W. E. B. Du Bois | “Returning Soldiers,” 1919
In a controversial 1918 editorial in the Crisis, the journal of the NAACP, W. E. B. Du Bois urged the black community to “close ranks” with the rest of U.S. society to fight Germany. However, as the following excerpt shows, less than a year later Du Bois published a bitter attack against the treatment of African American soldiers and enduring U.S. racism.
We are returning from war! . . .
. . . We return from the slavery of uniform which the world’s madness demanded us to don to the freedom of civil garb. We stand again to look America squarely in the face and call a spade a spade. We sing: This country of ours, despite all its better souls have done and dreamed, is yet a shameful land.
It lynches. . . .
It disfranchises its own citizens. . . .
It encourages ignorance. . . .
It steals from us. . . .
It insults us. . . .
This is the country to which we Soldiers of Democracy return. This is the fatherland for which we fought! But it is our fatherland. It was right for us to fight. The faults of our country are our faults. Under similar circumstances, we would fight again. But by the God of Heaven, we are cowards and jackasses if now that that war is over, we do not marshal every ounce of our brain and brawn to fight a sterner, longer, more unbending battle against the forces of hell in our own land.
We return.
We return from fighting.
We return fighting.
Make way for Democracy! We saved it in France, and by the Great Jehovah, we will save it in the United States of America, or know the reason why.
Source: W. E. B. Du Bois, “Returning Soldiers,” Crisis, May 1919, 13–14.
Interpret the Evidence
What did African Americans expect to gain by fighting in World War I?
Why were African Americans disappointed when they returned home after the war? What did Du Bois expect them to do?
Put It in Context
What does this editorial reveal about the treatment of black Americans during World War I?
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