An American and Nothing Else: The Great War and the Battle for National Belonging

"In defense of a humanity that does not include me"

Mass mobilization unfolded during several months of highly-publicized lynchings and race riots, most notably in East St. Louis, Illinois, where days of violence left 125 Black residents dead and thousands of homes and businesses destroyed. In July 1917, the NAACP organized a Silent Protest Parade in New York to protest the recent racial unrest. Eight thousand participated in the silent march, which led with a banner declaring: “Mr. President, why not make America safe for democracy?”

The following month, African American soldiers at Fort Logan in Houston, Texas mutinied after a violent encounter between a local Black woman and a white police officer sparked rumors of the murder of a Black officer who had come to her defense. The Houston Riot forced the War Department to acknowledge the mounting issue of racial inequality during wartime – still its Jim Crow policies stayed intact. Although demands for recourse and reform went unanswered, Black men and women for the most part approached wartime with a sense of racial pride and civic duty.

“Fighting in France for Freedom! Are You Helping at Home?” Poster showing American soldiers in a trench, including several African Americans. New Haven, Conn: Illustrated Current News, [1918]. Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

Works by unknown photographers. Randolph Linsly Simpson African-American Collection, Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

Government officials nonetheless belabored issues of loyalty, espionage, and sedition, targeting not just Black radicals but also German spies, labor organizers, and pacifists. As men began to ship out, tensions and dissent followed them. One Black draftee from Brooklyn wrote that he would “go forth to battle, not as a patriotic soldier eager to defend the flag that defends me and mine, but as a prisoner of war, shackled to a gun that shall spit fire in defense of a humanity that does not include me.”

The Marines rejected Black enlistment outright, while the Navy and Coast Guard only enlisted small numbers of African Americans in menial labor positions. Although the Army established several segregated all-Black combat regiments, the majority of Black soldiers were forced to serve unarmed and undertrained as suppliers or laborers.

Unknown photographer. Bust portrait of B.M. Twine: artillery private in uniform. [ca. 1917].

“Unknown Suspect—Posting of Threatening and Disloyal Statements,” October 1917. Reel 19, Federal Surveillance of Afro-Americans (1917–1925).

Intercepted by the postmaster in Greenville, South Carolina, this letter signed by “the Black Nation” warns of an armed Black uprising against the United States. The Espionage Act of 1917 authorized the Postmaster General to confiscate any suspicious, treasonous, or seditious materials and established serious fines and prison sentences for their authors if caught. This order was carried out to notorious excess at the local level—with fierce attention paid to socialist, anti-establishment, anti-war, and foreign-language publications.

Poster: “Colored Man Is No Slacker,” [1918]. E.G. Renesch, Chicago, Ill.

Mass culture often depicted women as lovesick and clutching aprons as their men marched off to war—while official propaganda tended to mask the lives and labors of Black women altogether. Notwithstanding these records, the wartime activities of women were significant. Many women opposed the war, while those committed to service worked as nurses, held fundraisers, marched in parades, and provided vital material and support for soldiers and sailors.

“Good Bye, Alexander, Good Bye Honey Boy.” Creamer and Layton. New York: Broadway Music Corporation. [ca. 1918]. James Weldon Johnson Collection, Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

Pamphlet: The Work of Colored Women: Compiled by Jane Olcott, issued by the Colored Work Committee, War Work Council, National Board Young Women’s Christian Associations. New York, 1919.

The majority of institutions behind these efforts maintained segregation or outright exclusion of Black women. The civil service refused to hire Black stenographers and the Red Cross initially did not allow Black nurses. The Young Women’s Christian Association was an interracial exception, though it tended to be more progressive in rhetoric than in action. Instead, Black women, typically as an extension of involvement in the Uplift and Progressive movements, volunteered within their own self-made organizations—like the National Association of Colored Women (NACW), which had roughly 50,000 members in over 1,000 local clubs at the outbreak of war.  

Group portrait of six; four men in uniform; one man, one woman in civilian dress. [ca. 1917].  Randolph Linsly Simpson African-American Collection, Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library.