An American and Nothing Else: The Great War and the Battle for National Belonging
If It Is Worth Living Under, It Is Worth Fighting For
As U.S. involvement in the war grew imminent, lawmakers realized that mobilization would require far more than just financial contributions and loyalty oaths from immigrants and racial minorities. Stipulations of the Selective Service Act were such that compulsory enlistment disproportionately fell on the dispossessed and working poor. Black registrants were more likely to be eligible for service than their white counterparts, while upwards of 20 percent of drafted men were foreign-born. Some military officials expressed doubts and harbored hatsh negative stereotypes about the competence and loyalty of these men. Others celebrated universal military training as a potent Americanizing and homogenizing agent—an efficient means of “yanking the hyphen” out from young soldiers.
Recorded sound, sheet music, and motion pictures all became vital platforms for propagandists to reach broad and diverse audiences. Many of these songs came from celebrity Tin Pan Alley composers and sold in the hundreds of thousands. Written at the peak of the Preparedness Campaign in February 1917, “America, Here’s My Boy” was widely believed to be a reply to “I Didn’t Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier,” the pro-neutrality hit from two years prior.
Immigrants joined “development battalions,” where they received instruction in English and U.S. history and, in turn, were expedited in the naturalization process. In response to demands from civil rights leaders, military officials established a segregated all-Black officers training camp and tentatively devised two all-Black combat units to supplement existing Black cavalry and infantry regiments and the standing Black units of the National Guard. Black American soldiers ultimately numbered 400,000 in an army of 3.7 million men. While many of these soldiers dreamed of glory and equality, others questioned the cause of the “white man’s war.” As one man from Harlem reasoned: “The Germans ain’t done nothin’ to me, and if they have, I forgive ‘em.”
Poster. “Eighth Illinois Regiment, now in France.” [1918]. E.G. Renesch, Chicago, Ill.
Located in the Bronzeville district of Chicago, the 8th Illinois Regiment was one of eight Black militias of the National Guard to serve in the Spanish-Cuban-American and Philippine Wars. Illinois was one of three states—alongside Kansas and North Carolina—to send all-black units into combat with African American officers. Other states outlawed the organization of black militias, save for the later formation of the 15th New York. When the 8th Illinois was called to fight in France, it took pride in being the only all-black militia that had fought so extensively under black leadership.
By 1917, the NAACP boasted 39,000 dues-paying members and 79,000 subscribers to its official organ, The Crisis. By the end of the war, the organization had 310 branches—31 located in the South. The organization supported the war effort under careful terms of one of its leaders, W.E.B. Du Bois, who editorialized: “If this is our country, this is our war.”
But the NAACP linked support for the war abroad to a struggle unfolding on the home front. Wartime editions of The Crisis ran with the following banner at the opening of each issue:
ENLIST: With Memphis and East St. Louis fresh in our memories, we know that the fight for humanity and democracy abroad is not more important than the fight for humanities and democracy at home. Enlist now in the N.A.A.C.P. Your support was never needed more than now.
The 15th New York was an all-Black regiment of the National Guard formed long after most states had enacted policies against black guardsmen. It was appointed into federal service as the 369th U.S. Infantry Regiment, later gaining fame in France as the “Harlem Hellfighters” and “Men of Bronze.” In France, the regiment fought under the command of the French Fourth Army.
Unknown photographer. “15th Regt. Colored Troops at Camp Upton, N.Y.” [ca. 1918]. Underwood & Underwood, NY.
“We’re Going Over.” Andrew B. Sterling, Bernie Grossman, and Arthur Lange. New York: Joe Morris Music Company, 1917. World War I Collection, Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library.