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A28 u.s. news
Diabierna 12 november 2021

Veterans Day legislation targets GI Bill racial inequities

ership and education. or offer mortgages to quali-
fied homebuyers in certain
Local VA officers there either neighborhoods because of
made it difficult for Black their race or ethnicity.
veterans to access their ben-
efits or lessened their value Preliminary analysis of his-
by steering them away from torical data suggests Black
predominantly white four- and white veterans accessed
year colleges and toward vo- their benefits at similar rates,
cational and other non-de- according to Maria Madison,
gree programs. Meanwhile, director of the Institute for
the nation’s historically Black Economic and Racial Equity
colleges and universities saw at Brandeis University, who
such a significant increase of has researched the impact of
enrollment among Black vet- racial inequities in the ad-
erans that the schools were ministration of GI Bill ben-
forced to turn away tens of efits.
thousands of prospective stu-
dents. However, because of insti-
tutional racism and other
Sgt. Joseph Maddox, one of barriers, Black veterans were
two WWII veterans Moulton more limited in the ways in
and Clyburn named their bill which they could use their
after, was denied tuition as- benefits. As a result, the cash
sistance by his local VA office equivalent of their benefits
despite being accepted into a was only 40% of what white
master’s degree program at veterans received.
(AP) - In honor of Veter- are the descendants of those Harvard University.
ans Day, a group of Demo- who made sacrifices to pre- The Louisiana native, who After adjusting for inflation
cratic lawmakers is reviv- serve this democracy.” has 12 grandchildren and “When it came time to pay and for market returns, that
ing an effort to pay the 23 great-grandchildren, al- the bill, the government just amounts to a difference in
families of Black service Moulton, a Marine veteran ways believed that serving his said no,” said Moulton, who value of $170,000 per vet-
members who fought on who served four tours during country was the only way he himself attended Harvard eran, according to Madison.
behalf of the nation dur- the Iraq War, said: “There are could leave behind his life as on the GI Bill. “It actually Her ongoing research seeks
ing World War II for ben- a lot of Black Americans who the son of sharecroppers, said is pretty emotional for vets to put a dollar amount on the
efits they were denied or are feeling the effects of this his daughter, Vanessa Brooks. who have gone through this wealth loss to Black families
prevented from taking injustice today, even though themselves and, like myself, caused by racism and GI Bill
full advantage of when it was originally perpetrated But after he was discharged know what a difference the inequities.
they returned home from 70 years ago.” in August 1945 as a private GI Bill made in our lives.”
war. first class, he did not realize Black WWII veterans who
“I think that restoring GI Bill his dream of going to college, The bill is also named for Sgt. were lucky enough to have
The new legislative effort benefits is one of the great- working instead as a forklift Isaac Woodard, Jr., a WWII gained full access to GI Bill
would benefit surviving est racial justice issues of our driver before retiring in his veteran from Winnsboro, benefits succeeded at build-
spouses and all living descen- time,” he said. 60s. “He always wanted to go South Carolina, who was ing good lives for themselves
dants of Black WWII veter- to school,” his daughter said. brutally beaten and blinded and their families, said Mat-
ans whose families were de- A Senate bill was to be in- by a small-town police chief thew Delmont, a history pro-
nied the opportunity to build troduced later this month And when he bought his in 1946 after returning home fessor at Dartmouth College.
wealth with housing and by Sen. Rev. Raphael War- home, he used his retirement from the war. The acquittal It’s a clear argument, he said,
educational benefits through nock of Georgia, the son of a fund, not GI Bill benefits, of his attacker by an all-white for why the new legislation is
the GI Bill. WWII veteran. she said . jury helped spur the integra- necessary.
tion of the U.S. armed ser-
Since 1944, those benefits “We’ve all seen how these in- President Franklin D. Roos- vices in 1948. “Because the GI benefits
have been offered to millions equities have trickled down evelt signed the Servicemen’s weren’t distributed more
of veterans transitioning to over time,” Warnock said, Readjustment Act into law In contrast to the treatment evenly among Black veterans,
civilian life. But due to racism adding that the bill “repre- in 1944, making generous of Black veterans, the GI we lost an entire generation
and discrimination in how sents a major step toward financial subsidies available Bill helped home ownership of Black wealth builders,”
they were granted through righting this injustice.” to 16 million WWII veterans rates soar among white vet- Delmont said. “After the war,
local Veterans Affairs offices, pursuing higher education erans in a post-war housing we could have had even more
many Black WWII veterans The legislation, authored by and buying their first homes. boom that created a ripple ef- doctors, lawyers, teachers and
received substantially less Moulton, would extend the Irrespective of race, veterans fect their children and grand- architects.”
money toward purchasing VA Loan Guaranty Program who served more than 90 children continue to benefit
a home or continuing their and GI Bill educational as- days during the war and had from today. Dovey Johnson Roundtree,
education. sistance to Black WWII vet- been honorably discharged a Black woman who was
erans and their descendants were entitled to the benefits. Of the more than 3,000 VA a WWII veteran, attended
A House version was intro- who are alive at the time of home loans that had been Howard University’s law
duced by Rep. Jim Clyburn the bill’s enactment. It would But after returning from the issued to veterans in Missis- school with GI Bill benefits.
of South Carolina, the Dem- also create a panel of inde- war, Black and white veterans sippi in the summer of 1947, She then became a nationally
ocratic majority whip, and pendent experts to study in- faced two very different reali- only two went to Black vet- known Washington criminal
Rep. Seth Moulton of Mas- equities in how benefits are ties. erans, according to an Ebony defense attorney who played
sachusetts. administered to women and magazine survey at the time. a pivotal role in the desegre-
people of color. Because the GI Bill benefits gation of bus travel.
“This is an opportunity for had to be approved by local The Federal Housing Ad-
America to repair an egre- Lawrence Brooks, who at 112 VA officers, few of whom ministration’s racist housing And WWII veteran Robert
gious fault,” said Clyburn of years old is the oldest living were Black, the process cre- policies also impacted Black Madison, who served as a
the bill introduced last week. U.S. veteran, was drafted to ated problems for veterans. WWII veterans, undoubtedly second lieutenant in the U.S.
“Hopefully it can also begin serve during WWII and as- This was particularly acute fueling today’s racial wealth Army, credited his GI ben-
to lay a foundation that will signed to the mostly-Black in the Deep South where Jim gap. Typically referred to as efits for his success as a re-
help break the cycle of pov- 91st Engineer General Ser- Crow segregation imposed redlining, realtors and banks nowned architect.
erty among those people who vice Regiment. racist barriers to homeown- would refuse to show homes