B. Dubois 's Returning Soldiers

This book illustrates how demeaning it is for blacks to beg for basic rights that inherently belong to them. This book encouraged him to meet with black scholars whom he named the "talented tenth." In 1905, he began to meet with these scholars to discuss civil rights issues (Lewis, 1). These meeting were known as the Niagara Movement (Lewis, 1). After five years of meeting the NAACP was formed and Dubois was Director of Publicity and Research (Lewis, 1).

This higher power represented by Dubois was the white population. Even after emancipation, the slaves were still captive. They worked only for a place to live and food to eat because they had no money to enter the world as working men in business or in anything other than their learned skill of farming and raising the household. Similarly, Dubois lives in a generation where the black man is free, yet he is still segregated in nearly everything he does. He claims how “The Nation has not yet found peace from its sins; the freedman has not yet found in freedom his promised land”(8). By writing this, he claims how America is still not perfect, yet no matter how far they have come, “the shadow of a deep disappointment rests upon the Negro people”(8). His

Slavery established the black body at the bottom of the American social order, and DuBois’ mission was to humanize black people in the eyes of white people – to clarify that these are people, these are human beings, and these are families. In his first essay, he mentions a singular question that most white people want to ask black men. This question is always: "how does it

The Returning Soldiers by W.E.B Du Bois, is about the thousands of African American soldiers that helped France against Germany. They then returned home.The main idea that Du Bois wanted to express was that the soldiers returned home only to a country that does not treat them equally. Du Bois says “We return. We return from fighting. We return fighting. Make way for Democracy!”. He wanted the soldiers to continue to fight, not for France but for themselves. He wanted to show the returning African Americans how America as a shameful place full of discrimination. Du Bois states, “it steals from us”. He wanted to reveal how America robbed them out of their land, labor, savings and wages. He’s explains that the government keeps them universally

The Civil War has been one of the most pivotal moments in American history. The was would change the way American functioned, as its main goal was to abolish slavery and promote equality. Yet, although the Civil War’s main goal was to gain rights for African Americans, they were still not allowed to fight for the Union army in 1861. As a response to this, Alfred M. Green (an African American himself) expresses his frustration with this situation by giving a speech to his fellow African Americans. He reveals that he believes that they should work harder to join the Union Army and he does so fervently. By employing the strategies of ethos as well as comparison, Green urges the African American community to join the Union army and fight for their

“. . . In the face of heavy odds, black troops had proved once again their courage, determination, and willingness to die for the freedom of their race”

Before WORLD WAR I, military service represented a source of black pride. Black educators, clergymen, and the press frequently referred to Negro heroes of America’s past wars. After the Civil War, the U.S, Army maintained four regular Negro regiments –the 9th and 10th Calvary and the 24th and 25th Infantry. These units included veterans of the civil war and the frontier Indian fighting regiments. Retired sergeants often became respected, conservative leaders in their communities. This history set a foundation for black support and involvement in America’s future wars.

Since the start of the Civil War at 1816, almost 180 thousands African Americans joined the Union Army to fight for their freedom over a four year period. Especially, the runaway slaves, also known as contrabands, are said to dutifully fight with the Union army for the unity of the nation and racial equality. The general historical facts may erroneously portray the Northerners as enlightened people who are aware of human rights. Nevertheless, the picture called “How to Make the Contrabands Useful,” drawn during the war, clearly illustrates the desperate situation that contrabands had to go through in the unwelcomed Union army. Despite the common belief of the Union soldiers as heroes, the illustration reveals the racial discrimination in the

The life of Robert Williams underlines many aspects of the ongoing black freedom struggle: The decisive racial significance of World War II and the impact of the Cold war on the Freedom Struggle and equally important the centrality of questions of sexuality and gender in racial politics.

DuBois was writing around sixty years after the Reconstruction period ended and much of this document describes how much the nation despised Reconstruction. In general, most people considered Reconstruction to be a failure for one reason or another. The white southerners felt that it placed too much blame on them, while the white northerners felt sorry for what it seemed to do to the south, and black southerners felt that it didn’t lead to enough positive change for them leading them into the conditions they were in then. During this time there was quite a bit wrong with what was going on in the classroom, there were various things that were blatant lies being taught as facts, such as colored people were lazy and stupid. The fact that these lies and misconceptions continued all the way through college and into numerous books of the time, in DuBois’s opinion, guaranteed that there was no way for anyone to learn anything different (DuBois,

The story of African American soldiers in the American Civil War is often a forgotten one. The history of the war is usually presented as white Northerners versus white Southerners as blacks waited on the sidelines as their fate was determined. This portrayal is highly inaccurate considering over 180,000 African American troops fought in the war and eventually obtained their own regiments under the United States Colored Troops as a part of the Union Army. Composed on May, 22, 1863, the USCT strengthened the Union Army’s numbers and contributed significantly to battles such as the Skirmish at Island Mound and Fort Wagner. Even with their contributions, African American soldiers are often overlooked in favor of other narratives. However, black historian George Washington Williams was one of the first to write the history of black troops today. His belief was that the history of black troops and their valor were a major contribution to American Civil War history. While controversial at the time, this view is not uncommon today and historians have continued to study the significance of black troops. Gregory J. W. Urwin and other historians recently wrote a critique on the treatment of black soldiers, acknowledging atrocities against them were committed often. Urwin tries to provide a honest history to the brutality of the black solider.

The book is written by, Slotkin, Richard. Lost Battalions: The Great War and the Crisis of American Nationality. New York, N.Y: Henry Holt and Company, 2005. Print. During the Great War, American Nationality and a nation struggling with inequalities came to the forefront. Slotkin concentrates his writings on the heroic African American troops of the 369th Infantry and the legendary 77th “lost battalion” composed of New York City immigrants. These brave men fought in a foreign war they didn’t even believe in; what they were really fighting for was the right to be treated equal

In Chapter 4 of his book, which is aptly titled “Postwar Passions”, Daniels chooses to focus on the experiences of African-Americans in the post-WWI era, specifically focusing on race riots that occurred during the “Red Summer” of 1919. (104) There is a long-standing history of racial discord between whites and African-Americans, but the post-WWI years are a unique time. It has been more than fifty years since slavery has been abolished, but it will still take another forty plus years before discrimination on the basis of race is made illegal in America. Industrialization after the turn of the century and blatant racism in the South led to the migration of millions of African-Americans to northern

Slavery was abolished after the Civil War, but the Negro race still was not accepted as equals into American society. To attain a better understanding of the events and struggles faced during this period, one must take a look at its' literature. James Weldon Johnson does an excellent job of vividly depicting an accurate portrait of the adversities faced before the Civil Rights Movement by the black community in his novel “The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man.” One does not only read this book, but instead one takes a journey alongside a burdened mulatto man as he struggles to claim one race as his own.

During American involvement in the war, African Americans were listed and reenlisted on the military draft at higher rates than any other nationalities including whites and Latin-Americans (Westheider 9). As a result, more African Americans than any othe r minority fought and died in combat. In addition, they constantly faced racism. One militant protested forcefully against the unfair conditions: “You should see for yourself how the black man is being treated over here and the ay we are dying. When it comes to rank, we are left out. When it comes to special privileges, we are left out. When it comes to patrols, perataions and so forth, we are first” (Gallagher). According to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., black youths represented an unequal share of early draftees and faced a significantly higher chance of seeing combat. “Rumors abounded that the U.S. government were using the Vietnam War as a form of genocide. Money was being pumped into Vietnam instead of poor black communities in America” (Gallegher).