thus, white northerners viewed African-Americans as unfamiliar at best and often, as undesirable.

While racism was still very present, the integration movement had made some progress in the wake of World War II. America had just witnessed black and white soldiers fight together for the same cause. In the Holocaust, they also saw what horrific forms state sanctioned racial superiority could take.

The complex racial norms of 1940s America both sustained the color barrier and supported its challenging.

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