How WWI Changed America: African Americans in WWI

World War I and African Americans

World War I took place during an era of entrenched white supremacy and Jim Crow segregation. Although slavery had ended, many African Americans—especially those living in the rural South—still faced political and economic exclusion through sharecropping and segregation.

Home-front contributions and the Great Migration

The war opened industrial jobs for African Americans in the North, including work in metalworking and shipbuilding. By the end of 1919, nearly one million Black Americans had left the rural South in the Great Migration, reshaping African American life.

African Americans were also asked to support the war effort by conserving food and buying war bonds. They raised about $250 million, a substantial sum given the limited wealth available to many Black families.

Black women contributed through women’s organizations but faced discrimination in war-related service. Many who wanted to become nurses or work with the YMCA overseas were not allowed to go; only two African American women were permitted to work with the YMCA abroad.

Military service and unequal treatment

Many African American men enlisted partly to demonstrate their patriotism and strengthen their claim to equal citizenship. Their military experiences varied:

• Some served as stevedores, pioneers, or laborers, often doing dangerous work under enemy fire without adequate weapons or training.
• The Graves Registration Service required men to recover and rebury the bodies of fallen soldiers.
• The 92nd Infantry Division included Black combat soldiers and earned many Distinguished Service Crosses, yet its white Southern officers disparaged the division and its Black officers.
• About 12,000 Black soldiers in four regiments served with the French Army. The 369th Regiment, known as the Harlem Hellfighters, spent 191 days at the front and was praised for its record.

Henry Johnson became known for fighting off a group of German attackers. France awarded him the Croix de Guerre with palm, but he did not receive an American honor during his lifetime. He was awarded the Medal of Honor in 2015.

Postwar backlash and legacy

Many Black soldiers returned expecting their service to lead to fairer treatment, but instead encountered hostility and resentment from people determined to preserve the racial hierarchy.

The racial violence of 1919, known as the Red Summer, included riots and bloodshed. In contrast to some earlier massacres, Black people resisted rather than accepting violence without fighting back.

After interviewing Black troops in Europe, W.E.B. Du Bois expressed the resolve to “return fighting.” The video presents the war as a major impetus for the later civil rights struggle.

Speakers and sources featured

• Unnamed interviewees or narrators: The subtitles contain commentary from speakers, but do not identify them by name.
• W.E.B. Du Bois: Quoted in the subtitles; the transcript does not establish whether this is archival audio or a quotation read by a narrator.
• Historical figures mentioned: Henry Johnson and General Pershing.