1914: The First World War: Victory Abroad and Victory at Home

1900-1999: A New Divide
Written By Stephanie Brizee

Big Idea

African Americans demonstrated their patriotism and commitment to the United States by serving in the Armed forces during World War I. For many, it represented the first time in their lives where they experienced equal treatment at the hand of White Europeans. Black veterans returned ready to win their rights at home as they had defended others abroad.

What’s important to know?

  1. Causes of the War: W.E.B. Du Bois argued that the dominant view of Black and Brown people as inferior to White people led to the outbreak of World War I and that without addressing racism, the future would not be one of peace.

  2. African Americans Abroad: For many African Americans, serving overseas gave them a chance to live in less racially divided societies.

  3. African Americans at Home: After returning from the war, African American men were further resolved to fight for their rights at home, just as they had done abroad.

1: Causes of the War

Image of the Editorial page of the November 1914 edition of The Crises.

Image Source: The Saint Louis Story

W.E.B. Du Bois believed that to obtain true equality and democracy in the United States required that people around the globe deemed “Black” and “Brown” had to be treated with the same dignity and respect as White people. In the November 1914 edition of The Crises, for which Du Bois was editor, he wrote “World War and the Color Line.” (Read the entire edition here.) In this piece he argued, “The present war in Europe is one of the great disasters due to race and color prejudice and it but foreshadows greater disasters in the future” (Du Bois, 1914, p. 28). He argued that what lay behind the war was “the wild quest for Imperial expansion among colored races between Germany, England, and France primarily… [and behind this stood] a theory of the inferiority of the darker peoples and a contempt for their rights and aspirations” (p. 28). Du Bois noted the economic gains to be had by White nations if they were able to seize more land in Asia, Africa, and South America (p. 28).

In an editorial published the next year in the May 1915 edition of The Crises, Du Bois argued even more strenuously that the war was “a tangle of national jealousies and suspicions arising from the ‘spoils of trade-empire’ and the desire for expansion ‘not in Europe, but in Asia, and particularly in Africa” (as quoted in Williams, 2023, p. 9).

Du Bois powerfully argued that a war to “make the world safe for democracy” — the phrase President Woodrow Wilson used when asking Congress for a declaration of war — required “providing African peoples with land, education, and political autonomy” (Williams, 2023, p. 11).

2: African Americans Abroad

When the United States joined the war effort, African Americans signed up to serve their nation. Three hundred and eighty thousand African Americans served in the war effort, with 200,000 being stationed in Europe. Segregation followed them throughout their service as they served in segregated units, received lower pay, and were often assigned menial jobs. Few Black units saw direct combat, but those that did were often led by White unit commanders. (National WWI Museum and Memorial).

For many African Americans, the experience of living in a less racially divided country proved illuminating. Robert Sweeney, an African American soldier serving in France, wrote of his experience: “I learned a little French myself and I could converse with the Madamoiselles quite well. I got along very nicely with them. And that was the only time that I was a full-fledged American citizen because they treated the Black soldiers just like they treated the white soldiers. No difference whatever” (Firsthand Accounts from National WWI Museum and Memorial).

3: African Americans at Home

Black Americans returned from the war with experience and a renewed commitment to demand their equal rights. W.E.B. Du Bois summed up the feelings of many when he wrote in The Crises:

“We are returning from war! The crises and tens of thousands of black men were drafted into a great struggle. For bleeding France and what she means and has meant and will mean to us and humanity and against the threat of Germany race arrogance, we fought gladly and to the last drop of blood; for America and her highest ideals, we fought in far-off hope; for the dominant southern oligarchy entrenched in Washington we fought in bitter resignation….

But today we return! … We sing: This country of ours, despite of all its better souls have done and dreamed, is yet a shameful land.
It lynches…
It disenfranchises its own citizens…
It encourages ignorance….
It steals from us…
It insults us…
This is the country to which we Soldiers of Democracy return. This is the fatherland for which we fought! But it is our fatherland. It was right for us to fight. The faults of our country are our faults. Under similar circumstances, we would fight again. But by the God of Heaven, we are cowards and jackasses if now that the war is over, we do not marshal every ounce of our brain and brawn to fight a sterner, longer, more unbending battle against the forcees of hell in our land.
We return.
We return from fighting.
We return fighting.
Make way for Democracy! We saved it in France, and by the Great Jehovah, we will save it in the United States of America, or know the reason why.” (Du Bois, 1919, p. 13-14).

Listen

Listen to oral histories conducted with African American World War I veterans:

Your Turn

What were the experiences of African American soldiers fighting for their country? How did their patriotism and the rhetoric of fighting for freedom impact them when they returned?

Stephanie Brizee
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1916: Eugenics, Pseudoscience, and “Enemies of Mankind”