Answer Many African American troops fought bravely side-by-side with whites and expected more respect and equal treatment when they returned home. Many had learned skilled trades in the service, and looked forward to better jobs on their return. Instead, they were subjected to increased racism. Jim Crow laws made it illegal for them to attend "white" schools or drink from "white" water fountains. Skilled jobs were closed to blacks regardless of training or education, or they were paid a fraction of the wages whites earned for the same labor. Worst of all, in the South there were many lynchings of innocent blacks (or those guilty of only minor offenses, like whistling at a white woman) partly fueled by white southerners' fears of growing racial unrest.
