True or false. some historians contend that conditions in the united states during the second world war gave rise to a dynamic wartime alliance between trade unions and the african american community, an alliance that advanced the cause of civil rights. they conclude that the postwar demise of this vital alliance constituted a lost opportunity for the civil rights movement that followed the war. other scholars, however, have portrayed organized labor as defending all along the relatively privileged position of white workers relative to african american workers. clearly, these two perspectives are not easily reconcilable, but the historical reality is not reducible to one or the other.