Civil Rights...
By the early twentieth century, a number of groups across the United States were challenging the meaning and practice of American freedom. Dissatisfied with second-class status, American women, Native Americans, and Africans Americans began to push for equal treatment, political rights, and better economic opportunities. World Wars I and II acted as catalysts for such change, as the wars energized many Americans to become active in the cause of civil rights. The years immediately after both wars saw new movements designed to allow all Americans the full rights of liberty. While not immediately successful, these movements did improve the status of women, Native Americans, and African Americans, and helped set the stage for greater improvements in civil rights in later years.American Women...
During both world wars women moved from the domestic setting to help the war effort. With the absence of husbands and fathers, women experienced new independence in working roles outside of the home.Margaret Frizzell of Cullowhee, North Carolina worked in mica factories cutting mica for gas masks and other war goods. With three brothers serving in the military, Margaret felt this was her contribution to the war effort.
Other women decided to contribute to the war effort through military service. During World War I, many women joined the armed forces as nurses and navy yeomen. By World War II, women were able to join auxiliary groups in all the branches of the service. The best known of these groups was the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps or WAACs. After the war, women who had served in the military pushed to destroy old gender-related barriers so that they were able to join veterans groups such as the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
"While some women relished their new role, few were encouraged to remain in the labor force when the men returned from the war and sought the reestablishment of their jobs."
- From The One Feather, Cherokee,1985
When World War II entered its final stages in the mid 1940s, the roles of women changed again. As men returned home, the large majority of them wanted their old jobs back. Women, for the most part, were forced out of work and back into traditional domestic roles. Notable people such as Eleanor Roosevelt joined the effort to convince women to leave the work force and return to work at home. In national publications such as Life magazine, Eleanor Roosevelt addressed a wide audience. In western North Carolina, columnist Dorothy Dix did so through her writings in the Asheville Times newspaper.The return of factories to civilian production also provided incentive for women to enjoy the “good life” at home with the development of new appliances. The laborsaving devices, designed to make housework easier, worked so well that many women chose to return to work outside the home. It took but a few years for the number of women working to reach and surpass the previous wartime figures.
Native Americans...
Many members of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians fought bravely in both World Wars and contributed on the home front through the purchase of war bonds and the manufacture of supplies. When Cherokee veterans returned home they were forced back into a political system that denied them the rights they felt they deserved: enfranchisement and citizenship. At issue was the question of whether the Cherokee were considered citizens of the United States as well as North Carolina. In the 1920 election, many Cherokees journeyed to the polls to vote in Jackson County and Swain County, North Carolina. A number of these voters were World War I veterans who felt their citizenship status had been solidified due to service in the war. Accompanying the veterans were Cherokee women exercising their newly gained right to vote achieved under the Nineteenth Amendment. In Jackson County, the Democratic Party was strong but the majority of voting Cherokees were Republicans. Jackson County officials did not predict the enormous impact Cherokee voters would have on final election results. Republican candidates won seats in several county offices and the Democrats responded by challenging many of the ballots cast on the Cherokee Reservation. The issue was so explosive that the Jackson County Board of Elections moved to Buncombe County to avoid conflict while making its decision. Eventually, the Jackson County majority party invalidated the Cherokee votes based on the determination that the Cherokee were not legal citizens of the state. The right to vote would remain an unresolved issue for most Cherokee until 1946. Henry Owl vs. Swain County In 1930 Henry Owl, a Cherokee resident, was denied the right to register to vote on the basis that he was a ward of the federal government and not a state citizen. Owl, a highly educated man, protested this decision in the United States Senate. In June 1930, Congress passed an act that gave full rights of citizenship to all Cherokee living in North Carolina as long as they met state voting requirements.
A Question of Fairness
In September 1940, the draft was reinstated across the United States. In order to ensure that Cherokee men would not be unfairly drafted in comparison with whites in western North Carolina, Cherokee residents lobbied for a draft board located in Cherokee. The Cherokee wanted fairness brought to both the draft issue and to their right to vote.
“…any organization or group that would deprive a people of as sacred a right as the right of suffrage would not hesitate to deprive them of other constitutional rights including the three inalienable rights- life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, if the opportunities to do so presents itself.…It is not that we wish to shield our young men and prevent their being inducted into Service. It is not that our young men wish to shirk any duty which may come their way under the draft….And we say here and now, if we may do so without seeming to boast, that there is not a more patriotic people to be found anywhere in this country of ours that the Cherokees of North Carolina….We feel that the ends of justice will be better served so far as this reservation is concerned if a fair and impartial draft board is set up here, separate and apart from these county boards.”
Gaining Rights
From Cherokee Council Records, November 5, 1940
When Cherokee veterans returned from World War II, they were received by their people with open arms and honored throughout their society. Some veterans planned to return to their farms or jobs. Others expected to collect and make use of the benefits the federal government had promised including the G. I. Bill. Many Cherokee did take advantage of and participated in Veterans Administration agricultural training programs and vocational programs sponsored by the G. I. Bill.
Debate soon ensued as to whether or not the veterans would be able to build homes and farms with federal money on tribal land. Traditionally, land was considered tribal property and individuals living there had only user rights. They were not owners and were not allowed to sell land to outsiders including the federal government. The tribe feared if veterans built using federal money and were forced to foreclose, the federal government could seize tribal property.
After World War II, the question of the right to vote continued to be a painful issue with many Cherokee. In May 1946, Cherokee veterans from the Steve Youngdeer Legion Post attempted to register to vote in Swain and Jackson Counties. All were denied. With the support of regional American Legion officials, area newspapers, and legal representation, the veterans were able to force the local boards of election into finally recognizing their right to vote.
African Americans...
Although African Americans from western North Carolina served patriotically in both World Wars, the soldiers returned home to the segregation, disfranchisement, and continued poor education for their children. Most returned to menial, low paying jobs such as porters, waiters and bellmen in urban areas, and as farm hands in rural areas.
In spite of segregation in all aspects of daily life, African American veterans in Asheville, North Carolina returned home to a thriving community. Located on Eagle and Market streets in downtown Asheville, this black community was a city within a city. The urban area contained a barbershop, candy store, movie theatre and various other businesses all designed to serve the black population. The Young Men’s Institute (YMI), built in the nineteenth century and funded by George W. Vanderbilt, served as a community center for Asheville’s black citizens.
Returning black veterans faced problems that their white counterparts did not. Among the many problems in the South, a sometimes-deadly one was lynching.
In August 1945, the national office of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) sent a plea to all of its southern branches to be watchful of violence, especially toward returning soldiers. On September 18, 1945, a black veteran was accused of assault on a white man on a lonely road somewhere between Waynesville and Sylva, North Carolina. The two argued, and rumor was that the veteran pushed the other man to the ground. Although unhurt at the time, the white man later died of heart-related conditions. The veteran boarded a bus, followed by two white men. The Sylva Police were alerted of the situation and followed the vehicle. Reaching the bus first, the Sylva Police took the veteran into custody and took him to jail. A lynch mob of about 350 people formed outside the jail wanting to “take care of him.” The prisoner was later moved to the jail in Waynesville. The crowd, which had dispersed the night before, returned and stormed the jail in Waynesville. The NAACP wired Governor R. Gregg Cherry to ask for assistance to prevent a lynching. The prisoner was transferred to another jail in Asheville, North Carolina, and was later released.
This incident was one of many in which African American World War II veterans returned home from fighting for freedom only to face racism and inequity waiting for them.