In 1942, the United States Office of War Information (OWI) was created to coordinate information services and deliver propaganda at home and abroad. In an effort to encourage African American support for the war effort, OWI commissioned Chandler Owen to write a booklet that presented arguments in favor of black support for the war effort and to remind African Americans of what they stood to lose should Germany win the war. Well illustrated with dramatic photographs by Eliot Elisofon, OWI published and distributed 2.5 million copies of Negroes and the War to African Americans around the country. This government-produced propaganda demonstrates how the government sought to engage with African Americans to support the war effort in 1942.
Chandler Owen, a Socialist-turned-Republican, was a prolific writer, editor, and civil rights activist in the first half of the twentieth century. In 1916, Chandler Owen and A. Philip Randolph co-founded the socialist journal The Messenger, which promoted trade unionism and the New Negro Movement in addition to providing political commentary. Owen became disenchanted with the Socialist Party during the 1920s and eventually joined the Republican Party. Although he was a critic of President Roosevelt and his past political leanings and activism were controversial, Owen was commissioned by the Office of War Information to write Negroes and the War due to his credibility with the African American population. After the war, Owen ran a public relations firm and occasionally wrote speeches for political candidates from both parties including Thomas Dewey, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Lyndon B. Johnson.