An American and Nothing Else: The Great War and the Battle for National Belonging
The Great War That Came Before
Although Wilson’s cool, scholarly composure put him at odds with fiery white chauvinists in office throughout the South, the progressive Virginia-born Democrat’s retrograde policies on race seem to contradict the legacy connection with Abraham Lincoln suggested by the title.
Many American men who served in the First World War were the sons and grandsons of veterans who fought for the United States and the Confederacy during the Civil War—as well as the sons of formerly enslaved people. Theirs was a country one lifetime removed from dissolution and bloody conflict, new in its nationhood—bearing tender scars and bitter memories of its last great war. When Woodrow Wilson took office in 1913, he became the first Southern Democrat in the White House since the antebellum era. This moment served as a symbolic end to the federal government's total abandoment and repudiation of emancipation and full citizenship for Black Americans in favor of legally-enforced Jim Crow segregation and violent racial domination, which Wilson extended to federal offices and facilities.
This commemorative broadside honors Harriet Tubman, whose long life as an abolitionist ended on the eve of the First World War. The artist Albert Alexander Smith drafted her likeness in the 1920s while living as an expat in Paris. The son of immigrants from Bermuda, Smith was born and raised in New York City. He enlisted in the U.S. Army and saw combat in France. Returning briefly to New York after his service, Smith relocated to Europe in 1920, citing Jim Crow prejudice and racial violence as reasons for never returning.
Albert Alexander Smith (1896–1940). “Harriet Tubman, 1820-1913.” [ca.192–?] Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
“Two Johnnies,” a poem included in this patriotic 1917 volume, narrates this spirit of reconciliation and reunion
The same year Wilson took office, white U.S. and Confederate veterans marched together in celebratory reunion at Gettysburg, where Wilson honored them as “brothers and comrades in arms, enemies no longer.” Memories of the Civil War hung heavy in the Great War era, giving voice to pacifism as much as to militancy. “My experience in the Civil War has saddened all my life,” stressed Ohio congressman and U.S. veteran Isaac Sherwood in defense of U.S. neutrality. “As I love my country, I feel it is my sacred duty to keep the stalwart young men of today out of a barbarous war 3,500 miles away, in which we have no vital interest.”
“‘Keep the Flag in their hands and Patriotism will stay in their hearts.’ Words of William McKinley.” [1901]. Randolph Linsly Simpson African-American Collection, Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library
In Fear God and Take Your Own Part, Roosevelt propounded “the principles of true Americanism” in support of the Preparedness Movement, which backed militarization and U.S. intervention in Europe. At the heart of Preparedness was a militaristic white nationalism that yearned for empire—a hawkish belief that the United States was poised for global dominance in part by coming to the rescue of a dying Old World Europe. The movement failed to anticipate the mass armies and mass killing of the era, instead clinging to the ideals of nineteenth-century warfare. Roosevelt’s wartime platform targeted “hyphenated Americans,” a nativist slur already in circulation, which he codified into a condition both irreconcilable and treasonous.
Unknown French printer. “Etats-Unis. Blanc et Noir.” [1904].
"The United States. White and Black." This postcard depicts Roosevelt with a caricatured Black man, reflecting a common practice of deriding the supposed Black adoption of white status.
Known for his prominent public position as an accommodationist civil rights leader, Booker T. Washington was criticized for appearing to compromise with agents and advocates of white supremacy. In 1898 he accepted a dinner invitation from Roosevelt, becoming the first Black person to formally dine at the White House. He later advised Roosevelt on race relations and U.S. policies on Black life in the South.