The Pittsburgh Courier was an important African-American weekly newspaper published in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It commenced publication in 1907 and came to an end during the Fall of 1966. The attached editorial appeared when the Courier was at it’s peak readership, during the Second World war – when this column appeared asking a highly pertinent question of all African-Americans of military age:
“Should I sacrifice my life to live half American?’ Will things be better for the next generation [of colored Americans] in the peace to follow? ‘Would it be demanding too much to demand full citizenship rights in ex- change for the sacrificing of my life? Is the kind of America I know worth defending? Will America be a true and pure democracy after this war? Will Colored Americans suffer still the indignities that have been heaped upon them in the past? These and other questions need answering; I want to know, and I believe every colored American, who is thinking, wants to know.”
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