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Immediately after Pearl If arbor, African-American leaders and Black newspaper publishers openly supported the government's war agenda and the Office of Civilian Defense (OCD). The OCD, a federal agency created by President Roosevelt during World War II to organize the defense of the home front, wanted to make sure the nation's Black community participated in civilian defense activities. Because civilian defense was an important educational issue, the agency looked for ways to diffuse key home front information to African Americans. This case study examines how the Chicago Defender conveyed the civilian defense message to its readers. Such an examination would demonstrate how one Black newspaper helped Chicago's Black residents understand their obligation to defend their community in a potentially dangerous environment.
Immediately after Pearl Harbor, African-American leaders and Black newspaper publishers openly supported the government's war agenda and the Office of Civilian Defense (OCD). Leaders from the National Urban League and the National Council of Negro Women pledged their organization's support of the government's war agenda ("Leaders," 1941). NAACP executive secretary Walter White declared, "Though 13 million American Negroes have more often than not been denied democracy, they are American citizens and will as in every war give unqualified support to the protection of their country" ("Leaders," 1941).
In Illinois, during World War II, the Chicago Defender supported the nation's civilian defense effort and encouraged its readers to comply with the Social Contract, making personal sacrifices during a national crisis in order to sustain a democratic society (Steinberg, 1978; Von Leyden, 1982; Ashcraft, 1986). On December 13,1941, the newspaper reminded its readers of the perils of enemy attack. The Defender explained that, as African-Americans, it was their sovereign duty to be prepared to defend their country and community:
In these days of feverish preparation for war, Negroes must not lose sight of the need for learning ho;z to protect their home.so from incendiary? bombs... We shall do well to prepare ourselves against all possible sudden emergencies... We repeat the warning given by the Washington Committee for United Action, that `in blitz attacks there are only two kinds (ef people: the quick and the dead ' ( "Air Raid Precaution," 1941).
An editorial, 27 December 1941, motivated Black Chicagoans to prepare to defend the...