On Her Own Ground by A'Lelia Bundles

Author:A'Lelia Bundles [Bundles, A'Lelia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: African-American History
Publisher: Scribner
Published: 2001-02-15T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 18

War Abroad, War at Home

Protest and patriotism vied for headlines in the New York Age during the summer of 1917 as African American troops trained for the war abroad and Harlem leaders challenged mob violence at home. Even as black New Yorkers cautiously monitored congressional response to the East St. Louis riots, they were captivated by the military drills their khaki-clad sons, husbands and friends practiced outside the 132nd Street armory. That James Reese Europe—now a sergeant in the Harlem-based 15th Infantry Regiment of the New York Guard—had signed on to lead the regimental band only boosted their pride. With Noble Sissle strutting as his drum major, and a dozen handpicked Puerto Rican enlistees filling his reed section, Jim Europe’s impromptu street parades did more for recruitment than any ten Selective Service offices.

On April 6, 1917, as President Woodrow Wilson placed his signature on the resolution declaring war on Germany, Madam Walker was in Louisiana busy with her own recruitment efforts to enlist more women into her growing army of Walker agents. But she was hardly oblivious to the conflict in Europe. Away from Harlem during most of the year, she stayed well informed through letters, telegrams and newspaper articles as her fellow African American leaders examined and debated their positions on black military involvement. Within weeks of America’s entry into the war, Tin Pan Alley’s biggest hit of 1916—“I Didn’t Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier”—was quickly replaced by “Over There,” an upbeat tune that assured the European Allies that “the Yanks are coming . . . And we won’t be back till it’s over over there.”

Many African Americans caught the contagious flag-waving spirit, readying themselves to help “save the world for democracy.” But in the months preceding America’s intervention, a few Negro weeklies—incensed at proposed congressional legislation barring blacks from military service—had editorialized against black participation. “If war comes, the colored man is not wanted and it would be a white man’s war between Germany and the U.S.,” asserted the Washington Bee that March. Particularly indignant that President Wilson was “doing or saying nothing to stop lynching at home,” the Iowa Bystander was even more direct: “Why need we go 3,000 miles to uphold the dignity and honor of our country and protect her citizens over in England and fail to uphold dignity at home?” In barbershops and on street corners, plainspoken sentiments conveyed similar meaning: “The Germans ain’t done nothing to me, and if they have, I forgive ’em.” Ultimately, however, the community’s more patriotic voices prevailed. James Weldon Johnson—a former U.S. diplomat and now NAACP field secretary—had long advocated African American support of the war. As America mobilized, he proclaimed the black soldier willing to “take up the duty that comes to him and, as always, do his part.” In turn, Johnson expected the nation to “do its duty to him.” Later that summer W.E.B. Du Bois—the staunch antilynching crusader—set aside some of his own misgivings in what appeared to some to be an

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