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United States History

The greatest irony about the Second World War and the other wars that occurred in the history of the United States is that they changed the lives of the American minorities in a dramatic way for the better. The Second World War gave room for the rise in civil rights movements for African Americans which in turn influenced other minority groups including Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans and Native Americans. The need for soldiers in the Second World War broke some of the institutional barriers offering equality for all soldiers regardless of their ethnicity.

According to Berkin, Miller, Cherny & Gormly the demand for manpower in the Second World War as well as the increases for the demand for agricultural products offered prosperity for many African Americans for those working in the northern factories and those who chose to remain working in the farms in the south (769). The power attained from this economic prosperity and their involvement in the Second World War put the African Americans in a position where they could fight for their civil rights through civil rights movements. This forced President Roosevelt to create a Fair Employment Practise Committee in response to the pressure from the civil rights movements. This was the first step towards the achievement of the goals set by African American civil rights movements (Berkin et al 770).

For many Mexican Americans, the Second World War was a turning point for their experience as a minority group in America. With in the four years that the United States fought in the war, the Mexican Americans who had been segregated in the southwest got a chance to experience equal rights with white Americans who were fighting in the war. On the other hand, hundreds of other Mexican Americans got jobs working in the factories earning equal wages just like Anglo-Americans (Berkin et al 770). After the war, they could not take anything less than first-class citizenship now that they had shown their loyalty to America by fighting in the battle front. This pushed them to demand for the civil rights which they had rightfully earned.

The Mexican American fight for civil rights began before the Second World War. The numerous labour unions advocated for equality and many of them did not stop even after the Second World War. The Mexican American leaders expected the United States government to automatically take keen interest in the problem of the Mexican Americans because they had proved their loyalty by fighting as soldiers in the war. During the Second World War as explored by Berkin et al, Mexican Americans were discovered as an ethnic minority forcing the federal government to address the issues facing members from this population (770).

Conclusively, the Second World War affected the United States economically since it was trying to recover from the great depression of 1929. However, the war was ironically beneficial to ethnic minorities living in the United States. As a result of the involvement of African Americans and Mexican Americans in the war as soldiers, they had proved their loyalty to the United States making. The US government was ready to listen to the problems of these minority groups that were aired through their civil rights movements.

Work Cited

Berkin, Miller, Cherny, Gormly. Making America: A History of the United States volume 2 from 1865. USA: Cengage Learning Inc., 2005. Print.