"Three-fourth of all Negroes in the Armed Forces [during World War II] came from areas and this land of the free, where there people  have been held down for generations, denied education, denied the use of tools, any more complicated than a hoe, denied the right to participate in self-government, denied even the right to self respect.  For them, equal education, equal pay for equal work, practically any opportunity to work at any skills, simply did not exist.  They went into the Armed Forces ill equipped, through no fault of their own, for the tremendous job required of them.  But they did the job, all the same, handicap or no handicap.  And they did it magnificantly."

The Congressional Record, 1946

"In 1940, the United States began to rearm for the Second World War. Urgent appeals for recruits was issued by each branch of the Armed Forces.  Every citizen was urged to participate in defense of his country.  Every citizen, that is, except the Negro citizen.  The Negro was excluded from the Armed Forces.  Why, when our country was eager for patriots, was the Negro denied the right of defending his native land?"