AFRICAN AMERICANS AND WORLD WAR I

African Americans and WWI

BACKGROUND

By 1914, 90% of African Americans lived in the southern states of the former Confederacy, where Jim Crow laws existed. These laws legalized the segregation of African Americans because of their race. President Woodrow Wilson, appointed openly prejudice men who favored extended segregation. Social disorder led to reshaped relations in the United States. The war effort helped African Americans, who lived in the South, migrate North for higher wages and better living conditions. Some of the African Americans migrated north because the agriculture in the South had been devastated by floods and crop failures. They were drawn north because of the attractive prospects of money and the good living conditions. In the 1910’s, the African American population in the North and West boomed to 333,000. However, they still faced the problems of lynching and racial clashes in the North after the problems spread in the Southern cities. African Americans were torn between what to do about the upcoming war. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) had hopes that the war would change race relations and could possibly outlaw lynching. Their effort later failed.

PATRIOTIC SERVICE

The majority of the African American population contributed greatly to the war effort by purchasing millions of dollars worth of war bonds, working with draft boards, and organizing food conservation programs. A great number of African American men joined the armed forces, to achieve racial justice and rewards for their service to their country. However, there were many groups that rejected the African American servicemen. The Marine Corps did not accept any African males in its ranks and the army also denied African American volunteers. African American dentists and doctors were allowed to practice, but had to do so in private, while black soldiers were not even allowed to train as pilots. Almost 90% of African American troops worked as laborers, even if they were skilled or educated. If any black soldier was complaining or protesting to any of the few white officers, they were told that they should be glad to even be participating in the war effort because their job is less hazardous and dangerous. Although it consisted of white officers, the 92nd Division of the U.S. armed forces was composed of only African Americans. African Americans were treated terribly during the war; white officers would not share privileges with them, and the white soldiers would not solute or follow orders of the few black officers. The War Department created a special training facility for African American officers, after the NAACP was pressing for it. However, these officers were treated with little respect, especially in the South. The only nation that openly welcomed African American soldiers was France, until the American troops stepped in to have France stop treating them as equals. Even black officers were not considered first class or even of any importance. They received second-class accommodations on troopships and did not receive the best equipment or training, which lowered their morale substantially. The end did not look too bright for the African Americans; they had to return home to a land divided by race and they lacked the respect that they hoped to earn from the majority of the white population.

AFRICAN AMERICAN POPULATION BY STATE

ISOLATIONISM AND THE TREATY OF VERSAILLES

WILSON’S PLAN

In the beginning of the 1920’s, the United States had a difficult time bringing World War I to an official end. Even when the physical fighting was over in November 1918, the U.S. Senate had not ratified the Treaty of Versailles, which was a peace agreement the Allies forced upon Germany. The U.S.’s decision not to ratify the treaty caused controversy over the peace agreement. President Woodrow Wilson, who was paralyzed at the time, negotiated the treaty but was unable to sponsor a campaign for the treaty’s passage. The decisions of the treaty were decided upon the divided Senate, who could not reach a two-thirds majority needed for ratification. Wilson approved of the entry of U.S. into the European war in hopes of creating long lasting peace. In January 1919, Wilson met up with his allies – the Prime Ministers of Italy, Great Britain, and France – he realized that they all had conflicting ideas about peace. The European leaders wanted to punish Germany. Wilson wanted to “implement national self-determination, a principle asserted in the president’s well-known Fourteen Points, his list of postwar goals.” The treaty punished Germany as the “villain” of the war and made them pay an indemnity for all the money they lost in the war. Wilson agreed because he did not want to lose his most prized goal, the League of Nations. He accepted a “less-than-perfect peace,” thinking that the League of Nations would counteract the problems of the treaty. In 1918, President Wilson was given two Republican-controlled houses of Congress. The power of Republican house created serious trouble for Wilson and his beloved League of Nations, because the Republican Party wanted to counteract American’s participation in the League of Nations, which Wilson worked so hard to create. However, Republicans were not united it their decision to destroy the League of Nations. They were divided into 3 separate groups: “irreconcilables,” “mild reservationists,” or “strong reservationists.” Irreconcilables were completely opposed to any international involvement, while mild reservationists stood close to Wilson’s position. The strong reservationists mediated the other two groups; they were either determined to have the League of Nations on their terms or completely demolish it. Supporters of the treaty looked for ways to have one agreeable treaty. The final vote on the treaty included Lodge’s amendments. Lodge was Wilson’s biggest critic who was strongly opposed to him, but had a great passion for defending American freedom in foreign affairs. After the final vote on March 19, 1920, Wilson lost the support of twenty-one Democrats, when they voted in favor of the new version of the treaty. Forty-nine senators voted for the treaty, which would have declared a majority, but they were seven votes short. Wilson’s perfect dream of postwar peace never came true when the United States never signed the Treaty of Versailles, while also not joining the League of Nations.

DAWES PLAN

For the postwar economic recovery, Germany was dubbed the “villain” of the war and was forced to repay heavy reparations. However, Germany decided to stop paying reparation in 1923 due to inflation and the high debt burden. Without Germany repaying France, Great Britain, or Italy, those nations were not able to repay the United States for their own debts. The economic crisis led to the highest protective tariff in history, the Fordney-McCumber Tariff of 1922. This tax made it very difficult for European nations to build up enough capital to payoff their wartime loans. Charles G. Dawes was a Chicago banker, who was the head of the international “Committee of Experts.” This committee was created to scrutinize Europe’s economic instability and generate a solution to the international economic crisis. It reduced German reparation payments and made American bankers make loans to Germany in order to even out its currency and meet its obligations to the Allied nations. The plan worked for five years and Dawes won the Nobel Peace Prize for his contribution to the plan and being the “savior of civilization.”

Medicine in WWI

MEDICINE IN WWI

POOR HEALTH & DEATH FROM DISEASE

The United States entered World War I in April of 1917. The President of the United States, Woodrow Wilson, appointed a Council of National Defense under Dr. Franklin Martin of Chicago. He organized the medical profession for the war effort. When the medics started doing physical examinations for the war recruits, they found that the amount of men in poor health was extremely high. Most of the sicknesses that developed could have been avoided easily with the proper medical attention. Even for the small amount of men who were healthy, they quickly developed diseases that were more dangerous than battle wounds or injuries. These camps that the men lived in were dangerous because everyone was always close to each other all of the time, so diseases were spread more easily. To make matters worse, men from out West were not exposed to the diseases of those of city men, making the other men develop more serious illnesses quickly. The doctors were not prepared for the men’s ability to contract unexpected diseases at a fast pace. Although the diseases were serious and the recruit’s health conditions were unusually low, medical professionals were very prepared at the time. Sexually transmitted diseases were the most serious diseases among the troops in the camp, but the doctors were able to use arsphenamine to help make the long-term affects less dangerous. Doctors had a hard time dealing other common diseases, such as measles. It was difficult to deal with because the illness hurts the body’s immune system, which gives resistance to other bacterial infections. Also, complications from measles led to other diseases like laryngitis, tracheitits, and bronchopneumonia. Bronchopneumonia was the most common complication of measles that caused death. Thousands of troops were diagnosed with measles, varying from 100-500 cases per day. “Of every 1,000 men with measles, 44 developed pneumonia and 14 died.” Pneumonia was the main cause of death, resulting from complications of measles. An epidemic of influenza came through the camps in the fall of 1918, which resulted in 61, 199 cases of pneumonia and 21,053 deaths.

COMBAT WOUNDS

Of the 1.4 million United States men who fought in the war, 53,400, were killed or died from wartime injuries, whereas 204,000 soldiers survived from their injuries in the war. As the war went on, medical improvements were made to fight war wounds. These improvements included better surgical methods, antisepsis, motorized ambulances, blood transfusions, tetanus antitoxin, and the introduction of X-rays.

POSIONOUS GAS

World War I saw the first attacks of poisonous gas in history. The most powerful attacks of poisonous gas came from Belgium on April 22, 1915. In both the British and French trenches, soldiers noticed the blue-white mist in the air rising from the walls of the German trenches. The guards were the first victims of the gas who began to choke and cough constantly. The gas drifted into the Allies’ trenches, resulting in the soldiers gasping for breath, vomiting, and tearing at the collars. The Germans were also known to use poisonous gases on the Allies. Mustard gas, marked with a yellow cross, and phosgene, marked with a green cross, were the most common gases used in World War I. The one prevention against gas attacks was gas masks, but artificial respiration devices were also used to treat victims.

WORKS CITED

"African Americans and World War I." American Decades. Ed. Judith S. Baughman, Victor Bondi, Richard Layman, Tandy McConnell, and Vincent Tompkins. Vol. 2: 1910-1919. Detroit: Gale, 2001. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Gale. Gwynedd Mercy Academy Library. 8 Dec. 2008.

"Medicine in World War I." American Decades. Ed. Judith S. Baughman, Victor Bondi, Richard Layman, Tandy McConnell, and Vincent Tompkins. Vol. 2: 1910-1919. Detroit: Gale, 2001. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Gale. Gwynedd Mercy Academy Library. 8 Dec. 2008 .

"After the Great War: Isolationism and the Treaty of Versailles." American Decades. Ed. Judith S. Baughman, Victor Bondi, Richard Layman, Tandy McConnell, and Vincent Tompkins. Vol. 3: 1920-1929. Detroit: Gale, 2001. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Gale. Gwynedd Mercy Academy Library. 8 Dec. 2008.