Soldiers from the 369th Infantry Regiment (15th N.Y.), also known as the "Harlem Hellfighters," who earned the Croix de Guerre for gallantry in action. (Credit: Wikimedia Commons )
How black World War I vets shaped the civil rights movement
"World War I was in many ways the beginning of the 20th-century civil rights movement."
The hundreds of thousands of African Americans who served in the US Army during World War I and returned home as heroes soon faced many more battles over their equality in American society, according to historian Chad Williams.
While many celebrated black soldiers in the streets of New York at the end of the war, they also soon encountered a wave of hatred and violence. Williams, a chair in history at Brandeis University and the author of Torchbearers of Democracy: African American Soldiers in the World War I Era (University of North Carolina Press, 2013), sat down with BrandeisNow to discuss the aftermath of World War I for black people in America.
The post How black World War I vets shaped the civil rights movement appeared first on Futurity.
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