Suggested Answers to the Third Short Quiz

[johnkarls]

.

There follow some discussion questions provoked by Chapters 6 - 12.

It is respectfully suggested that you make a list of your own questions that are provoked –

since all of us are unique and your questions are worth discussing also!!!


***************
Chapter 6 – Double Victory

Question 1

What is meant by Double Victory?

Answer 1

Civil-rights victory at home and World War II victory abroad by America and its allies.

Question 2

Was it a rallying cry?

Answer 2

Absolutely!!!

Question 3

Was the quotation at the beginning of Chapter 6 from Roy Wilkins true – “White folks would rather lose the war than give up the luxury of race prejudice”?

Answer 3

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 4

Does our author shame us if we didn’t know that Roy Wilkins was the head of the NAACP – with the title “Executive Secretary” 1955-1963 and “Executive Director” 1964-1977?

Answer 4

Yes, but perhaps we should be shamed if we didn’t know.


***************
Chapter 7 – Dirty Work in Distant Lands

Question 1

Is it true that WW-II was less a war of killing than a war of supply?

Answer 1

Yes.

Question 2

Is this because of the historic maxim that “an army marches on its stomach”?

Answer 2

Yes.

Question 3

Has this observation been attributed most famously to Napoleon (though it was also often said by Frederick the Great)?

Answer 3

Yes and Yes.

Question 4

Does it mean that before the “civilized behavior” of America in WW-II, there was no supply and an army simply stole from the farmers on whose land they were trespassing whatever they needed? For example, food, shelter, sex by raping the farmer’s daughter, etc., etc.???

Answer 4

Unfortunately.

Question 5

When the French Hitler (i.e., Napoleon) reached Moscow, did he famously say “An abandoned city is NOT a supplied city”???

Answer 5

Famously yes.

Question 6

In other words, had the Russians abandoned Moscow and dispersed into the surrounding area so that no food/supplies/firewood were being brought into Moscow vis-à-vis which the French army could survive as a parasite???

Answer 6

Absolutely.

Question 7

BTW, when Napoleon’s army fled Moscow only a short time after “conquering” it, did they COMPOUND THEIR ERROR by re-tracing their invasion route which had already been devastated when the French army had passed recently in the opposite direction???

Answer 7

Yes.

Question 8

Was America really all that “civilized” in supplying its army, rather than have it “march on its stomach”??? Isn’t it true that “war is hell” no matter how hard one tries to sugar-coat it???

Answer 8

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 9

But isn’t it also true that in addition to doing a significant part of the actual fighting, African-Americans during WW-II were also THE BACKBONE of America supplying its fighters rather than having it “march on its stomach”???

Answer 9

Absolutely.


***************
Chapter 8 – “Tuskegee Takes Flight”

Question 1

Aren’t the heroics and extraordinary ability of the African-American airmen the aspect of Black participation in WW-II that is most likely to be known and/or taught in history courses?

Answer 1

Yes.

Question 2

Doesn’t their extraordinary ability “give the lie” to the white notion that Blacks don’t have enough intelligence to function as pilots?

Answer 2

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 3

Is this reminiscent of the American notion (until the last decade or so) that Blacks don’t have enough intelligence to function as football quarterbacks – either college or pro???!!!

Answer 3

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 4

And that they don’t have enough intelligence to function as Head Coaches – college or pro???!!!

Answer 4

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 5

And that even in the SEC conference (actually a redundancy as so often happens with acronyms – college sports’ famed “SouthEast Conference” conference) – the “color line” wasn’t broken until Nate Northington debuted 9/30/1967 for U/Kentucky against U/Mississippi???

Answer 5

Yes.

Question 6

And even in “America’s Favorite Pasttime” of Yesteryear, didn’t America have the famous “Negro Leagues” until the middle of the last century WITH THE “COLOR LINE” NOT BROKEN IN PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL until Jackie Robinson broke it in 1946???

[NB: This is a trick question since Jackie Robinson did not debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers until 1947. Also NB that the U.S. armed forces, which is what our focus book is about, were not re-integrated (following Woodrow Wilson’s segregating them) until Harry Truman’s Executive Order in 1948 with professional baseball having “paved the way” or, in other words, “provided cover.”]

Answer 6

Yes.

Re the NB –

The reason why Q-6 was a trick Q is a dream of Wesley Branch Rickey (known as Branch Rickey, presumably so that people didn’t think he was a “preachy” Methodist, a denomination founded by John & Chas. Wesley) after playing baseball for Ohio Wesleyan U. and coaching the U/Mich baseball team while attending U/Mich Law School and then playing both professional baseball and professional football -- to be realized when he became President and General Manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1942 and, in 1945, became an equal 25% owner with his 3 previous bosses.

His dream???

To integrate “The Bigs”!!!

He settled on Jackie Robinson as the ideal person to break the color line because Robinson was a superb baseball player and a superb human being.

Yes, Branch Rickey broke the color line in THE BIGS in 1947 with Robinson.

But Branch Ricky broke the color line in PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL with Robinson playing the 1946 season with The Montreal Royals – the Triple AAA farm club of the Dodgers – where he had a .349 batting average and was voted the league’s MVP.

Re the second NB --

Yes, the U.S. armed forces, which is what our focus book is about, were not re-integrated (following Woodrow Wilson’s segregating them) until Harry Truman’s Executive Order in 1948 with professional baseball having “paved the way” or, in other words, “provided cover.”


Question 7

Isn’t the field of sports where racial breakthroughs occur first – BECAUSE DECISION MAKERS (coaches, franchise owners, etc.) WILL RECOGNIZE MERIT AND TAKE ADVANTAGE??? Whereas American society as a whole, can wallow in its racial prejudice and “turn its back” on the economic potential of the children of its inner-city ghettos???

Answer 7

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 8

Is this inexcusable when “Identical Twin Studies” have always shown that when applied to this issue (i.e., inner-city identical twins orphaned before their first birthday where one identical twin is adopted by another inner-city family and the other identical twin is adopted by a suburban family) – the identical twin adopted by another inner-city family develops by adulthood an “average” inner-city MEASURED I.Q., whereas the identical twin adopted by a suburban family typically develops by adulthood an “average” suburban MEASURED I.Q.!!!!!

Answer 8

ABSOLUTELY INEXCUSABLE!!!

Question 9

And what does this say, inter alia, about our inner-city schools???

Answer 9

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!


***************
Chapter 9 – War Work

Question 1

Chapter 9’s opening quotation references discrimination by Ford Motor Co. and addresses Mr. Ford –

(A) Is this ironic since Q&A-14 of the Second Short Quiz talks of the auto industry being “the arsenal of democracy” which “manufactured not only all the jeeps, tanks, etc., BUT MOST OF THE BOMBERS AND OTHER MILITARY AIRCRAFT” but then “homed in” on discrimination by General Motors?

(B) Is the focus on Ford perhaps because most of the bombers and other military aircraft were famously powered by Ford Motor Company engines – with the bombers and other military aircraft, unless they were packed into small boxes for final assembly in war zones, taking off at the Ford Motor Company’s private airfield at Willow Run Michigan which is still in operation today and was located at the end of Ford’s assembly lines?

(C) Is this focus on Ford perhaps instead because Henry Ford and Charles Lindbergh built “the world’s largest bomber factory” at the airport and during World War II, inter alia, approx. 8,700 B-24 ‘Liberator’ bombers were built at Willow Run with Ford employment there peaking at 42,000 people including ‘Rosie the Riveter’? BTW, is the famous “Rosie the Riveter” mentioned on p. 140 of Half American? And was the famous “Rosie the Riveter” who, though a fictitious female assembly-line worker while men were away fighting the war as depicted as white in those famous pro-war-propaganda Norman Rockwell paintings, widely thought to have worked in California instead of Willow Run Michigan?

(D) Though is this focus on Ford perhaps instead because the Ford Motor Company was still effectively owned and run by Henry Ford I who did not die until 4/7/1947 at age 83 – whereas General Motors was widely owned by public shareholders so there was no single well-known individual who could be embarrassed?

(E) Was Henry Ford I susceptible to embarrassment because he had already formed the FAMOUS Ford Foundation in 1936 to give his son Edsel (yes, the person for whom Ford’s ill-fated “Edsel” motorcar 1958-1960 was named) something to do to keep Edsel busy so that he wouldn’t want to work for the Ford Motor Company and “muck up” what Henry I and Henry II were doing?

Answer 1

(A) Yes.
(B) Yes.
(C) Yes (and Willow Run Airport’s website even today claims Rosie the Riveter worked there).
(D) Yes.
(E) So it would seem.

Question 2

Is the first part of Chapter 9 devoted once more to the failure of FDR’s Executive Order 8802 featured in Q&A-15 through Q&A-17 of the Second Short Quiz’s focus on Chapter 3 (“March on Washington”) to open up Black employment in the defense industries?

Answer 2

Yes.

Question 3

Is the pp. 140-142 discussion of the Women’s Army Corp (WAC) failure to employ a significant number of Black women surprising since Q&A-16 high-lighted that Chapter 3 had already excoriated Executive Order 8802 for being silent about discrimination in the military?

Answer 3

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 5

Do pp. 142-149 contain beau coup examples of White “backlash” in the defense industries to the introduction of Black workers?

Answer 4

Yes.

Question 5

Extra-credit Question – Half American always seems to imply that the drive for Black employment in the defense industries was motivated by patriotism, but couldn’t that drive also have been motivated by the simple economics of Blacks wanting a better life than “share croppers” (ref. Q&A-14 of the Second Short Quiz)?

Answer 5

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!


***************
Chapter 10 – Riot

Question 1

Was the June 1943 riot in Detroit typical, though much more extensive, than race riots elsewhere in the country?

Answer 1

Yes.

Question 2

Was Thurgood Marshall’s report for the NAACP on the Detroit riot entitled “The Gestapo in Detroit” and did it conclude “Much of the blood spilled in the Detroit riot is on the hands of the Detroit police department”?

Answer 2

Yes and Yes.

Question 3

Is the rest of Chapter 10 (pp. 156-167) devoted to 240 other, though smaller, race riots that took place in the summer of 1943?

Answer 3

Yes.


***************
Chapter 11 – Combat

Question 1

Is the first half of Chapter 11 a reprise of the feats of the Tuskegee Airmen?

Answer 1

Yes.

Question 2

Were they finally deployed in the Spring of 1943?

Answer 2

Yes.

Question 3

Was this part of the “War on Italy” that occurred after the defeat of the Nazis in North Africa and before Eisenhower was sufficiently prepared (many, particularly the Soviets, would say “over prepared”) to launch the Cross-Channel invasion into Northern France?

Answer 3

Yes.

Question 4

BTW, did Eisenhower early and often counter Soviet complaints by claiming that engaging the enemy anywhere had the same effect of engaging and tying down the Nazi war machine? And in terms of attacking Italy which collapsed, did this require Hitler to send massive reinforcements to Italy, proving Eisenhower correct?

Answer 4

Yes and Yes.

Question 5

Does Chapter 11 then pay tribute to the U.S. Merchant Marine which, unlike the military, was fully integrated? And featuring those too young/old/etc. to fight, braved the threat of Nazi U-Boats to deliver munitions and other much-needed supplies to the front lines?

Answer 5

Yes and Yes.

Question 6

And does Chapter 11 close by paying tribute to the first Black infantry troops to see combat? Did this happen in the Spring of 1944 in the Pacific against Imperial Japan?

Answer 6

Yes and Yes.

NB: Many black service-people had fought and died (e.g., the Tuskegee airmen beginning in 1943) before Black INFANTRY troops saw combat in 1944.

Question 7

Did Black troops fight in virtually all of the famous battles in the Pacific?

Answer 7

Absolutely!!!


***************
Chapter 12 – Civil Rights Battlefronts At Home

Question 1

Does Chapter 12 re-visit the other half of the famous “Double V” slogan for Victory At Home?

Answer 1

Yes.

Question 2

Does it start with the claim that April 1944 saw Thurgood Marshall’s “greatest civil rights victory of his career”?

Answer 2

Yes.

Question 3

Did this involve a challenge to the constitutionality of the all-white primary system?

Answer 3

Yes.

Question 4

In Texas, as was true of many/most Southern states, was the winner of the Democrat Party primary a “shoe in” in the so-called “general election” since the “primary election” was the real election?

Answer 4

Yes.

Question 5

And had the Democrat Party always been considered a “private” organization that was free to exclude whomever it wanted from membership?

Answer 5

Yes.

Question 6

In an 8-1 decision in Smith vs. Allwright, did the U.S. Supreme Court overrule the lower courts and find this tactic to be a violation of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution?

Answer 6

ABSOLUTELY!!!

Question 7

BTW, does it seem ironic that Black dentist Lonnie Smith was suing the county election official for Harris County Texas (i.e., Houston) whose name was “Allwright”??? Is it poetic justice that the U.S. Supreme Court found that Allwright’s actions were NOT “all right”???!!!

Answer 7

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 8

Does the last half of Chapter 12 chronicle how this lawsuit paved the way for zillions of other successful NAACP campaigns of all kinds that put “flesh on the bones” of “Double V”?

Answer 8

Yes -- if Q-8 is amended to read “SOME flesh on the bones.”