If what they say is true and that "home where is the heart is:" the African-American soldier's heart must have been torn as he went to battle fighting for democracy while at home his own blood suffered from racial prejudice. In a two-front war of their own, World War II took on special significance. In light of things, African-Americans had the option of making World War II just a movies-screen. They could have simply watched as their enemies in America were killed. On the other hand, they could use this battle to fight for democracy as a stepping stone to fight for democracy in America. They chose the latter option. African Americans used World War II as a stepping stone in drawing towards the goal of equal rights and opportunities for African-Americans.
             African-Americans in pre-world war II America were unfairly treated, to say the least. From the time of the earliest permanent settlements in North America to the Civil War, African Americans participated in every major military conflict. Denied military service during peacetime, they were actively recruited at the commencement of hostilities. Blacks responded to these calls-to-arms in large numbers. Many saw military service as a way to improve their own condition. Others enlisted in hope that their participation would prove to whites that African Americans deserved equal rights. In none of these wars were blacks granted much gratitude. The Red Cross, for example, segregated "white and "colored" bottles of blood plasma, even without considering the fact that it was a black man which invented the method of preserving blood plasma. The number of Negroes in America with paying jobs totaled to only about 500,000, an extremely small percentage of the total number of black men and women. They were getting sick of the questions America could not answer: "What have Negroes to fight for? What's the difference between Hitler and that "cracker&...