This year’s Black History Month theme is Black Migrations: highlighting the movement of people of African descent to new destinations and subsequently to new social realities in the twentieth century. This exhibition curated by our African American History Subject Specialist, Jasmine Smith, showcases the impact of World War I and the Great Migration and how it transformed black identity and black entrepreneurship.
Involvement in World War I
African Americans would experience the Great Migration as a result of World War I. On May 18, 1917, Provost Marshal General, Enoch H. Crowder, would administer the Selective Service Law. This law required all men in the United States to register for military services. African American men and women used this opportunity to demonstrate their loyalty and worthiness for equal treatment and would have a significant impact on the war’s outcome. Crowder stated, “I believe that the Negro’s participation in the war, his eagerness to serve, and his great courage and demonstrated valor across the seas, have given him a new idea of Americanism and likewise have given to the white people of our country a new idea of his citizenship, his real character and capabilities, and his 100 per cent Americanism.”
Soldiers like Henry Johnson who single-handedly killed four Germans and wounded more than twenty others in a surprise night attack, Lieutenant James Reese Europe who provided courage in France with his musical jazz talents, and women such as Mrs. Juanita Hawkins and Lieutenant Hattie Oldham who volunteered in organizations like the Y.M.C.A and the Red Cross, demonstrated strong determination among African Americans.
- Jasmine Smith, African American History Subject Specialist and Reference Librarian.
Miller, Kelly. Kelly Miller's History of the World War for Human Rights. Washington, D.C., 1919.
Scott, Emmett J. Scott's Official History of the American Negro in the World War. Washington, D.C., 1919.
