'Half American' explores how Black WWII servicemen were treated better abroad (Dave Davies; Fresh Air podcast)

Though more than one million Black Americans served in WWII, their military uniforms couldn't protect them from systematic racism. Military segregation was maintained throughout the war, which meant separate barracks and recreation facilities, both at home and abroad.

"There was no strategic or tactical reason to do it," Delmont says. "The only reason the military maintained this racial segregation during the war was to appease white racial prejudice."

Black servicemen traveling to the Jim Crow South for training would pull down the shades on their train cars so that white townspeople wouldn't throw rocks at the windows. Racial epithets and threats of violence were part of daily life on Southern military bases, and off base, African Americans were restricted to the "Black" sections of town.

"If they stepped even a foot outside of that, they were threatened or attacked by white police or sheriffs," Delmont says...
Interview: 

https://www.npr.org/2022/11/07/1134756262/half-american-matthew-delmont-black-wwii