ism was no longer a local or state question. In
fact, as W. E. B. DuBois had predicted, it had become the leading
question of the twentieth century. At the end of the Second World War,
Walter White, then executive director of the N.A.A.C.P., toured Europe
and drew conclusions concerning the effect of the war and the course of
the future. In his book Rising Wind, White demonstrated a relationship
between the oppressed peoples of the world, racism, and imperialism.
Though a relative moderate, White warned of a future worldwide racial
conflict.

As the war was drawing to an end in the Pacific theater, the Japanese
cautioned Asiatics about American racial oppression. What they called
attention to was that the British dominated colored peoples in Africa and
Asia and that the Americans persecuted their racial minority at home.
White believed that this propaganda was taking root in the hearts of many
Asiatics. He also believed that most of Asia would slide into the
Russian camp, thereby preparing the way for a third world conflict. He
contended that Britain and America had a choice between ending their
policies of racial superiority and preparing for the next war.

In 1948 A. Philip Randolph began to advocate civil disobedience on the
part of Afro-Americans, rather than ever again allowing themselves to be
part of a segregated army. He recommended that they refuse to serve in
future wars, and the idea received widespread attention. In a Senate
comittee inquiry, Senator Wayne Morse from Oregon suggested to him that
such civil disobedience in wartime could well be viewed as treason and
not merely as civil disobedience. Clearly, Randolph's suggestion had hit
a sensitive nerve. A nation which had been skeptical about permitting
Afro-Americans in its armed forces was now becoming extremely uneasy at
the thought that Afro-Americans might not want to serve. In the same
year President Truman appointed a commission to study race relations in
the military. Its report, Freedom to Serve, recommended that the Armed
Forces open up all jobs regardless of race, color, or creed. As a result,
the military began to move slowly in the direction of integration.
However, when the communists invaded South Korea, the issue quickly came
to a head. Unless integration was achieved, America would have to fight
communists and colored Asiatics with a segregated army and would have to
do it in the name of the United Nations.

In 1950 General Matthew R