When looking through the article options the only one that really stuck out to me was "The Crisis, Vol 18, No. 3. Throughout this time in history African Americans held a small role within the nation, if any. This article showed schools and organizations tailored to African Americans and their needs being created and put out into the public. Taking a first look makes one question why these institutes were not established prior.
This is the July 1919 issue, featuring articles on Black education and an editorial by Du Bois about Black soldiers in WWI. This article quickly became one of the fastest growing articles within not only African Americans, but white Americans as well. I believe the main focus of the article as a whole was to teach the general public about how African Americans were being "dealt with" and showing the hardships brought upon them.
Considering during this time African Americans were practically prohibited from being apart of the US military or any other kind of government groups. Since the United States needed more soldiers, allowing African Americans was the best idea to help them through the war. This was the first time in history where African Americans had near equal right to fight for what the believe in, and prove themselves to the rest of the nation.
I believe this is not only a helpful tool in understanding our nation's history, but a very important one as well. This being the first chance for African Americans to have equal right to anything, is just as important towards to fight for racial equality as any other event in history. Being on the battlefield, you have to be with people you trust and will be there at any moment you need them. I believe this was the first step in the fight towards inequality. The average white soldier now rested their lives with the African brothers and sisters.
I would love for people to add reasons as to why the other sources may have also been very important. I want to see the big pictures I may have missed reading alone.
Hi Aria! This source is especially rich, as you stated it allows us to contextualize and critique the access that African Americans had to opportunity, education, and military service. The story of Black soldiers participating in WWI is definitely one filled with contentious elements--as you noted in your post, this was seen as a chance to "prove" their value to the nation, but unfortunately it didn't always work, as they faced so much entrenched backlash.
I chose this same source, I thought it was an eye-opening one. Although in my analysis I took a more expansive approach while you took a more direct one. I welcome the change, you did a good job!