One Blood

            Although many considered World War I to be the conflict that would end all wars, [1] the world once more found itself embroiled in turmoil in 1939. The United States remained neutral until Japan’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. The day after this catastrophe, the United States officially declared war, and remained engaged in World War II until its termination in 1945. Several factors during this era helped to make the twin issues of race and multiethnicty topics of great concern. First, countless African American soldiers who risked their lives for the United States returned to a nation that still treated them like second-class citizens despite their sacrifices. Jim Crow laws continued to dominate the landscape, and this factor created a great dissatisfaction amongst African Americans. [2] Many responded to this shunning by devoting themselves to the fight for equal civil rights. [3] Second,...

Three opinions regarding multiethnic people reigned in the early American Era of the United States (ca. 1776-1826). First, some Anglos accepted the existence of multiethnic people, but their intentions were not always honorable. While Patrick Henry thought it proper to provide “free public education for interracial children” that were part Native American and part Anglo, [1] Thomas Jefferson saw the practice of intermingling as a manner to expand the United States’ power and “improve” its original inhabitants. He was convinced that “the improvement of the blacks on body and mind, in the first instance of their mixture with the whites, has been observed by everyone, and proves their inferiority is not the effect merely of condition of life.” [2] As president, Jefferson encouraged various Native American tribes to interbreed with Anglos [3] so that their absorption into society would remove a major obstacle to the Anglo settlement of the entire continent. [4]    ...