The black community was galvanized by World War I to make America completely democratic by securing full citizenship for all Americans. Black troops fought racial injustice at home and overseas while remaining in segregated groups. Whites and blacks led the struggle against segregation and discrimination in the United States through other organizations and the newly formed NAACP organization (The Library of Congress). The NAACP used the courts in various ways to fight for the eradication of segregation and voting rights. This article aims to look at the African-American experience throughout World War 1 and the Harlem Renaissance.
With the “Harlem Renaissance” expression during the Great Depression’s deprivations, African-American culture became recognized. Emmett J. Scott, a Negro who served Booker T. Washington as a private secretary for eighteen years during World War I. He worked as a Special Assistant to Secretary of War Newton Baker, overseeing the morale of African-American, training, and recruitment of soldiers (The Library of Congress). The presence of African Americans in France, in any capacity, aroused a lot of appreciation from the French. African American bands, who occasionally brought jazz and blues rhythms to their listeners who had never heard them before, were enjoyed by American and French troops (The Library of Congress). The crew of the 369th Infantry was the most famous, conducted by James Reese Europe, a brilliant musician whose modified technique inspired Irene Castle and Vernon’s dance, creating a social dancing craze. Hundreds of African-American males were trained as police officers in Des Moines, Iowa, in response to the black community’s demonstrations of discrimination and abuse. One of the various techniques used to discourage African Americans from voting was that a man could vote if only his grandfather voted (The Library of Congress). Grandfather clauses were defeated in court by the NAACP after the grandfather provisions in Oklahoma and Maryland constitutions were declared null and illegal by the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court ruled in 1916 that an ordinance requiring African Americans to dwell in particular areas of Kentucky, Louisville, was unconstitutional. Whites used restrictive private covenants due to the decision whereby individual citizens agreed to rent or sell strictly to white people, resulting in de facto housing segregation (The Library of Congress). A group of National Association of Colored Women’s club led by Mary Church Terrell emphasized the racism and end of sexism and voting rights for all people, as well as the anti-lynching and women struggle. Throughout the Harlem Renaissance period, sonatas and symphonies music written by African Americans was the nightclub that captured the period between the world wars (The Library of Congress). During the Harlem Renaissance, Countee Cullen was another outstanding poet. He was the adopted son of a New York Methodist minister and the author of various volumes of poetry, including The Ballad of the Brown Girl (1927), Copper Sun (1927), and Color (1925) (The Library of Congress). After attending Harvard and New York University, he received the Harmon Foundation literature award for his novel, Color.
The establishment of Harmon Foundation in 1922 with endowments supplied playgrounds around the country, vocational advice, and student tuition, awards for positive achievements, and nurse education programs among the Negroes. Fine arts, Business, farming, religious services, race relations, education, music, and science were among the fields where African Americans competed for monetary rewards (The Library of Congress). These awards lead to the nominations of files that give information about African Americans throughout the Harlem Renaissance period. In 1902, Marian Anderson was born in Philadelphia, where she attained recognition in Europe before opportunities in the United States became available (The Library of Congress). First lady Eleanor Roosevelt withdrew her membership from the daughters of the American Revolution after they refused to let Anderson perform at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. In 1939, Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes offered Anderson the usage of the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday, whereby She acknowledged, and the event attracted almost 75,000 people (The Library of Congress). Mrs. Roosevelt presented the presentation to Anderson when the NAACP gave Anderson the Spingarn Medal later that year. Anderson’s concert and other demonstrations against racism in the arts helped to break down boundaries.
In the 1920s, African-American literature and art became an essential part of global culture. Many individuals color from the Caribbean and the South relocated to New York City’s Harlem, where the combination of beliefs resulted in development of the arts (The Library of Congress). In 1931, two white females in a freight train traveling through Alabama were claimed to be raped by nine young black men whom eight of them were convicted to death while one of them was only fourteen years of age (The Library of Congress). During the trial in Scottsboro, Alabama, the African teenagers declared their innocence, which attracted many international and national interests. Several years later, following various legal conflicts, the men’s convictions were reversed.
Despite these inconsistencies, the battle might be described as a “watershed” event for African Americans. Through the employment of the Black press, the expansion of the NAACP, and the founding of major civil rights organizations such as the Congress on Racial Equality, they established the foundation for political action (CORE). In countries like France and England, African Americans in the military got the experience of more independence, job training, and access to education. Furthermore, government policy changed dramatically during the war, and fighting for civil rights had become a fundamental part of the liberal plan by the end of the conflict.
Work Cited
The Library of Congress. “African American Odyssey: World War I and Postwar Society.” American Memory: Remaining Collections, The Library of Congress, Web.