Philip Randolph, whose threat about a March on Washington led to the creation of the FEPC, the actions of the black press were mainly limited to lobbying committees and letter-writing campaigns. Indeed, the influential imagery of this campaign had much more to do with its militant rhetoric than its approach.

'The Double V Campaign was not to safeguard traditional American society, but to establish the national legitimacy that African-Americans needed to reshape it into a more inclusive society.' It was not long until other papers embraced the new militant rhetoric, and the вЂDouble VвЂ™ became the wartime slogan of the black press. Rouzeau underlined that the вЂњtwo wars are inextricably intertwined.' 5 The Double V Campaign was not to safeguard traditional American society, but to establish the national legitimacy that African-Americans needed to reshape it into a more inclusive society. In the Double V campaign, black struggles could not be forgone: the CourierвЂ™s editor Edgar T. Du Bois: вЂњto forget special grievances and closes ranksвЂќ in order to work with White America. Thompson posed this question to the editors of Pittsburgh Courier: 'Should I sacrifice my life to live half American?' 4 This significantly differs from the World War I вЂњClose RanksвЂќ call from prominent black leader W. The answer to this dilemma came when reader James G. 3 The black press was well aware of such racism: to ignore the contradictions within American democracy in order to bolster war morale was to alienate their readership. 2 Moreover, the FEPC did not apply to the military: in the 1940 draft, a segregated African-American quota of nine percent was established with all black soldiers relegated into less prestigious units. 1 Even after FDRвЂ™s executive order to desegregate the war industry, many regarded the Fair Employee Practice Commissions as a toothless agency. When the war revived the economy with its вЂarsenal for democracy,вЂ™ its benefactors were overwhelming white: seventy-five percent of war industries refused to hire blacks, with only fifteen percent hiring them for menial jobs. The Great Depression not only hit African-Americans hard, but hiring discrimination during the 1930s prevented black unemployment from improving. To do so, however, required a keen recognition of the particular hardships African-Americans faced during the interwar years. Led by the Pittsburgh Courier, Baltimore Afro-American, and the Chicago Defender, the wartime black press attempted to bolster morale in order to promote the countryвЂ™s war aims.

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