Primary Source Analysis Post#2 The Crisis Magazine July 1918

https://transcription.si.edu/view/22606/NMAAHC-F28402A9865F2_3007

1. I chose the July 1918 issue of The Crisis initially is because I was interested in W.E.B. Du Bois and his perspective during WWI. The Great War was a weird time for African Americans, as its, the first significant war African Americans participated. I noticed Du Bois's support for African-Americans to join the conflict. The United States has only officially declared war a year earlier. While it is unusual, in my opinion, for a scholar to support the war, I suppose the war presented an attractive opportunity for the disenfranchised and looked-down upon African Americans. I wonder if many other black scholars share the same sentiment as Du Bois, seeing how this war could be interpreted as a "white man's war," or did African Americans fight for their country instead?

2. In the July 1918 issue of The Crisis, Du Bois expressed his support for African Americans to join the war effort in his "Close Ranks" editorial. It was unusual as Du Bois was a lifelong anti-war activist. The Crisis was a magazine spearheaded by the NAACP and W.E.B. Du Bois aiming at promoting African American achievements and abolish racial prejudice. The magazine achieved phenomenal influence, with 100,000 in circulation by 1920. Its focus on the suffering and hardship that blacks had to go through pressured the Federal government to outlaw lynching. Du Bois editorials are famous for portraying his perspective, often ahead of his time. Topics including women's rights, women's suffrage, equality, principles of the Socialist Party, and anti-war sentiments.

3. This issue was released in July 1918, over one year after the United States declared war on the Central Powers and joined the world war. The conflict was regarded as a war for democracy, rights, and liberty. As pointed out in Module 14: World War I (https://maryklann.wixsite.com/hist110/post/module-14-world-war-i), African Americans viewed this opportunity to prove to their white counterparts that blacks are as capable and patriotic as whites. It was also this experience that showed Black veterans how they are viewed overseas and how American society needs to change. As I dig further outside of the article, I found that Du Bois was offered an officer's commission in the US Army in exchange for a pro-war stance in The Crisis. While his commission was revoked, his editorial article remains as a call for action for African Americans and hopeful about the future of equality.

4. This source is important in American history because it gave us a glimpse into how different African Americans see the war, not as a war for justice, but a war for equality. Black veterans expected better treatment and a newfound respect for their people, but yet the hypocrisy of the US government prevented further equality for African Americans. Black soldier units, such as the 369th Infantry Regiment, popularly known as the Harlem Hellfighters, served throughout the war and yet came back to a government that acknowledge the liberty and rights of all country but yet not their citizens. While The Crisis did not achieve much other than the abolishment of lynching, the movement laid the foundations for a new generation of African Americans to fight the Second World War 2 decades later, with greater success and recognition than their last attempt.

5. Did you think it was a good idea for African Americans to join the war in the name of proving themselves to whites? Did black soldiers achieved more of their goals for equality in WWII, or was it merely a coincidence that the government focused on the discrimination of Japanese instead?