Creative Voices
Interpreting African American Poetry in WWII
A Lesson from
the Education Department
The National WWII Museum
945 Magazine Street
New Orleans, LA 70130
(504) 528-1944
www.nationalww2museum.org/learn/education
© The National WWII Museum
Creative Voices
Interpreting African American Poetry in WWII
During WWII African American writers and poets expressed their patriotism and willingness to serve their
country as well as their frustration and bitterness about the discriminatory treatment their country often
gave them. Using pens as their weapons, these creative men and women left a primary record of their
innermost thoughts and feeling, often echoing the mindset of the larger African American community.
OBJECTIVE:
By reading and analyzing two poems written by African American women during
WWII, students will gain an understanding of the attitudes and outlooks of African
Americans toward racial discrimination during the war.
GRADE LEVEL:
7-12
COMMON CORE STANDARDS:
ELA Anchor Standards for Reading:
CCRA.R.4 Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including
determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how
specific word choices shape meaning or tone.
Literacy in History/Social Studies:
RH.6-8.1 Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and
secondary sources.
RH.9-10.6 Compare the point of view of two or more authors for how they treat
the same or similar topics, including which details they include and emphasize in
their respective accounts.
RH.11-12.7 Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in
diverse formats and media (e.g., visually, quantitatively, as well as in words) in
order to address a question or solve a problem.
HISTORY STANDARDS:
History Thinking Standard 2—the student appreciates historical perspectives
through the eyes of those who were there, as revealed through their literature.
Historical Thinking Standard 5—the student identifies issues and problems in the
past and analyzes the interests, values, perspectives, and points of view of those
involved in the situation.
TIME REQUIREMENT: One class period.
MATERIALS: Copies of “Creative Voices: African American Poetry in WWII” poem handout
“Creative Voices” student worksheet
Fact sheet: African Americans in WWII: Fighting for a Double Victory
Creative Voices
2
© The National WWII Museum
KEY TERMS:
 Double-Victory: the term given to the wartime civil rights campaign by African American leaders
and organizations during WWII which called for the defeat of fascism and the enemy abroad and
the defeat of segregation at home in the United States.
 Executive Order 8802: a 1941 directive from President Franklin Roosevelt in which he
established the Committee on Fair Employment Practices to address racial discrimination in
wartime production factories.
 Point of view: a position from which someone or something is observed; the mental position or
attitude from which a story is observed or narrated.
 Primary source: an original or first-hand document, story or object that was created by someone
during the time period under study
 Secondary source: an account, object, or interpretation of an event which was created by
someone without first-hand experience of the time period under study.
 Segregation: the practice or policy of creating separate facilities and laws for minorities; often
refers to the system of discrimination against African Americans that was established in the South
after the Civil War.
PRIOR KNOWLEDGE:
This lesson can correspond with the study of African American participation and roles during WWII or be
used as a review of primary and secondary historical sources.
DIRECTIONS:
1. Introduce the lesson with a brief summary of African American experiences during WWII and highlight
important ideas and vocabulary such as segregation and the “Double Victory” campaign. You may
find the African Americans in WWII fact sheet and key terms list above helpful for this task. The fact
sheet can be read aloud to the class or passed out for them to read on their own the night before the
lesson.
2. Review the terms/concept of primary and secondary historical sources with students. Introduce
the idea that, like photographs or letters from WWII, poems and art (visual, audio, performance) can
also be a primary source. As a result, poems can be analyzed to reveal meaning about the poet and
the historical and cultural context in which the poem was produced.
3. Pass out copies of the two poems and the student worksheet for students to complete. You may have
students read the poems to themselves first. Tell students that as they read the poems, they should
underline important words and phrases, and to circle any words or expressions that they are
unfamiliar with. As they answer the questions, they should include specific words or phrases from
each poem to justify their answers. Remind them that some questions have no right or wrong
answers—only their informed opinions.
4. After providing students with time to read both poems and answer the questions, ask for volunteers to
read both poems aloud to the class. Hold a class discussion about the poems using the worksheet
questions and the students’ answers.
5. Have each student write his or her own poem about the African American experience during WWII.
ASSESSMENT:
Components for assessment include the worksheet, class discussion, and poem.
ENRICHMENT:
1. Have each student write a poem about a current social issue that concerns
him or her. This poem can be about youth violence, drug use, the environment,
prejudice, local issues, etc. Students may read their poems to the class.
2. Students can learn more about the context of WWII workplace discrimination
and the passage of Roosevelt’s Executive Order 8802 to correct this problem by
Creative Voices
3
© The National WWII Museum
exploring the propaganda and workplace realities of African Americans, women
and other Americans in wartime production work. They can begin their research
by visiting the online exhibit Manufacturing Victory: The Arsenal of Democracy.
Teachers may also wish to use the Museum’s The President and African
Americans: Evaluating Executive Orders lesson plan to examine steps that
Presidents Roosevelt and Truman took to address discrimination before and after
the war in the workplace and the military. Then, students can develop a
presentation or written response to the following questions:
 How effective do you think EO 8802 was in reducing discrimination in the
workplace during the war?
 What steps have been taken in recent years to achieve more equal
treatment in the workplace for all Americans?
3. In addition to poetry, music, paintings, and other types of art can be used by
the artist as a primary source to show and comment upon social realities and
challenges in the time and place in which they live. Introduce students to visual
analysis techniques using two images featuring African Americans in the military
with the Museum’s lesson plan, “The Stories a Panting Can Tell You: Willie
Birch’s Old Soldiers Never Die,” (found in the Focus On: Stars and Stripes
feature). Ask them to compare and contrast the two poems with the painting and
WWII photograph and reflect on the following questions:
 What does each source tell us about the experiences of African
Americans working on the Home Front and serving in the military during
WWII?
 Do the sources support or contradict each other? Provide evidence to
support your answer.
 Which source(s) do you think is the most powerful and effective? Why or
why not?
4. Students can also place both poems within the larger context of the Home
Front by examining the experiences of African Americans and other high school
students during WWII. Have them compare and contrast yearbooks from the
Museum’s See You Next Year! High School Yearbooks website at
ww2yearbooks.org. Specific yearbooks of interest include all African American
Dunbar High School (Dayton, Ohio) and segregated Topeka High School
(Topeka, Kansas). The latter high school and school system would be featured
10 years later in the landmark civil rights Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme
Court case and decision in 1954.
RESOURCES:
The National WWII Museum
 Fighting for the Right to Fight exhibition: www.righttofightexhibit.org
 The Digital Collections of The National WWII Museum , featuring
photographs and interviews with the WWII generation: ww2online.org







Creative Voices
Focus On: African Americans in WWII feature
Focus On: Tuskegee Airmen feature
Focus On: Vernon Baker feature
Home Front lesson plans: People of Color
Manufacturing Victory: The Arsenal of Democracy website at
www.manufacturing-victory.org
See You Next Year! High School Yearbooks from WWII website at
ww2yearbooks.org
Virtual Field Trip: Double Victory: African Americans in WWII
4
© The National WWII Museum
Creative Voices
African American Poetry in WWII
Directions: Read these two poems written by African American women and published in The Crisis, an
African American periodical that was started by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People (NAACP) in 1910. The Crisis was popular during World War II and is still being published today.
After reading the poems, please answer the Creative Voices student worksheet questions.
Civil Service
My desk sits facing yours across the floor,
Yet your fair head is stiffly held aloof
From my own darker one, though ‘neath our roof
With one accord we do a job. For war
Has linked us as no pleading could before.
Yet, seemingly, you wait for further proof
That we are spun the same…the warp and woof
Of new, strong fabric, draped at Freedom’s door…
For you are still reluctant to obey
The impulse that would bring you to my side;
You send your memos on a metal tray,
And coldly killed each overture I’ve tried.
Why hope to rid charred continents of gloom
‘Till we have learned to smile across a room?
--Constance C. Nichols, The Crisis, April 1945.
Only in America
ONLY, IN AMERICA—
Can a child
Sit and Dream:
Golden Dreams.
Fantastic
Dreams,
Dreams
that are aggrandized;
And then awake one morning,
To find them
Realized!
ONLY, IN AMERICA—
Can a person
start from scratch;
Scummy Scratch,
Scrawny Scratch,
Barrenly imbued—
And shed Scratch like a motley’d shell;
Rebirthed…Rebreathed…Renewed!
Creative Voices
5
© The National WWII Museum
ONLY, IN AMERICA—
Can a mother
tell her Son
Someday,
You’ll be the President!
Leader of the Mass!
And before Age tints with silver tones,
This thing
has come to pass.
ONLY, IN AMERICA—
Can a Man
boldly say;
He doesn’t like the government
Or the men who run the state:
Here the laws are FOR THE PEOPLE:
This does not alternate.
ONLY, IN AMERICA—
Is a whole Nation Free;
Free to vote,
To enterprise,
With impartiality;
And Opportunity lends to ALL
A Free and Equal hand…
Did I say ALL?
Well, that is ALL except the Negro Man.
--Rhoza A. Walker, The Crisis, February 1945.
Creative Voices
6
© The National WWII Museum
Creative Voices
African American Poetry in WWII
Student Worksheet
Directions: After reading the two poems, answer the following questions. If you use quotes, be sure to
put quotation marks around them and cite which poem and author that they are taken from.
1. When was each poem published? At what stage of the war was this?
2. In Civil Service, what does the speaker mean when she says, “With one accord we do our job”?
3. What does she mean when she says, “For war has linked us as no pleading could before”? Who was
doing the earlier pleading?
4. Describe in your own words the scene the poet writes about.
5. How does the poet feel about her workmate?
6. What lesson does the poet want the reader to think about at the end of the poem?
7. What are some of the freedoms and opportunities the speaker writes about in Only in America?
8. Does the poet have a positive or negative view of the United States?
9. Why does the poet wait until the very end to make her point about racial discrimination?
10. List some of the emotions you hear expressed in these two poems (ex. frustration).
11. As a political statement, how effective do you think these poems and other writings like them were
during WWII?
12. What other types of political statements are available to people in the United States? Are some more
effective than others? Why?
13. Which poem do you like better, and why?
Creative Voices
7
© The National WWII Museum
African Americans in World War II
Fighting for a Double Victory
African Americans served bravely and with distinction in every theater of World
War II, while simultaneously struggling for their own civil rights at home. Although
the United States Armed Forces were officially segregated until 1948, WWII laid
the foundation for post-war integration of the military. When the U.S. entered the
war in 1941, more than 2.5 million African Americans registered for the draft. By
1945, over 1 million African Americans would be serving in uniform on the Home
Front, in Europe, and the Pacific (including thousands of African American women
in the Women’s auxiliaries).
During the war years, the segregation practices of civilian life spilled over into the
military. The draft was segregated and more often than not African Americans
were passed over by the all-white draft boards. Pressure from the NAACP led
President Roosevelt to pledge that African Americans would be enlisted according
to their percentage in the population. Although this percentage, 10.6%, was never
actually attained in the services during the war, African American numbers grew dramatically in the Army, Navy,
Army Air Force, Marine Corps, and the Coast Guard.
While most African Americans serving at the beginning of WWII were assigned to non-combat units and
relegated to service duties, such as supply, maintenance, and transportation, their work behind front lines was
equally vital to the war effort. Many drove for the famous “Red Ball Express,” which carried a half million tons
of supplies to the advancing First and Third Armies through France. By 1945, however, troop losses virtually
forced the military to begin placing more African American troops into positions as infantrymen, pilots, tankers,
medics, and officers in increasing numbers. In all positions and ranks, they served with as much honor,
distinction, and courage as any American soldier did. Still, African American MPs stationed in the South often
could not enter restaurants where their German prisoners were being served a meal.
On D-Day, the First Army on Omaha and Utah Beaches included nearly 2,000 African American troops. This
number included a section of the 327th Quartermaster Service Company and the 320th Anti-Aircraft Barrage
Balloon Battalion, which protected troops on the beach from aerial attack. Soon the all-black 761st Tank
Battalion was fighting its way through France with Patton’s Third Army. They spent 183 days in combat and
were credited with capturing 30 major towns in France, Belgium, and Germany. For this, the 761st Tank
Battalion received the Presidential Unit of Citation for “extraordinary heroism.”
The Army Air Force also established several African American fighter and bomber groups. The famous
“Tuskegee Airmen” of the 332nd Fighter Group became part of the 15th Air Force, flying ground support
missions over Anzio and escorting bombers on missions over Southern Italy. During the war, they flew over
1,500 missions. Bomber crews often requested to be escorted by these “Redtails,” a nicknamed acquired from
the painted tails of Tuskegee fighter planes. Approximately 150 Tuskegee Airmen died in training and in
combat.
Stephen Ambrose identified the lamentable American irony of WWII, writing, “The world’s greatest democracy
fought the world’s greatest racist with a segregated army” (Ambrose, Citizen Soldier). During the global conflict,
African American leaders and organizations established the “Double V” campaign, calling for victory against
the enemy overseas and victory against racism at home. This new black consciousness and the defiant
rejection of unjustifiable racism planted important seeds for the post-War civil rights movement.
The National WWII Museum honors the contributions of African Americans in World War II.
Creative Voices
8
© The National WWII Museum