Tuesday, April 7, 1942. Race and the War in the United States.

Sarah Sundin, on her blog, related to incidents in the history of racism in the United States and more particularly during World War Two.

Today in World War II History—April 7, 1942: Representatives from 11 western states meet with War Relocation Authority to protest Japanese-Americans evacuating to their states.

As she goes on to note, only Colorado provided the exception to rule here, indicating its willingness to accept internees.  

Wyoming, which would end up with Heart Mountain, was very hostile to accepting them, but would end up with a camp nonetheless.

She also noted on her blog:

US Navy announces that Blacks can enlist for general service (Seabees, shore duty, stevedores), not just in the mess, as of 1 June 42, allowing time to build segregated facilities.

As we've noted in a detailed entry on this blog, the military was segregated at this time and black sailors were relegated to the mess, as noted.  The irony in the case of the Navy was that it had not been segregated in the 18th and 19th Centuries, but became segregated, and indeed beyond segregated in that it relegated blacks to the mess, with the onset of modern steel warship at the end of the 19th Century.  As we earlier noted:

The story for the Navy was somewhat similar, in that it saw the return of blacks to active combat service.  Starting off the war being relegated to secondary service roles, as the war progressed blacks were reincorporated, on a segregated basis, into combat service. By the war's end it was the case that even two ships had all black crews and blacks had

The all black enlisted crew of a submarine chaser.

Black sailors of the USS Mason, a ship crewed by all black enlisted men.

Under pressure from the Roosevelt Administration, the Navy also commissioned a handful of black officers for the first time since the Navy's early history.  The officers largely saw service limited to shore roles due to the segregated nature of the Navy, but at least one was assigned as an officer on board one of the two entirely black crewed ships.

The first black Naval officers during World War Two.

The Maltese capital of Valletta was heavily hit by a German air raid, destroying the famous Royal Opera House.

The Indian National Congress Working Committee rejected the Cripp's plan for Indian post-war independence, taking a position for something basically immediate.