Homefront: Black Servicemembers and Black Voters in the Civil Rights Era

ABSTRACT The role of Black World War II veterans in the Civil Rights Movement has been well documented, but the effect of Black military service on Black voting patterns remains unclear. Combining detailed information on World War II enlistments and Civil Rights Commission data on voter registration by race, we estimate the role of Black veterans in high‐risk political participation in the US South. Each Black drafted man increased Black voter registration by more than two additional Black registrants after the Voting Rights Act of 1965. We further show that Black veterans in higher‐status military positions increased Black voter registration more than veterans overall. We also find that Black military service had a similar effect on the presence of Black civil rights groups and reactionary White nationalist organizations.