How the GI Bill Shut Out Black Americans

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Hello, and welcome back. I'm your host, Marie Beacham, and
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for today's episode, we will be continuing this discussion of
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black veterans black military service by talking about the GI Bill,
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because that didn't come up at all in the previous episode.
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This is a chapter of history that everybody knows just
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a little bit about. You know, we all know the
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one sentenced spiel on the GI Bill, what it was,
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why it was implemented, and what the impacts were. But
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for many people, that history lesson didn't go as deep
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as talking about the disparities, how black veterans saw fewer
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benefits and how that was a direct byproduct of discrimination. Now, conversely,
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some people today argue that the GI Bill should not
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be seen as a discret minatory thing, but rather as
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something that was as good as it could have been
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in a discriminatory Jim Crow environment, And we'll take a
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look at that argument as well. But first let's just
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set the stage and talk about what the GI Bill
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was for veterans overall. Pulling from the National Archives, the
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GI Bill was signed into law by President Franklin D.
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Roosevelt on June twenty second, nineteen forty four. We call
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it the GI Bill, but it was officially called the
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Serviceman's Readjustment Act, and it provided World War II veterans
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with funds for college, education, unemployment, insurance, and housing. Those
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were the big ones, especially education and housing. It made
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it so that millions of veterans could go to college
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and buy homes. How did we arrive at this massive bill?
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Well and I quote. While World War II was still
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being fought, the Department of Labor estimated that after the war,
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fifteen million men and women who had been serving would
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be unemployed. So they didn't want to see a post
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war depression brought on by widespread unemployment, and they made
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a plan. An agency at the White House in nineteen
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forty three recommended a series of programs for education and training,
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and that led to what became the Serviceman's Readjustment Act,
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or the GI Bill. It unanimously passed both chambers of
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Congress in the spring of nineteen forty four, and it
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was signed into law just days after the D Day
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invasion of Normandy. As for the effects of the GI Bill,
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if it really took root, if it really shaped American
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history and helped stave off that post war depression, here's
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the stats and I quote. Within the following seven years,
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approximately eight million veterans received educational benefits under the Act.
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The number of degrees awarded by US colleges and universities
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more than doubled between nineteen five forty and nineteen fifty.
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By nineteen fifty six, when the Gibill expired, the education
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and training portion dispersed fourteen point five billion dollars to veterans.
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But by nineteen fifty five, four point three million home
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loans had been granted, with a total face value of
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thirty three billion dollars, So fourteen point five billion dollars
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to veterans in education and thirty three billion dollars in housing.
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It was of a huge cost, but it was defended
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because the VA said, Hey, even if it costs US
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in the billions, by lifting the economy, there will be
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an increase in federal income tax and that will pay
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for the cost of the bill. So the spending was justified.
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It would just help the American middle class, it would
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help veterans, and really, after World War One, they didn't
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want to see veterans who are returning from war just
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to be completely destitute. It was set at the time
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that quote America Slkins determined that this time, the men
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who fought for their country would find their place in
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it when they returned, And it seems that that's what happened,
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except not for black men. History dot Com explains quote,
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while the GI Bill's language did not specifically exclude African
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American veterans from its benefits, it was structured in a
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way that ultimately shut doors for the one point two
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million black veterans who had bravely served their country during
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World War II in segregated ranks. So we'll start by
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talking about how they managed to draft a bill that
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didn't explicitly exclude African Americans but effectively did. Then we'll
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talk about the impacts on education, the impacts on housing,
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and engage with this modern day debate where, for example,
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one article says, no, the GI Bill did not make
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racial inequality worse. Will make sense of the different perspectives
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on this, and hopefully by talking about the GI Bill,
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it'll shade in some of the pictures some of the
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history I had to skip in the previous episode for
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the sake of time. In that episode, I'm talking about
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black veterans, black military service, how it is so admirable
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that millions of black Americans were willing to fight for
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a country that didn't fight for them. And I know,
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I even said that phrase in the episode a million
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times because I want you to remember it. I want
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you to remember that concept. But I don't want to
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just leave it at an idyllic, whitewashed picture of saying
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how sweet, how beautiful. It worked out perfectly, no issues
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or problems arose, ever, because that's not the full story.
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So let's talk about the GI Bill specifically. If Black
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Americans weren't formally excluded from the benefits of the GI Bill,
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how is it that they were informally excluded. I read
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about this from many sources, and all of them kept
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pointing to the same Mississippi Congressman John Rankin. He played
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a big role in drafting the bill, and he was
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known for his racism, unapologized, unrefined, blatant, outright racism. Rankin
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took issue with black Americans overall, and he saw how
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black military service posed a threat to his campaign. If
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black people were serving in the military, then maybe black
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people were deserving a civil rights Maybe they were civilized,
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maybe they were competent, Maybe they were all of these
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things that he was insistent they weren't. He said that
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the issue with black people in the military was that
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their service would quote bring the social millennium, make him
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the peer of the white man, and place him on
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terms of social and political equality with the members of
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the Caucasian race. In other words, black soldiers might come
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to believe that their deserving of equal rights. This was
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a huge problem in Rankin's eyes. Here's how history dot
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com explains what happens next and I quote. When lawmakers
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began drafting the GI Bill, some Southern Democrats feared that
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returning black veterans would use public sympathy to advocate against
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Jim Crow laws. So to make sure that the GI
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Bill largely benefited white people, the Southern Democrats drew on
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tactics they had previously used to ensure that the new
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deal helped his few black people as possible. During the
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drafting of the law, the chair of the House Veterans Committee,
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Mississippi Congressman John Rankin, played hardball and insisted that the
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program be administered by individual states instead of the federal government.
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He got his way. To understand Rankin's politics, overall, it's
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worth mentioning that he defended segregation, opposed inter racial marriage,
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and an even proposed legislation to confine then deport every
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person with Japanese heritage during World War II. Rankin knew
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that by making it a state by state thing rather
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than a federal law, there would be a lot more
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wiggle room for the white people who are holding the
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keys and holding the purse strings to do as they
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please in doling out the GI Bill's benefits. And what
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we see is that on all of the different fronts
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the benefits were doled out inequitably. Here are a few
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of the ways that that happened. First of all, if
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you were given a dishonorable discharge, then you were not
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eligible for the benefits of the GI Bill. At the time,
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this was often referred to as getting a blue slip,
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because the slip of paper of a dishonorable discharge was blue.
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Makes sense, dishonorable discharge, it's like getting fired from your job.
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You don't get the retirement package. If you get fired.
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In the same way, if you get booted dishonorably, you
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don't get the retirement package. You don't get the GI Bill. Now,
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the issue with dishonorable discharges was that it was the
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nineteen forties and black people experienced a lot of prejudice.
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Black people were discriminated against, and the terms for a
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dishonorable discharge often came down to issues of character. It
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wasn't explicitly outlined. They didn't actually need to have a
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clear violation. If you were dishonorably discharged, you were dishonorably discharged.
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So of the fifty thousand people in the military who
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were dishonorably discharged, the largest group, surprised to no one,
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was black men. That's one way that a disproportionate number
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of black people who served in the military were shut
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out of the GI Bill. Then there's also just stories
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of simple intimidation. Many black veterans would be attacked if
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they were in uniform. There's the famous story of one
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black man who had his eyes gouged out. Others had
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rocks hurled at them. Others experienced discrimination from the postmasters
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who just simply didn't deliver the forms for the GI
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Bill to those black veterans so they couldn't receive their
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unemployment benefits. So on the scale of extreme violence to
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just small acts of prejudice discrimination. Those added up too. Undoubtedly,
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the biggest ways that the GI Bill created racial disparities
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and widened the racial wealth gap was in its policies
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for housing. It seems that it would help all veterans,
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even Black Americans, because again Black Americans were not formally
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excluded from the bill. It had no clause about racial
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discrimination or exclusion for any reason. It was just that
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veterans are afforded these benefits. So you would expect that
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black veterans would get these same low interest mortgages in
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these housing loans, which led to a whole boom in
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housing and in wealth. But if you know about housing
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and you know about discrimination, I think you know the word.
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I'm going to say redlining. So back in the forties,
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red lines were literally drawn on maps saying these neighborhoods
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are high risk neighborhoods. These people living here get high
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interest loans. And segregation was still a thing, and black
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people were being shut out of the suburbs. Black people
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were shut out of certain neighborhoods. So black people are
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pushed out of the good neighborhoods, pushed into the bad neighborhoods,
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and then said ah, well, because you're in this bad neighborhood,
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we need to give you this bad loan, predatory, high
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interest loans that would keep black people in extreme debt
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while they're building up very little equity. Many people know
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that the racial wealth gap today is that Black Americans
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have about fifteen percent of the wealth that white Americans do.
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A little bit ago it was that black Americans have
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a tenth of the wealth. But the gap has, you know,
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come down a little bit. Now black people have fifteen
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percent of the wealth that white Americans do. White Americans
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have eighty five percent more. But when you hear that,
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many people go, well, that doesn't make sense. Do white
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Americans make on average one hundred thousand dollars a year
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and Black Americans make fifteen thousand dollars a year. That
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doesn't seem right, But that's because what you're thinking of
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there is income, and income is different than wealth. Wealth
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includes what you own. Wealth includes your house. So when
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we talk about the income gap, I think that black
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Americans make about thirty thousand dollars less per year. That's
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still huge, but not nearly as huge as the wealth gap.
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So this conversation on redlining and housing discrimination, it plays
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a big part in making sense of the wealth gap
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and why it is so unfathomably large, and this article
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explains quote, the post war housing boom almost entirely excluded
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Black Americans, most of whom remained in cities that received
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less and less investment from businesses and banks. Though the
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GI Bill guaranteed low interest mortgages and other loans, they
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were not administered by the VA itself. That's the thing.
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Though the GI Bill guaranteed low interest mortgages and loans,
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they were not guaranteed by the VA itself, So the
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VA could co sign but not actually guarantee the loans,
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which in the end gave white run financial institutions free
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reign to refuse mortgages and loans to black people. That's
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how it works, folks. What claimed to be a guarantee
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was not a guarantee after all. And to just drive
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home the disparity of this when you take a look
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at how many of these VA guaranteed home loans went
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to black borrowers versus white borrowers. In nineteen forty seven,
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in the state of Mississippi, there were more than thirty
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two hundred VA guaranteed home loans. I repeat, more than
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three thousand, two hundred of these home loans, and of those,
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the number that went to black borrowers, we want to
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take a guess two two out of three thousand, two
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hundred at a similar ratio in New York and New Jersey,
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sixty seven thousand of these mortgages that were insured by
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the GI Bill, of sixty seven thousand, less than one
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hundred of them went to non white veterans. Housing is
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where it's especially clear that the GI Bill just widened inequalities,
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because again four point three million home loans total worth
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thirty three billion dollars just being handed out. There were
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also disparities in education, but these are I think a
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little bit less pronounced. Black veterans were more successful in
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having education paid for than they were in receiving their
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housing loans. However, the big issue was especially for black
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veterans in the South, because they were literally not allowed
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to go to the white colleges all around them because segregation,
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so they could only go to black institutions, and black
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institutions were not ready for the huge spike in applicants.
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Tens of thousands of veterans had to be turned away
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just because these small black colleges and universities were not
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ready for the number of black veterans, and also they
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were underfunded, they were cramped, they were underprepared for this,
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and most of them were unaccredited. So this is where
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you wade into the debate where people say the GI
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Bill did help black veterans, because if you look at
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the statistics, the GI Bill led to an increase in
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college attendance for both white and black veterans. And they
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point to that and they say, hey, overall, it's an increase.
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Plus they point out that about half as many black
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veterans had finished high school as white veterans at the
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time of World War Two. I think white veterans were
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at about forty percent and black veterans about twenty percent
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had a high school diploma. So they're starting from this
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place of disadvantage. And they say, hey, when you consider
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that again, the GI bill, it's limited. It can't be
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a miracle worker. It's entering into a place where there's
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already inequality, and it can only do so much. The
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National Bureau of Economic Research explains, quote, for white eight men,
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the combination of World War II service and GI benefits
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had substantial positive effects on collegiate attainment, with a gain
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of about zero point three years of college and an
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increase in college completion of about five percentage points for
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black men. However, the results were decidedly different for those
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born in the Southern States versus those born elsewhere. The
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combination of World War II service and the availability of
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GI benefits led to a similar increase in educational attainment
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of about zero point four years of college for black
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men born outside of the South, but few gains in
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collegiate attainment among black men from the South. That's why
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the authors of this report quote conclude that the availability
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of benefits to black veterans had a substantial and positive
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impact on their educational attainment if they were in the North. However,
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for those black veterans more likely to be limited to
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the South in their collegiate choices, the GI Bill exacerbated,
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rather than narrowed, the economic and educational differences between blacks
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and whites. It's also relevant black veterans in the South
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had a much harder time, and a big part of
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this is that white colleges outnumbered black colleges by more
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than five to one. More than eighty five percent of
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options for higher education in the South was limited to
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white people. So when you have a small number of
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underfunded black colleges who also can't admit very many students,
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you have a lot of qualified black veterans who are
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ready to, you know, seize the only benefits that are
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actually available to them, because the housing benefits effectively aren't
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and many can't. A news outlet called mother Jones reports
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that quote. By nineteen forty seven, as many as fifty
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thousand qualified black veterans had been turned away. They also
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explained that when all is said and done, about twenty
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eight percent of white veterans went to college on the
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GI bill, so about a third a little less than
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a third of white veterans made use of those educational
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benefits versus just twelve percent of black veterans, so a
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little bit more than a ten a third verse the tenth.
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They also report that quote, by the time World War
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II veterans hit the age range at which wealth typically peaks,
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the median net worth of black veteran households was one
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hundred thousand dollars less than that of white veteran households. Now,
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I'm getting into all of those statistics, all the nitty gritty,
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because I want to talk about the argument against the
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argument that says, if we're really going to act like
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the GI Bill is a bad thing, then we're just
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hopping on the bandwagon and we haven't told a fair
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and true story. So in the article, No, the GI
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Bill did not make racial inequality worse by Paul Prescott,
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he's talking about how in recent years, I think it
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was twenty twenty three, some people came together and they
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put forth this proposal that we should now be compensating
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direct descendants of World War II veterans who were black
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and who didn't receive the benefits of the GI Bill.
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Some senators rallied around this, and it did not pass.
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It did not happen. But in this article he's explaining, Hey,
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the GI Bill actually did benefit black veterans the first
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time around. And I think that we've told an overly
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simplified story in saying that black veterans got the short
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end of the stick. And I just want to share
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his perspective on that. Some of his points I think
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are good. Some of them I don't think are as strong, honestly,
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But here's what Prescott writes, The GI Bill was far
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more nuanced and positive than many critics suggest. Black veterans'
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stories are documented in Suzanne Meddler's work, including her book
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Soldiers to Citizens, The GI Bill and the Making of
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the Greatest Generation, and her article specifically about Black veterans,
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The only good thing was the GI Bill. And this
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is where he explains by the end of World War II,
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only seventeen percent of black soldiers had graduated from high
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school compared to forty one percent of white soldiers. Clearly,
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black veterans were not as well positioned to use the
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benefits for college education as their white counterparts. He also says,
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when taking into account the full range of GI Bill benefits,
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black veterans actually made use of them at a higher
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rate than white veterans. A nineteen fifty Veterans Affair study
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found that forty nine percent of non white veterans had
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used the benefits compared to forty three percent of white veterans. Surprisingly,
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black veteran usage was higher even in the Jim Crows South.
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Fifty six percent of non white Southern veterans had used
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the GI Bill by nineteen fifty, compared to fifty percent
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of white veterans. So these are important facts. Especially about
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whether the veterans were ready for college by the time
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they returned, and that would affect whether they could make
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use of the benefits. But I think the thing that's
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missing here is just the general fact of what we
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said before. Sure, a slightly larger percentage of black veterans
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used the GI benefits, but they were denied on housing,
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which is clearly the biggest builder of wealth inarguably, and
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we can say that they had similar rates of seeking
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these educational benefits, but they couldn't access accredited institutions because
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in the South, all of the institutions that were open
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to white people were only open to white people, and
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a small number of underfunded colleges were open to black people.
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So to say that six percent more black veterans actually
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used the GI bill than white veterans, I feel like
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we're kind of grasping at straws. I actually really appreciate
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the perspective that we should be nuanced and not just
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say this was all around terrible and this did no good.
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He's trying to point out it did some good for
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black veterans, And he even says the reason why he
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wants to talk about appreciating the GI bills usage among
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black veterans is because quote the program's large scale success
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should give us hope that governance for the public good
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is possible for all working people, regardless of their race.
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I think that's a good message, but I think he
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might be minimizing the obstacles and hinderances a bit too much.
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So like he acknowledges the fact that black colleges and
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black higher education institutions weren't ready for the influx of applicants,
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and he kind of acknowledges that, and then he says, nevertheless,
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while the GI Bill did not overturn educational inequality, it
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did dramatically increase opportunities for African Americans. And that is true,
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but I don't think it's true enough. I'm all for nuance,
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but even with a nuanced picture, when we land at
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was this a net good? Was this a net bad?
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I agree that it was a net good for black veterans,
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but it was a far, far greater net good for
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white veterans, to the tune of like thirty to forty
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fifty billion dollars that black veterans didn't see. And when
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white veterans were receiving such a boost, such a helping
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hand built up the white middle class, built up generational wealth,
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is that they could pass down to their children and
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all of that. When white America saw such great gains,
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then white America was saying, see, the economy is good,
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we're working, we have wealth, we have homes, we have
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the American dream, we have the white picket fence. If
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you guys don't, must be something you're doing wrong. And
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I think it's fair to say that a good little
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fraction of those differences can be traced back to racial
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discrimination as it pertains to the GI Bill. Now, one
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thing that I really appreciated about this article is he
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explains how black veterans became especially politically involved, even compared
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to Black Americans who never served in the military. And
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this is something that came up in the previous episode,
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where black veterans had this collective feeling that, Okay, I
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have done too much for my country to not demand
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equal rights, prescott rights. After the war, black veterans encountered
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the discriminatory job market and social system. They I knew
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from their GI Bill experience that they had the right
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to be treated on equal terms to other Americans. My
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one little gripe with that quote is. I don't think
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it's from their GI Bill experience. I don't think they
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were like, I got equal access to the GI Bill,
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and therefore this is why we know equality. I think
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it was, you know, even the quotes I read in
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the previous episode, they experienced such terrible racism and discrimination
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that they said, I'm serving my country. I've earned my stripes.
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I better earn the respect of larger society. We need
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to fight for equal rights. So I don't think that
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they were inspired to fight for equal rights because they
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had received some equality with the GI Bill. I think
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they were inspired to fight for equal rights because they
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hadn't received equal rights. That's my editorial perspective. But still
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I agree with then the point he makes following this.
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He talks about how black veterans who used the GI
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Bill were overrepresented in politics, in activism in the civil
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rights movement because they were going out in greater numbers
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to push free equality. And I quote, between nineteen sixty
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five and nineteen seventy nine, during the height of new
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local black governing regimes, thirty one percent of black veterans
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who used the GI Bill were involved in local government,
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compared to four percent of black people who didn't use
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the GI bill thirty one percent versus four percent. I
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think it's really interesting to examine the relationship between black
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people who served in the military and then black people
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who were particularly involved in the civil rights movement and
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in local government and just politically involved in general. That's
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kind of why I wanted to talk about the GI bill.
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I think that the GI Bill, I'm convinced plays some
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role in the racial wealth gap today. It would be
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two broad strokes to say that it all boils down
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to the GI Bill. I'm not saying that, But the
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GI Bill is key to housing and how white people
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acquired north of thirty billion dollars in wealth in housing
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from assistance with the gibill, and black veterans and other
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non white veterans didn't receive those same benefits, and that
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could have an effect. And housing is generational wealth, and
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so therefore generational wealth was just concentrated in the white
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community and not other communities. I think all of those
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are logical steps. Again, don't want to overstate it. Don't
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want to come on here and in every podcast episode
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say this is the one reason why we see inequality today.
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But I do hope to examine just different pockets of
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history and be able to say, Okay, let's see how
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that contributed, and how that contributed, and how that contributed. Lastly,
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I must say that as I was researching this, I
437
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just couldn't help but think about this idea of getting handouts.
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So much of the political rhetoric in the last decade,
439
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couple decades century, I don't know, you decide, has been
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about how black people aren't working hard enough, aren't participating
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in the meritocracy that is America, and instead they're just
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expecting handouts, asking for handouts, asking for welfare, asking for
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social safety nets, instead of doing what white Americans did,
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which is get out there and work hard. All of
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my research on the GI Bill, it's a big handout.
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Objectively speaking, that's what it was. And I don't even
447
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mean that white veterans shouldn't have gotten that handout. I
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just mean that white veterans shouldn't have been the only
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ones to get that handout. I recently was researching black
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farming and black land loss because I'm writing an article
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about that, and there was a lawsuit. You might know
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of it. It's from the nineties, And then again in
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twenty ten. It's called Pigvird versus Glickman. It was the
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largest civil rights settlement in history. The first settlement was
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for one billion dollars to tens of thousands of black farmers,
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and then the second settlement was another one point twenty
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five billion dollars to again tens of thousands of black farmers,
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and many conservatives decried it as a handout. They said, oh,
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my goodness, we're still giving black people handouts in the
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year twenty ten. My goodness, when are they ever going
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to learn? When are they ever going to work for
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their money? When are they ever gonna do what all
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the rest of us did and roll up their sleeves
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and earn the American dream? But how did we get there?
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A settlement of over two billion dollars well proven racial
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discrimination for a whole century from the United States Department
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of Agriculture the USDA against black farmers. Systemic discrimination in
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black farming had been proven since nineteen sixty five, and
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it just continued, continued, continued until this nineteen ninety nine
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class action lawsuit. And then when the lawsuit happens, and
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black farmers who have lost out on millions of dollars
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over the core of decades of being discriminated against. They
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each got payouts of for many of them, fifty thousand dollars.
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That little fifty thousand dollars was just torn to shreds.
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Called they're getting handouts and they're getting this is fifty
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thousand dollars decades worth of wealth that they missed out on. No,
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it's nothing close to that for each individual farmer. It's
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just a small fraction of what they lost directly because
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of racial discrimination. In that case. Keeps coming to my
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mind as we're talking about the GI Bill and just
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how these different handouts. The GI Bill, which is just
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clearly a positive handout to help booy the American economy
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versus Pigford versus Glickman, a settlement over proven discrimination, just
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torn to shreds. I just, I don't know. I think
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it invites nuance on the conversation of I just what
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am I saying here. I'm saying that I've never been
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a person who is for reparations. I've never talked about
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operations on the podcast because I'm not pro reparations, because
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I'm not pro any particular policy for reparations. It's just
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I have yet to be convinced, and a lot of
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the people who are pro reparations, I just kind of
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don't agree with their proposals for how to go about it.
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And so what I'm saying here is not like just
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a loose toss like we should do reparations. Maybe I
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could do an episode on reparations if you want to
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hear my really complicated back and forth takes. But I
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think the reason that that conversation is still open, and
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the reason that we're still always discussing how the black
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community might benefit from particular support is because throughout history,
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and throughout the last century and the century before and
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the century before and the century before, black people have
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been excluded from many valuable, game changing history making handouts.
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But when it goes to white people, we don't really
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call them handouts. We just call them genius, helpful policies
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that saved the economy. Case in point, the GI Bill.
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I hope I could teach you a little bit about
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that chapter in history so you can be more educated
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and be able to speak to the GI Bill and
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how it affected the past and how its effects might
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have reverberated into the present. Thanks so much for listening.
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00:31:21.200 --> 00:31:24.720
Thank you for your support. My paid supporters make it
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00:31:24.759 --> 00:31:27.240
possible for me to devote time to the podcast, to
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00:31:27.279 --> 00:31:30.640
devote time to writing essays, to sharing my work on
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00:31:30.680 --> 00:31:34.039
social media, to all of it. If you're a paid supporter,
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I cannot thank you enough, and if you're interested in
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becoming one, if you'd like to support the work that
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I do so I can keep doing it for a long,
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00:31:43.680 --> 00:31:47.160
long time. The link to join is in the show notes,
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00:31:47.160 --> 00:31:49.200
and with that you'll get access to a lot of
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exclusive podcast episodes and essays and all that good stuff.
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00:31:54.799 --> 00:31:58.240
But that's all. Head to the link check it out.
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00:31:58.640 --> 00:32:00.720
Thanks for listening. Until next time.