Posted on Feb 2, 2022
Black History Month: Black WWII Veterans would receive long-denied GI Bill education & housing benefits under pending federal legislation
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As the nation marks the start of February’s Black History Month, Congress is considering legislation that would provide GI Bill educational and housing assistance to Black Veterans of World War II who were denied the opportunity to build generational wealth due to historical discrimination in the administration of benefits.
“Though the legislative text of the GI Bill was race neutral, the administration of benefits through national, state and local Veterans Administration offices resulted in a pattern of discrimination against racial minorities, especially African Americans,” according to the bill, H.R. 5905.
Known as the GI Bill Restoration Act, the measure was introduced on Nov. 11, 2021, by House Majority Whip Rep. James E. Clyburn, D-South Carolina, and Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Massachusetts, and referred to the House Committee on Veterans Affairs. Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Georgia., said he plans to introduce companion measure in the Senate.
Fraction of Black Veterans receive post-war GI Bill benefits
After the devastation of WWII, the public demanded greater support for Veterans transitioning from war to civilian life. Congress responded by passing the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, otherwise known as the GI Bill of Rights. The legislation granted Veterans access to four years of paid education or training; federally guaranteed home, farm and business loans with no down payment; and unemployment compensation.
Although the bill contributed to the welfare of Veterans and their families overall, only about 2% of the estimated 900,000 Black Veterans who served in WWII were able to access and use GI bill benefits, said Victor J. LaGroon, a U.S. Army Veteran. LaGroon is championing the bill as a board member for the Black Veterans Project, which fights discrimination against Black Veterans, and as chairman of its umbrella group, the Black Veterans Empowerment Council (BVEC).
Even though Black Veterans were denied other GI Bill benefits, the legislation seeks to redress housing and education benefits discrimination in particular.
The bill’s text notes that only 6% of African American Veterans of WWII earned a college degree, compared to 19% of White Veterans of the war who earned a college degree (figures LaGroon said he thinks underestimate the actual disparity). And because of the Federal Housing Administration’s practice of redlining — a racist housing exclusion policy — few Black Veterans could take advantage of the GI Bill housing guaranty program.
Benefit denial compounds black families’ income disparities
“Many families were able to build generational wealth because of that capital,” LaGroon said. “So, the same argument is very easy to make that many families were denied the ability to build generational wealth.”
In terms of the loss of income and impact on future earnings, the cost of the benefits obstruction to Black Veterans and their descendants is high.
“It’s significant money,” LaGroon said. “It’s money that I would guesstimate is in the billions (of dollars) as opposed to hundreds of millions.”
In addition to the economic disparities faced by Black Veterans, the discriminatory denial of benefits compounded the social disparities in communities where Black Veterans returned lacking the assistance they needed to recover from the physical and psychological wounds of war.
The bill would direct the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to establish entitlement programs providing guaranteed home loans and education assistance for Black Veterans and/or their surviving spouses or descendants.
The legislation doesn’t specify the programs’ funding levels, but LaGroon pointed out that higher education and housing are obviously more expensive today than in the 1940s.
GAO to study racial and ethnic disparities in VA compensation
There soon could be a stricter accounting of the racial and ethnic disparities in the VA compensation paid to Black service members, as a result of another bill (S. 1031), which President Joe Biden signed into law on Nov. 30.
The law requires the Government Accountability Office to more precisely estimate VA benefits paid to minority Veterans with service-related disabilities or injuries to determine biases.
“Trillions of dollars have been stripped from Black veterans and their families through benefit obstruction and gross negligence by the Department of Veterans Affairs to address racism and discrimination forthrightly,” Richard Brookshire, a Black Veteran and co-founder of the Black Veterans Project said in a statement on the day Biden signed the bill.
Being accountable to the next generation of service members
As someone who served after Sept. 11, 2001, LaGroon said he felt America’s leaders must show they can address the nation’s wrongful treatment of Black WWII Veterans, just as they addressed past wartime discrimination of other groups such as Japanese Americans.
“We rightfully call this the greatest generation that’s ever served … and without them we wouldn’t be where we are today as a nation,” he said. “So, it’s befitting that we take the steps necessary to make these folks whole. And if not for them, at least their descendants will benefit from us … righting these previous wrongs and demonstrating what accountability looks like.”
Learn more
Read Clyburn’s news release on H.R. 5905: https://rly.pt/3sc1qdV
Read the text of H.R. 5905: https://rly.pt/3HsKMNx
Read the Black Veterans Project news release on S. 1031, requiring the GAO study: https://rly.pt/3HpUyzQ
“Though the legislative text of the GI Bill was race neutral, the administration of benefits through national, state and local Veterans Administration offices resulted in a pattern of discrimination against racial minorities, especially African Americans,” according to the bill, H.R. 5905.
Known as the GI Bill Restoration Act, the measure was introduced on Nov. 11, 2021, by House Majority Whip Rep. James E. Clyburn, D-South Carolina, and Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Massachusetts, and referred to the House Committee on Veterans Affairs. Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Georgia., said he plans to introduce companion measure in the Senate.
Fraction of Black Veterans receive post-war GI Bill benefits
After the devastation of WWII, the public demanded greater support for Veterans transitioning from war to civilian life. Congress responded by passing the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, otherwise known as the GI Bill of Rights. The legislation granted Veterans access to four years of paid education or training; federally guaranteed home, farm and business loans with no down payment; and unemployment compensation.
Although the bill contributed to the welfare of Veterans and their families overall, only about 2% of the estimated 900,000 Black Veterans who served in WWII were able to access and use GI bill benefits, said Victor J. LaGroon, a U.S. Army Veteran. LaGroon is championing the bill as a board member for the Black Veterans Project, which fights discrimination against Black Veterans, and as chairman of its umbrella group, the Black Veterans Empowerment Council (BVEC).
Even though Black Veterans were denied other GI Bill benefits, the legislation seeks to redress housing and education benefits discrimination in particular.
The bill’s text notes that only 6% of African American Veterans of WWII earned a college degree, compared to 19% of White Veterans of the war who earned a college degree (figures LaGroon said he thinks underestimate the actual disparity). And because of the Federal Housing Administration’s practice of redlining — a racist housing exclusion policy — few Black Veterans could take advantage of the GI Bill housing guaranty program.
Benefit denial compounds black families’ income disparities
“Many families were able to build generational wealth because of that capital,” LaGroon said. “So, the same argument is very easy to make that many families were denied the ability to build generational wealth.”
In terms of the loss of income and impact on future earnings, the cost of the benefits obstruction to Black Veterans and their descendants is high.
“It’s significant money,” LaGroon said. “It’s money that I would guesstimate is in the billions (of dollars) as opposed to hundreds of millions.”
In addition to the economic disparities faced by Black Veterans, the discriminatory denial of benefits compounded the social disparities in communities where Black Veterans returned lacking the assistance they needed to recover from the physical and psychological wounds of war.
The bill would direct the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to establish entitlement programs providing guaranteed home loans and education assistance for Black Veterans and/or their surviving spouses or descendants.
The legislation doesn’t specify the programs’ funding levels, but LaGroon pointed out that higher education and housing are obviously more expensive today than in the 1940s.
GAO to study racial and ethnic disparities in VA compensation
There soon could be a stricter accounting of the racial and ethnic disparities in the VA compensation paid to Black service members, as a result of another bill (S. 1031), which President Joe Biden signed into law on Nov. 30.
The law requires the Government Accountability Office to more precisely estimate VA benefits paid to minority Veterans with service-related disabilities or injuries to determine biases.
“Trillions of dollars have been stripped from Black veterans and their families through benefit obstruction and gross negligence by the Department of Veterans Affairs to address racism and discrimination forthrightly,” Richard Brookshire, a Black Veteran and co-founder of the Black Veterans Project said in a statement on the day Biden signed the bill.
Being accountable to the next generation of service members
As someone who served after Sept. 11, 2001, LaGroon said he felt America’s leaders must show they can address the nation’s wrongful treatment of Black WWII Veterans, just as they addressed past wartime discrimination of other groups such as Japanese Americans.
“We rightfully call this the greatest generation that’s ever served … and without them we wouldn’t be where we are today as a nation,” he said. “So, it’s befitting that we take the steps necessary to make these folks whole. And if not for them, at least their descendants will benefit from us … righting these previous wrongs and demonstrating what accountability looks like.”
Learn more
Read Clyburn’s news release on H.R. 5905: https://rly.pt/3sc1qdV
Read the text of H.R. 5905: https://rly.pt/3HsKMNx
Read the Black Veterans Project news release on S. 1031, requiring the GAO study: https://rly.pt/3HpUyzQ
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