Military service offered Black men no reliable path to advancement.

Evidence

The army did not end up being his way out. He was passed over for opportunities, his ambition stunted. He would be discharged under murky circumstances and then labor in a series of service jobs for the rest of his life. Like all the Black men and women in my family, he believed in hard work, but like all the Black men and women in my family, no matter how hard he worked, he never got ahead. — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 77

Categorization

• CANDY: The line ‘no matter how hard he worked, he never got ahead’ is a compact, quotable encapsulation of systemic disadvantage.