The following is an excerpt of Ambivalent Affinities: A Political History of Blackness and Homosexuality after World War II by Jennifer Dominique Jones, which is available now wherever books are sold. In a January 31, 1942, letter to the Pittsburgh Courier, twenty-six-year-old James G. Thompson queried, “Should I sacrifice my life to live half [an]American? Would it be demanding too much to demand full citizenship rights in exchange for the sacrificing of my life?” These demands, he offered, constituted a Double V campaign, in which “the first V [stands] for victory over our enemies from without, the second V [stands] for victory...