The African National Congress (ANC) conference in December 1939, declared that unless the South African Government granted Africans full democratic and citizenship rights, it was not prepared to advise Africans to participate in the Second World War in any capacity. The League was nowhere near as radical, and focused primarily on the need to remove the colour bar from the British armed forces, so that Black men and women could serve alongside their fellow subjects.

The League had never claimed to be a radical or indeed a political organisation, but its method of patient lobbying did result in some successes. The war gave the organisation a renewed relevance and its membership and revenues increased. In April 1940 the League's newsletter highlighted the difficulties faced by Black men attempting to join the forces, including a young man who had wished to join the navy, but had been refused entry on the grounds of his colour, although his father had fought during the First World War. Such men began to write to the Letters indicating their intent to resist attempts at conscription until some guarantee was given that every branch of the Services would be thrown open to Black men once the war had ended. (Letter, no 7, April, 1940, p13)

Four months later, in August 1940, a letter from the Air Ministry was published under the title Colour Bar And The Air Force . The letter was in response to an enquiry by the League to the Secretary of State for Air, regarding the colour bar that existed as part of the entry procedures for the Royal Air Force. The response from the Ministry informed the League that, for the period of the war, all British subjects from the colonies who were in the UK would be on an equal footing with subjects from the UK when volunteering for enlistment in the Armed Forces. However, it gave no indication as to how racism would be challenged once the war had ended. (Letter no 11, August, 1940, p92)

The height of the League's influence as a pressure group came in 1943, when it persuaded the Colonial Office to modify its own recruitment policy, even if only partially, and held its 12th annual general meeting, which took place in Liverpool. During this, the League staged a public meeting, which was attended by over 500 people, and included talks on the theme of 'A Charter for Colonial Freedom'. The following year, the League organised a conference with the aim of drawing up 'A Charter for Coloured People'. The text that was drafted included a demand for self-government for all colonial peoples, and that economic, education, legal and political rights should be enjoyed equally by all men and women, whatever their colour. Moreover, it declared that all racial discrimination in employment, restaurants, hotels and other public places should be made illegal and that the breaking of such laws would be punished.

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