The GI Bill of Rights and Its Impacts

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/536006/GI-Bill-of-RightsAdd caption

The GI Bill of Rights, officially known as The Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, was signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who is the 32nd president of America, in order to provide a range of benefits for returning World War II veterans. Benefits included low-cost mortgages, small-business loans, school and college tuition, job training, and unemployment payments. Within a few years, the GI Bill became a powerful stimulus for social and economic change of United States.

            Most essential, the GI Bill was one force leading to enormous social change on race.  As Hilary Herbold writes, “Clearly, the G.I. Bill was a crack in the wall of racism that had surrounded the American university system. It forced predominantly white colleges to allow a larger number of blacks to enroll, contributed to a more diverse curriculum at many HBCUs, and helped provide a foundation for the gradual growth of the black middle class." The bill greatly expanded the population of African Americans attending colleges and graduate schools. In northern urban areas, black veterans of the war attended formerly all-white institutions. Besides from blacks, Jewish veterans could also enter into many schools that had, in the past, rejected or applied harsh rules for Jewish applicants. Furthermore, due to the GI Bill, minorities like blacks or Jews were able to benefit from the growth of public institutions in urban areas.

http://thepoliticalcarnival.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/gibill.gif

            The GI Bill significantly addressed issues of education for different colors or people by providing them with home, farm, and business loans that helped them out of the financial dilemma. These loans contributed to their ability to purchase homes and farmlands with farming equipment. Moreover, all veterans were able to get $20 a week for 52 weeks while they looked for work, which contributed a lot to their living expenses in that period. What the GI Bill helped was to enable the nation to overcome years of instability, restored the nation’s economy, and helped promote the United States to the leading position in the world’s stage.