The Korea Blues

Abstract

The Korean War often occupies a marginal position within African American history, told as part of a broader tale of military integration and Cold War civil rights. This chapter traces the evolution of Black opposition to the war in Korea. For Black leftists like Claudia Jones and W. E. B. Du Bois, dissent meant open opposition, in print, at rallies, and through a variety of organizations. For others, opposed to white supremacy but aware of the cost of open resistance, dissent was publicly questioning the aims and conduct of the American war effort. For the millions who wondered quietly if the conflict would bring a new world war, dissent was expressed in surveys and songs, from the pulpit and on the shop floor. A focus on dissent centers those who saw the struggle for racial justice inside the United States as bound up in the self-determination of people abroad.