![]() ![]() However, because of institutional racism and other barriers, Black veterans were more limited in the ways in which they could use their benefits. Preliminary analysis of historical data suggests Black and white veterans accessed their benefits at similar rates, according to Maria Madison, director of the Institute for Economic and Racial Equity at Brandeis University, who has researched the impact of racial inequities in the administration of GI Bill benefits. Typically referred to as redlining, realtors and banks would refuse to show homes or offer mortgages to qualified homebuyers in certain neighborhoods because of their race or ethnicity. The Federal Housing Administration’s racist housing policies also impacted Black WWII veterans, undoubtedly fueling today’s racial wealth gap. Of the more than 3,000 VA home loans that had been issued to veterans in Mississippi in the summer of 1947, only two went to Black veterans, according to an Ebony magazine survey at the time. In contrast to the treatment of Black veterans, the GI Bill helped home ownership rates soar among white veterans in a post-war housing boom that created a ripple effect their children and grandchildren continue to benefit from today. The acquittal of his attacker by an all-white jury helped spur the integration of the U.S. Isaac Woodard, Jr., a WWII veteran from Winnsboro, South Carolina, who was brutally beaten and blinded by a small-town police chief in 1946 after returning home from the war. “It actually is pretty emotional for vets who have gone through this themselves and, like myself, know what a difference the GI Bill made in our lives.” “When it came time to pay the bill, the government just said no,” said Moulton, who himself attended Harvard on the GI Bill. Joseph Maddox, one of two WWII veterans Moulton and Clyburn named their bill after, was denied tuition assistance by his local VA office despite being accepted into a master’s degree program at Harvard University. Meanwhile, the nation’s historically Black colleges and universities saw such a significant increase of enrollment among Black veterans that the schools were forced to turn away tens of thousands of prospective students. Local VA officers there either made it difficult for Black veterans to access their benefits or lessened their value by steering them away from predominantly white four-year colleges and toward vocational and other non-degree programs. This was particularly acute in the Deep South where Jim Crow segregation imposed racist barriers to homeownership and education. Irrespective of race, veterans who served more than 90 days during the war and had been honorably discharged were entitled to the benefits.īut after returning from the war, Black and white veterans faced two very different realities.īecause the GI Bill benefits had to be approved by local VA officers, few of whom were Black, the process created problems for veterans. Roosevelt signed the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act into law in 1944, making generous financial subsidies available to 16 million WWII veterans pursuing higher education and buying their first homes. “He always wanted to go to school,” his daughter said.Īnd when he bought his home, he used his retirement fund, not GI Bill benefits, she said. The Louisiana native, who has 12 grandchildren and 23 great-grandchildren, always believed that serving his country was the only way he could leave behind his life as the son of sharecroppers, said his daughter, Vanessa Brooks.īut after he was discharged in August 1945 as a private first class, he did not realize his dream of going to college, working instead as a forklift driver before retiring in his 60s. veteran, was drafted to serve during WWII and assigned to the mostly-Black 91st Engineer General Service Regiment. Lawrence Brooks, who at 112 years old is the oldest living U.S. It would also create a panel of independent experts to study inequities in how benefits are administered to women and people of color. The legislation, authored by Moulton, would extend the VA Loan Guaranty Program and GI Bill educational assistance to Black WWII veterans and their descendants who are alive at the time of the bill’s enactment. ![]()
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