Lynching of African-American veterans after World War I
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African Americans who were lynched in the U.S.
Soldiers of the 369th (15th N.Y.) who won the Croix de guerre for gallantry in action, 1919Colonel Hayward's "Hell Fighters" in paradeBlack veteran L. B. Reed was suspected of having a relationship with a white woman and hanged over the Sunflower River Bridge, Clarksdale, Mississippi
After young African-American men volunteered to fight against the Central Powers, during World War I, many of them returned home but instead of being rewarded for their military service, they were subjected to discrimination, racism and lynchings by the citizens and the government.[1] Labor shortages in essential industries caused a massive migration of southern African-Americans to northern cities leading to a wide-spread emergency of segregation in the north and the regeneration of the Ku Klux Klan.[2] For many African-American veterans, as well as the majority of the African-Americans in the United States, the times which followed the war were fraught with challenges similar to those they faced overseas.[3] Discrimination and segregation were at the forefront of everyday life, but most prevalent in schools, public revenues, and housing. Although members of different races who had fought in World War I believed that military service was a price which was worth paying in exchange for equal citizenship, this was not the case for African-Americans.[2] The decades which followed World War I included blatant acts of racism and nationally recognized events which conveyed American society's portrayal of African-Americans as 2nd class citizens. Although the United States had just won The Great War in 1918, the national fight for equal rights was just beginning.
World War I began with the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand on June 28, 1914 and it ended with the signing of the Armistice of November 11, 1918.[1] Though the fighting stopped, the war's potential to resume still existed and peace was only reached when representatives of Germany signed the Treaty of Versailles on June 28, 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.[1] On April 2, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson declared war on Germany after Germany resumed its submarine attacks on merchant and passenger ships.[1] When the United States sent men to the fronts of Europe, the United States Armed Forces remained segregated, with all-black and all-white units. Despite the segregation and the mistreatment which they were constantly being subjected to by everyday society, many African Americans volunteered to join the Allied war effort. By the time of the signing of the armistice with Germany, more than 350,000 African Americans had joined the military and served with the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) on the Western Front.[1] Around 50,000 of those 350,000 experienced combat and a total of 770 African-Americans who fought for their country paid with their lives.[3] On top of that, during the course of World War 1, over 400,000 black citizens who were searching for defense jobs migrated from the rural south to the urban north in order to fill the need for laborers which existed in essential industries.[3] Although this provided new opportunities for many African American, it would go on to encourage widespread segregation and discrimination in the north after the war was over.[3]
Reaction to returning veterans
Historically, when a war is over, those who served are lauded for their heroism and patriotism.[4] However, that has not always been the case for American soldiers of African descent. African American soldiers who served in World War 1 were treated worse before, during, and after the war than any other group of American soldiers.[4]
During a homecoming celebration for African-American veterans of World War I in Norfolk, Virginia a race riot broke out on July 21, 1919. At least two people were killed and three others were injured. City officials had to call in the Marines and Navy personnel to restore order.[5]
On August 16, 1917, Senator James K. Vardaman of Mississippi spoke of his fear of black veterans returning to the South, as he viewed that it would "inevitably lead to disaster."[6] To the American South, the use of black soldiers in the military was a threat, not a virtue. "Impress the negro with the fact that he is defending the flag, inflate his untutored soul with military airs, teach him that it is his duty to keep the emblem of the Nation flying triumphantly in the air," and, the senator cautioned, "it is but a short step to the conclusion that his political rights must be respected."[6]
Often violence broke out between serving members of the military. In both the Bisbee Riot (July 3, 1919) and the New London riots of 1919 active African-American service members were attacked by white mobs or white military units.
Many black soldiers in the years after the war were threatened with violence if they were caught wearing their uniform.[6] Many others were even physically attacked, sometimes barely escaping with their lives. During an April 5, 1919, market day in Sylvester, Georgia, black veteran Daniel Mack was walking through a busy street and brushed against a white man. The white man was offended that Mack did not show the proper amount of respect and the two got in a scuffle; police came on the scene and promptly arrested Mack for assault. He was sentenced to 30 days in prison. A few days into his sentence, on April 14, a white mob broke into the prison, took him out into the wilderness and lynched Mack; he survived by playing dead.[7] No arrests were ever made.[8]Elisha Harper, 25 years old, was the son of the Rev. T. F. Harper, a respectable and "well-behaved preacher" living in Helena.[9] He fought in the army during World War I and just returned from Europe. On July 24, 1919, while walking the streets of Newberry, South Carolina, he allegedly insulted a 14-year-old girl, who promptly reported him to the authorities. Harper was arrested and thrown in jail. Soon a white mob had gathered and would have lynched Harper if it was not for the local Sheriff who hid him away.[10]
Military service provided by African-Americans overseas and at home made little difference in citizenship for African-Americans. American society still perceived African Americans the same after the war as they did before the war.[3]
Lynched African-American veterans
The following is an incomplete list of African Americans who had served in the military during WWI and were killed by white mobs with no trials for alleged crimes. Lynching is embedded deep in America's racial psyche.[2] By 1919, lynching had developed into a programmatic ritual of torture and empowerment to the white race.[2] The accurate number of African American veterans lynched in military uniform is unknown, but there were several cases of beatings and lynchings for the refusal to remove a military uniform, most notably the lynching of Wilbur Little in the spring of 1919.[2] Apparent from the table, the vast majority of lynchings took place in the southeast region of the United States. The three states with the largest number of African American lynchings from 1850 - 1929 were Georgia, Mississippi and Texas.[11]
Was killed by a mob during the Elaine massacre, after the mob claimed they fired first.
He, along with his three brothers, were pulled off a train by a group of white men. All were shot several times and killed during a scuffle. Leroy was a bugler in the Harlem Hellfighters.
The return home was not perfect for any one group of people leading to the development of the Bonus Army and many other displays of displeasement. A majority of World War I veterans believed that they had not been compensated enough for their service and they should have been taken better care of, especially in hospitals.[27] However, there was still a major contrast in the treatment received from white and black veterans after World War 1, leading to public unrest and loss of life.
White veterans received far more recognition from a national level for their bravery and sacrifice in the war. This included radio appearances, national headlines, and statues honoring their sacrifice.[4] The population of the United states in 1919 was over 85% white and almost all major media organizations were run by white males leading to a disparity in the media attention for the entire African-American population. A monopolized media industry and racial prejudice from white Americans led to the unwillingness to consistently recognize the efforts and sacrifices of African-American veterans. In fact, out of the nearly 400,000 African Americans who served in World War I not one was rewarded with the Congressional Medal of Honor until 1991.[4]
When veterans came back home, there were various victory parades thrown in their honor in major cities. However, because segregation was still in place there were separate parades thrown for African-American soldiers at a smaller scale.[28] During these parades there would be several examples of civil unrest, most notable during a victory parade in Norfolk, Virginia a race riot broke out on July 21, 1919. It was not just notoriety and praise that African-American veterans were lacking. The greatest gap between white and black veterans could be seen when examining financial stability and socioeconomic status.[2] On average, white Americans had far more resources and privileges to live at a higher quality of life.[29]
These lynchings were among several incidents of civil unrest that are now known as the American Red Summer of 1919. Attacks on black communities and white oppression spread to more than three dozen cities and counties. In most cases, white mobs attacked African American neighborhoods. In some cases, black community groups resisted the attacks, especially in Chicago and Washington, D.C. Most deaths occurred in rural areas during events like the Elaine massacre in Arkansas, where an estimated 100 to 240 blacks and 5 whites were killed. Other major events of Red Summer were the Chicago race riot and Washington D.C. race riot, which caused 38 and 39 deaths, respectively. Both riots had many more non-fatal injuries and extensive property damage reaching up into the millions of dollars.[30]
African-Americans were not only plagued with racism upon return but the rising flu pandemic of 1918 as well.[31] Due to the statically lower socioeconomic status held by many African-Americans they were more likely to contract the flu and once contracted they were worse off fighting it. Therefore, the flu pandemic devastated the African- American community and left their overall health and financial well being in shambles.[31] This would then cause African American World War 1 veterans to communicate directly with policymakers and bureaucrats to push professional and public health advancement in the 1920s and 1930s for all black Americans.[27]
Prior to World War I, most African Americans did not challenge the racial status quo.[3] However, these events and unequal treatment following World War I did lead to a spark in the African American community. Following the war, emboldened by their military service and their support of the war at home through defense jobs, African Americans were determined to fight for equality.[3] Racism and segregation are issues which plagued the African-American community for too long and they were now willing to fight against it.[2] In fact, during the war the African American community hosted protests against segregation and discrimination, but lacked the ignition to cause real change.[32] This change would be called the "New Negro Movement" and could be described as the radical political movement toward civil rights following World War I.[2] Emphasized in W. E. B. Du Bois's May 1919 Crisis editorial, "Returning Soldiers," in which he famously proclaimed, "We return. We return from fighting. We return fighting." .[33] The combination of the New Negro Movement and the Harlem Renaissance allowed African American intellectuals to secure social equality through literature.[34] This allowed major groups, such as the NAACP, to lobby for bills which pursued equality for African Americans.[35] Most notable was the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill, intended to prevent lynchings in the United States, but did not pass.[2]
Although, post World War 1 could be defined as the spark that initiated the fight against the status quo and the emergence of the New Negro Movement.[2] The fight for equality and civil rights in the United States would become a centuries-long battle which is still taking place today.[3] Due to this reason, similar racial violence and lynchings occurred again after African-American troops returned from service in World War 2[28] and African American veterans of the Cold War[36]
1 2 3 4 5 Dell, Pamela (2014). A World War I Timeline.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Davis, David (2008). "Not Only War Is Hell: World War I and African American Lynching Narratives". African American Review. 42: 477–491 – via JSTOR.
1 2 Alder, Jessica (2017). "The Service I Rendered Was Just as True': African American Soldiers and Veterans as Activist Patients". American Journal of Public Health. 105: 675–683.
1 2 "Fighting together in Korea". BBC World Service. 25 October 2020. Retrieved 29 October 2020. The Documentary Podcast How the Korean War forced the US military to desegregate.
↑ Papadogiannis, Nikolaos. (2013). "A Breath of Freedom: The Civil Rights Struggle and African American GIs". European Review.
1 2 Helene, Okland. "Race and 1918 Influenza Pandemic in the United States: A Review of the Literature". Environmental Research and Public Health.
↑ Jordan, William (1995). ""The Damnable Dilemma": African-American Accommodation and Protest during World War I". Journal of American History. 81 (4): 1562–1583. doi:10.2307/2081649. JSTOR2081649. S2CID159842561.
↑ Williams, Chad (2007). "Vanguards of the New Negro: African American Veterans and Post-World War I Racial Militancy". The Journal of African American History. 92 (3): 347–370. doi:10.1086/JAAHv92n3p347. S2CID141434030.
↑ Fisher, Jane (2020). "African American World War I Soldiers, Claude McKay, and the Harlem Renaissance". Afro-Americans in New York Life and History.
↑ Mikkelsen, Vincent (2009). "Fighting for Sergeant Caldwell: The Naacp Campaign Against "Legal" Lynching After World War I". The Journal of African American History. 94 (4): 464–486. doi:10.1086/JAAHv94n4p464. S2CID141481751.
↑ Dudziak, Mary (2011). Cold War Civil Rights: Race and the Image of American Democracy.
James, Rawn Jr. (2013). The Double V: How Wars, Protest, and Harry Truman Desegregated America's Military. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. ISBN978-1-60819-617-3.– Total pages: 336
Williams, Chad L. (2010). Torchbearers of Democracy: African American Soldiers in the World War I Era. University of North Carolina Press. ISBN978-0-8078-9935-9.– Total pages: 472
"Veterans Administration Master Index, 1917–1940". FamilySearch (free database with images). Searching: "Ernest Lee Coggins," August 24, 1918; citing Military Service, NARA microfilm publication 761939 (St. Louis: National Archives and Records Administration, 1985); Affiliate Film No. 41A; Digital Folder No. 105157995; Image No. 06489.
In the broader context of racism in the United States, mass racial violence in the United States consists of ethnic conflicts and race riots, along with such events as:
The Elaine massacre occurred on September 30 – October 2, 1919, at Hoop Spur in the vicinity of Elaine in rural Phillips County, Arkansas where African Americans were organizing against peonage and abuses in tenant farming. As many as several hundred African Americans and five white men were killed. Estimates of deaths made in the immediate aftermath of the Elaine Massacre by eyewitnesses range from 50 to "more than a hundred". Walter Francis White, an NAACP attorney who visited Elaine shortly after the incident, stated "... twenty-five Negroes killed, although some place the Negro fatalities as high as one hundred". More recent estimates in the 21st century of the number of black people killed during this violence are higher than estimates provided by the eyewitnesses, and have ranged into the hundreds. The white mobs were aided by federal troops and local terrorist organizations. Gov. Brough led a contingent of 583 US soldiers from Camp Pike, with a 12-gun machine gun battalion.
The Omaha Race Riot occurred in Omaha, Nebraska, September 28–29, 1919. The race riot resulted in the lynching of Will Brown, a black civilian; the death of two white rioters; the injuries of many Omaha Police Department officers and civilians, including the attempted hanging of Mayor Edward Parsons Smith; and a public rampage by thousands of white rioters who set fire to the Douglas County Courthouse in downtown Omaha. It followed more than 20 race riots that occurred in major industrial cities and certain rural areas of the United States during the Red Summer of 1919.
Red Summer was a period in mid-1919 during which white supremacist terrorism and racial riots occurred in more than three dozen cities across the United States, and in one rural county in Arkansas. The term "Red Summer" was coined by civil rights activist and author James Weldon Johnson, who had been employed as a field secretary by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) since 1916. In 1919, he organized peaceful protests against the racial violence.
John Elliott Rankin was a Democratic politician from Mississippi who served sixteen terms in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1921 to 1953. He was co-author of the bill for the Tennessee Valley Authority and from 1933 to 1936 he supported the New Deal programs of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, which brought investment and jobs to the South.
The military history of African Americans spans African-American history, the history of the United States and the military history of the United States from the arrival of the first enslaved Africans during the colonial history of the United States to the present day. African Americans have participated in every war which has been fought either by or within the United States, including the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Mexican–American War, the Civil War, the Spanish–American War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, the War in Afghanistan, and the Iraq War.
"New Negro" is a term popularized during the Harlem Renaissance implying a more outspoken advocacy of dignity and a refusal to submit quietly to the practices and laws of Jim Crow racial segregation. The term "New Negro" was made popular by Alain LeRoy Locke in his anthology The New Negro.
The Chicago race riot of 1919 was a violent racial conflict between white Americans and black Americans that began on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois, on July 27 and ended on August 3, 1919. During the riot, 38 people died. Over the week, injuries attributed to the episodic confrontations stood at 537, two-thirds black and one-third white; and between 1,000 and 2,000 residents, most of them black, lost their homes. Due to its sustained violence and widespread economic impact, it is considered the worst of the scores of riots and civil disturbances across the United States during the "Red Summer" of 1919, so named because of its racial and labor violence. It was also one of the worst riots in the history of Illinois.
The Southern Regional Council (SRC) is a reform-oriented organization created in 1944 to avoid racial violence and promote racial equality in the Southern United States. Voter registration and political-awareness campaigns are used toward this end. The SRC evolved in 1944 from the Commission on Interracial Cooperation. It is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.
The Knoxville riot of 1919 was a race riot that took place in the American city of Knoxville, Tennessee, on August 30–31, 1919. The riot began when a lynch mob stormed the county jail in search of Maurice Mays, a biracial man who had been accused of murdering a white woman. Unable to find Mays, the rioters looted the jail and fought a pitched gun battle with the residents of a predominantly black neighborhood. The Tennessee National Guard, which at one point fired two machine guns indiscriminately into this neighborhood, eventually dispersed the rioters. Headlines in the immediate aftermath stated five people were killed, while the Washington Times reported "Scores dead." Other newspapers placed the death toll at just two, though eyewitness accounts suggest it was much higher.
Jim McMillan was lynched in Bibb County, Alabama on June 18, 1919.
The Washington race riot of 1919 was civil unrest in Washington, D.C. from July 19, 1919, to July 24, 1919. Starting July 19, white men, many in the armed forces, responded to the rumored arrest of a black man for the rape of a white woman with four days of mob violence against black individuals and businesses. They rioted, randomly beat black people on the street, and pulled others off streetcars for attacks. When police refused to intervene, the black population fought back. The city closed saloons and theaters to discourage assemblies. Meanwhile, the four white-owned local papers, including the Washington Post, fanned the violence with incendiary headlines and calling in at least one instance for mobilization of a "clean-up" operation.
The National Conference on Lynching took place in Carnegie Hall, New York City, May 5–6, 1919. The goal of the conference was to pressure Congress to pass the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill, sponsored by Leonidas Dyer (R-MO). It was a project of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), founded in 1909. Recently the group had been working to publicize and try to end the continued lynchings, mostly of black men. In April they released a report, Thirty Years of Lynching in the United States, 1889-1918. The late 19th and early 20th century years were the nadir of race relations, with high rates of violence against blacks, especially in the South, where white Democrat-dominated legislatures had also disenfranchised African Americans during this period, excluding them from the political system.
The 1919 Norfolk race riot occurred on July 21, 1919, when a homecoming celebration for African American veterans of World War I was attacked in Norfolk, Virginia. At least two people were killed and six people were shot. City officials called in Marines and Navy personnel to restore order.
The Morgan County, West Virginia race riot of 1919 was caused by big business using African-American strikebreakers against striking white workers in Morgan County, West Virginia.
The Newberry 1919 lynching attempt was the attempted lynching of Elisha Harper, Newberry, South Carolina on July 24, 1919. Harper was sent to jail for insulting a 14-year-old girl.
Miles Phifer and Robert Crosky were lynched in Montgomery, Alabama, for allegedly assaulting a white woman.
African-American man, Jordan Jameson was lynched on November 11, 1919, in the town square of Magnolia, Columbia County, Arkansas. A large white mob seized Jameson after he allegedly shot the local sheriff. They tied him to a stake and burned him alive.
Wilbur Little was a black American veteran of World War I, lynched in April 1919 in his hometown of Blakely, Georgia, for refusing to remove his military uniform. Servicemen who had been discharged from the army were permitted under War Department regulations to wear their service uniforms for three months after their demobilization date. Reportedly, Little was still in uniform beyond that date. He was one of many African-American servicemen of the time who were subjected to violence for continuing to wear their uniforms after being discharged from the military.
Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924) was the prominent American scholar who served as president of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, as governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913, and as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. He was a Democrat. While Wilson's tenure is often noted for progressive achievement, his time in office was one of unprecedented regression in racial equality, with his presidency serving as the lowest point of the nadir of American race relations.
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