今日文章关于1941-1954年美国人权法案运动这段历史，直接导致了著名的反歧视人权法案的诞生。

Birth of the Civil Rights Movement, 1941-1954

By National Park Service, adapted by Newsela staff 05/08/2017

Word Count 623

America changed tremendously during World War II, creating a driving force for civil rights that transformed American life. African-Americans migrated to the North, where they had the right to vote. New government policies laid the groundwork基础工作 for the end of racial segregation隔离. Civil rights became a national issue for the first time since the Reconstruction era, the period after the Civil War between North and South.

Minorities, such as African-Americans, served in the military but fought in units that were segregated from white soldiers. However, the defense industry also created new jobs that eventually brought about social and legislative reform. Millions of married women and mothers worked outside the home for the first time, and some remained employed after the war was over.

Approximately 65,000 Native Americans left their reservations to work in wartime industries and serve in the armed forces. African-Americans demanded their fair share of jobs and an end to segregation in government departments and the military. President Franklin D. Roosevelt responded by banning discrimination in defense industries. To assure that companies complied, he formed the Federal Employment Practices Committee (FEPC). This committee held hearings to expose racial discrimination and helped African-Americans in the North find work. The formation of the FEPC also led to the first civil rights case regarding equal employment for Latinos拉丁裔. Protests抗议 were held before the FEPC to expose the fact that Latinos were still denied jobs in many war industries. Despite their American citizenship, they were considered "aliens" by employers.

African-Americans were denied mortgages and loans

Even as people of color served in the military, those at home still faced racial discrimination from federal and local governments. African-Americans were refused home loans partly because of the government's support for a practice called redlining拒绝贷款. Beginning in the late 1930s, lines were drawn on government maps around black neighborhoods. Within these neighborhoods, banks refused to give out any mortgages or loans. Redlining prevented investments from flowing in, and made poor neighborhoods poorer. It also prevented African-Americans from owning their own homes, the most important way of building wealth in the 20th century.

Other minorities had to fight for equal rights as well. During World War II, nearly 110,000 people of Japanese descent from Oregon, Washington and California were sent to internment camps. In 1942, Federal Executive Order 9066 ordered civilians cleared from "military areas," but only Japanese-Americans were forced to leave. In the Zoot Suit Riots of 1943, police did not protect Latino teenagers who were attacked by white servicemen for wearing zoot suits, a fashion of the time. Many Chinese also struggled against anti-Chinese racism and were only allowed to immigrate to the U.S. in 1943. Native Americans were denied the right to vote in six states. They were accused of not being able to read, not being citizens and not paying taxes.

NAACP blasts segregation

World War II spurred a strong sense of injustice among African-Americans. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)  began major attacks against discrimination and segregation. It was encouraged by the record of black servicemen in the war and financial support from white donors.

Social pressure to end segregation also increased during and after the war. In 1944 the Swedish economist Gunnar Myrdal published "An American Dilemma窘境," which gives a blunt直白的的 account of the history of racial injustice in the U.S. The book became extremely influential. In 1946, President Harry S. Truman established a federal civil rights committee that called for an end to segregation in America.

In 1948, based on the committee's findings, Truman issued Executive Order 9981, desegregating the military. It also led to the 1954 Supreme Court decision ending segregation in the country's schools. Many scholars consider it the birth of the modern civil rights movement.