Walter Bunkley

Reading 116

African Americans and World War II By Andrew E. Kersten

The Forgotten Year of the "Negro Revolution". When historains first described
the "Negro Revolution" they would conclued and maintained that the African
American men and women made major advances as workers and military
personel. They also maintained that communities throughout the United
States witnessed a dramatic rise in black social activism and political
participation. The importance of the war years is still there and deffinatly
paved a way for change.

Mr Kersten is firm in his affirmation that the war was beneifical to all
Americans because of the pop up of factories, thus providing jobs and
stimulation of the economy at that time. He shows this by use of a smilie in
paragraph 2 line 3 "Gigantic factories such as the one at Willow Run near
Detroit were built and American workers as well as buissness men profited
from the increased economy activity. Mr. Kerstens use of a metaphor shows
this also in paragraph 3 line 6. "As the United states prepared for war at the
end of the FDR's second term African Americans were left out in the cold
again." The use of his metaphors demonstrates that yes there where
advancements but still major flaws in the system. Paragrahph 7 line 3. "a
sticky negative attitude toward national goals."

The tone that mr. Kersten used was a bit of contempt and disgust. paragraph
10 line 15 &16. "nothing demonstrated this more than what happened on July
17, 1941 at Port Chicago in sanfransico Bay. Two hundred and fifty black
stevedores were killed when two ammunition- carrying ships the were
loading exploded".

Mr Kersten's method of development was mainly with examples. When the

second world war began with the german invasion of Poland in 1939,
president Fraklin D. Roosevelt began interrest to put the country on war
footing. Paragraph 2 line 2.

I think that the authors prupose was to convey conviction and a sense of
pride. to show that before the civil rights movement that there was men and
women who endured and paved the way for completion to their start. who
wouldnt can you imagine having no rights and then getting some only to
have them taken away again and to have to fight twice as hard a decade
later.

i liked Mr kerstens reaccount of the first years of the Negro Revolution. He

used mainly factual examples to reiterate the information he used. i would
have preffered that he used more opinion/reason method development. i
would be interested to see a longer version to see if he would be more
emotional rather than with so much factual examples.