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Editor's Note: After World War II, the G.I. Bill of Rights gave thousands of young blacks the opportunity to pursue higher education. But for black soldiers returning from service in Vietnam, it was a different story.
IN MAY OF 1973, approximately 200 veterans - many dressed in tiieir combat fatigues - assembled in Washington, D.C., to protest against the low level of federal benefits they had received since leaving the service. Among them was Mack Finley, a 23-year-old African-American Vietnam veteran who had traveled from Cleveland to join the march. As president of Cuyahoga Community College's chapter of the Concerned Veterans Organization, Finley knew better than most the problems faced by Vietnam veterans trying to use G.I. Bill benefits to obtain a higher education degree. Like many of those he represented, Finley faced a constant financial struggle to stay in school. "It's been rough," he noted, "I do odd jobs and things . . . Ever since I've been out, it's been hard on me." U.N. Railey, another African-American veteran at the rally, concurred that "it's really a problem . . . All the food expenditures, gas and so forth are going up. On [the G.I. Bill benefits] you can't make it."
Both Finley and Railey faced the harsh reality that the government had fallen short in providing sufficient benefits to cover their education needs. Indeed, many African-American veterans soon discovered that the G.I. Bills passed in 1966, 1972, and 1974 proved particularly ineffective for underprivileged and minority veterans. Veterans' benefits remained chronically low during the Vietnam era, and as a result, veterans who lacked additional resources could not meet the rising costs of higher education. Almost 90 percent of African-American Vietnam veterans came from working class or underprivileged families. Moreover, the median incomes of African-American families remained considerably lower than those of their white counterparts throughout the Vietnam era and beyond. As a consequence, for most African-American veterans, going to college on the G.I. Bill was simply not an option. Because of the government's parsimony, only 25 percent of African-American veterans had used their education benefits by 1973, compared to 46 percent of white veterans. By 1980, a nationwide Veterans Administration survey indicated that the completion rates for African-American veterans claiming college-level benefits stood...