The G.I. Bill

Photo of two GIs registering for classes at Emory University.

A healthy discussion of what life looked like for post-war veterans cannot be fully examined without looking at the G.I. Bill. The Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944 was brought into effect in order to prepare for the end of the Second World War. The return of so many soldiers into the job market was to be diverted by instead sending as many of them into colleges and universities. 

The idea was to send as many veterans to college and universities as possible in order to prevent a massive flood of potential workers in the job market. This way the majority of the returning soldiers would be immediately seeking out jobs but instead, seek out training and information for more specialized careers. The G.I. Bill provided plenty of benefits for veterans in a variety of ways. They would start by ensuring that all veterans were aware that they could benefit greatly from the G.I. Bill and they were also given an out-pay of five hundred dollars to make their transition easier¹ . Veterans who had halted their college educations in order to fight in the war would receive one year of veteran's benefits in form of paid tuition and fees. They also helped by giving students subsistence allowances² . The G.I. Bill's impact on veterans through college funding gave many a chance to enter into a wealthy middle-class life that became the norm for the 1950s³ .

Another way the G.I. Bill helped veterans readjust to normal life was that it helped veterans purchase any sort of property. The G.I. Bill offered government-backed loans to veterans in order to purchase things like houses, businesses, and farms. The G.I. Bill would also offer an allowance of twenty-five dollars a week for fifty-two weeks to any unemployed veterans that chose not to seek out their fortunes in college education⁴ . Interestingly enough, more veterans instead took this portion of the G.I. Bill as opposed to the college education portion. This was mostly because of its wider scope of use. While the main portion of veterans who used the college portion were becoming students or were already before the war, the second portion applies to a much wider variety of career paths. Many self-employed workers used this portion in order to get their livelihoods back in shape or even make further improvements on their businesses.

The G.I. Bill benefitted so many veterans in the Post-War Era, that it even went beyond the segregation and racism of the time. Many African-American veterans used the G.I. Bill to both further their college educations but also rise up into the American middle class⁵ . While the G.I. Bill was able to do wonders for quite a few African-American veterans, it was unfortunately not enough to unravel the segregation that plagued both American military and society.