Quote:
Originally Posted by hawkeye2009
"Racism" was a very minor issue with regard to the formative events and aftermath of WW1. To over emphasize this issue (which, in the scope of that event, was miniscule) is revisionist history.
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Re-discovered, not revisionist, history is a more accurate term.
This review is from the conservative National Review, and it thought fit to emphasize the lynching of African-American combat veterans returning to the South as an important discovery of the documentary.
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The African Americans from around the nation who joined New York’s 15th National Guard Regiment, the Harlem Hellfighters, included Leroy Johnston from Phillips County, Arkansas. He spent nine months in French hospitals recuperating from wounds suffered in the Meuse-Argonne, then in 1919 returned to an Arkansas seething with fears of an African-American insurrection because a returning African-American veteran had formed a union of black sharecroppers. The narrator of The Great War says that as groups of white men “roamed the countryside, killing hundreds of black people, a train pulled into the station. A crowd rushed aboard and dragged out four unsuspecting black men. They were Leroy Johnston and his three brothers.” After a melee, “the mob shot the Johnston brothers to pieces.”>>
‘Great War’ WWI Documentary Tells America’s Story | National Review
In my pre-high school years, I became infatuated with the Civil War. I likely read over 100 scholarly books on the subject. Yet not until the aftermath of Ken Burns' "Civil War" documentary did I read about the importance of African American troops, from maintaining the Union hold of New Orleans, to the decisive Battle of Nashville and Siege of Petersburg, in securing the Union victory.
The "Battle Cry of Freedom," James McPherson's Pulitzer Prize-winning history of the Civil War, now is generally considered the best single volume Civil War history, and it emphasizes the African American experience in the war.
Another of the great disparities between the Civil War and World War I, is the extent to which African Americans were valued on the front lines. A significant percentage of the seamen of the U.S. Navy, which played a decisive role in the Union's Civil War victory, were African Americans. And in the Civil War, the Union army eagerly employed African American units in combat roles (much of the left wing in the Union victory at Nashville was composed of African American units).
More decisive in the American victory at San Juan Hill than the Rough Riders, were the African American veteran Buffalo Soldiers.
Buffalo Soldiers at San Juan Hill
By World War I, African Americans were largely excluded from all but menial roles in the American Navy, and, as noted in "The Great War," there were concerted efforts, likely condoned if not encouraged by the segregationist Woodrow Wilson, to keep African American combat units from the front lines, less they gain fame for combat prowess. The French, desperate for troops, wrenched the famed "Harlem Hellfighters" from American command and incorporated the unit into the French Army. The Harlem Hellfighters became the first American regiment to join the front lines and its exploits therefore were the focus of the American media.
So it was important rediscovered history to tell the story of Harlem Hellfighter Leroy Johnston, wounded 20 times in battle, only to be murdered by a white mob on his homecoming to Arkansas.
The overall struggle for racial equality, universal suffrage, and civil rights in general, are hardly minor themes in American history, ever.
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