The Double V Campaign

This book tells the rousing story of the Double V campaign, started during World War II to encourage Black Americans to fight two wars for democracy at once: one overseas and the other at home. It reveals to young adults how the campaign gave voice to Black communities and helped spawn the civil rights movement of the following decades.

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The rousing story of the Double V Campaign, started during World War II to encourage Black Americans to fight for freedom overseas and at home.

When the United States entered World War II, young African Americans across the country faced a difficult dilemma. Why should they risk their lives fighting for freedoms in other nations that they did not have at home? The solution: fight two wars at once—for freedom abroad and freedom for Black people in America. A Double Victory!

In The Double V Campaign, Lea Lyon details this fascinating, little-known part of American history. A young journalist, civil service employee, and aircraft plant cafeteria worker named James G. Thompson came up with the simple yet powerful Double V slogan to represent the fight for victory against the enemy abroad and the fight for victory against racial discrimination at home. Lyon shows how the popular Black-owned newspaper the Pittsburgh Courier, along with other Black newspapers, activists, the NAACP, and others, used the Double V Campaign to push for changes in the segregation and discriminatory practices in the military and defense industry, and how the campaign influenced and enhanced the Civil Rights Movement to come.

The Double V Campaign gave voice to African American communities throughout the war and inspired hundreds of thousands to continue speaking up against discrimination in the years that followed. It is a powerful story of fighting for what is right, of fighting for change and equality even when those in positions of power are telling you to stop, and the strength of a united voice to effect change.