Did African-Americans benefit from their changed roles during the Second World War?

Before WW2, African Americans lived largely in rural areas, many in the South. Literacy was very poor, and 9/10 black families lived under the poverty line. Most African-Americans worked in unskilled jobs, like sharecropping or as domestic servants. In the early years of the war, African-Americans faced discrimination and segregation in the armed forces, and were excluded from the benefits of the wartime economic boom. There were no black soldiers in the air corps or marines, as they were deemed unsuited for combat. Integration campaigns led by the NAACP and the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters pushed for reform in the army, and led to an Executive Order prohibiting discrimination in the defense industries. Following these efforts, African Americans were permitted to join the Marine Corps and Navy. Numbers of African Americans working in industry increased during the war, and in 1948 the armed forces were desegregated. Increases in pay for black men and women, and the opportunity to work alongside white colleagues was life-changing for some. While racism was commonplace in the US after WW2, and their prosperity in the 1950s was not equal to that of whites, the opportunities given to African Americans during WW2 helped encourage the Civil Rights Movement and Acts of the 1960s.