The Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944 (G.I. Bill)
Here is a returning soldier of World War II pointing to the rights/benefits included in the newly passed G.I. Bill that help many americans settle in to nice homes for a low cost as well as many other benefits. Though African Americans had a much harder time acquiring these benefits.
As whites were able to use this guaranteed housing loans included in the bill to buy homes for a cheap price in suburbs, blacks were consistently denied that same privilege from banks and house salesmen. Although the Bill was for all returning veterans, people back at home didn't like the idea of African Americans being able to buy nice homes and moving in next to white families so they were constantly rejected from Levittowns and other suburbs designed to house war veterans. Banks also generally wouldn't make loans for mortgages in black neighborhoods, so even when African American veterans moved to all black neighborhoods they were still denied the right given to them in the G.I. Bill.
Another issue with African Americans being denied the right to buy a good home at a low-cost mortgage was the eventual resale value of the home in the following years and the wealth that created for white families during the postwar years. Although the GI Bill was supposed to help every American soldier coming home, it ultimately fostered a long-term boom in the wealth of white families across America, pushing African Americans into poverty. The affects of this housing discrimination can still be seen today and will take a long time to even out the household wealth between Whites and African Americans.
Although the GI Bill created many issues for African Americans due to lack of respect from the public, it did pay for many African Americans to go to college and graduate school. The majority of veterans going to college were pushed into overcrowded black universities until white universities ended up allowing Blacks to attend, beginning the integration of African Americans into all universities.
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World War II affected nearly every aspect of life in the United States, and America’s racial relationships were not immune. African Americans were especially impacted by the war, yet the most interesting affect of the war on African Americans came after the war ended and all of our soldiers were coming home. With Roosevelt having to deal with all of these soldiers coming home from war, he decided to make starting a family a little easier by passing the G.I Bill. The G.I. Bill was a law that provided a range of benefits for returning World War II veterans. Benefits included low-cost mortgages, low-interest loans to start a business, cash payments of tuition and living expenses for school, as well as one year of unemployment compensation. The benefit that impacted African Americans the most was low-cost mortgages. With so many soldiers coming home at one time, the United States had to figure out how to house all of these G.I.'s, so they began huge housing projects that created Levittowns as well as high rise apartment buildings within cities. As it was said before, buying a home as a veteran was quite easy doe to the low-cost mortgages soldiers were able to get, yet the only problem with this bill was that banks and house salesman didn't respect it when in the hands of an African American. 
This is an Aerial view of a Levittown in Pennsylvania. This gives you a good idea of the type of community levittowns were and well as what the homes were like. Blacks were rarely able to buy homes such as these and when they could, their white neighbors would move which in turn caused the value of houses in the surrounding area depreciate.
The History of Levittowns |
The Fear Whites Have
"If black soldiers thought they would come home to a change at equal opportunity, whites, determined to maintain the status quo, were one step ahead of them. They were resolved to squelch any ideas held by blacks that an overseas victory would improve their status from second-class status back in the United States. Whites held a deep-seated fear that returning black soldiers would return home empowered and emboldened, educated and combat ready, determined to secure their long denied civil rights." - Cyd McKenna
