Pledging allegiance

Pledging Allegiance documents how African Americans, Euro-Americans, and labor-union members bought bonds as an expression of not only national loyalty but also racial, ethnic, and class pride. A powerful "Double V" message disseminated in African American newspapers and speeches suggested that a bond-supported victory over racism abroad could be a prelude to victory over racism at home. Black entertainers and athletes, most notably Duke Ellington and Joe Louis, played an active part in the bond drive's success in African American communities, while celebrity endorsements, native-language brochures, radio ads, and well-publicized nationality days whipped up bond sales among Polish, Czech, Serbian, Italian, French, and Chinese Americans, and other ethnic groups. Contrasting the inclusive World War II bond drive with World War I's "100% American" campaign, Lawrence R. Samuel describes how the Treasury Department's multicultural marketing strategies tapped into the personal aspirations as well as the patriotic impulses of all bond buyers. That success, the author contends, helped pave the way for the emergence of both the civil rights movement and the vigorous consumer culture of the postwar years.