Fighting. World war i and the shaping of modern black identity. Published by this is sony and, is a chronicle of men and women who served the country on the battlefield as well as on the home front and their struggles for cell rights. One of the main things we will learn this evening is that while the Civil Rights Movement was away,ted was decades world war i established important questions of citizenship that paved the way toward future progress. We are fortunate to be joined conwell, theasha museums equity director Deputy Director and editor of we return fighting. The images are really very powerful, of americans at war and on the home front. It also gives us a different look at the life African Americans face when they came home after the war. Let me end by welcoming you and assuring you that you are in for a wonderful evening. Thank you for joining us and im sure you will have a great evening. [applause] men, pleasetel welcome the Deputy Director of museum of history can shasha holman. Holman. Asha and thank you spencer for the warm welcome and the wonderful introduction for this book. I hope you will purchase it. And when you do. The acknowledgments. If i had time i would mention names like carolyn grayson, christina weeding 10, rex ellis and others. But i do not have time laura coyle and doug grimley. Carlos vista montaigne, minda logan and many others. If you look in the back, the names are all there. One of the people i would like to quote from is a young man who surely had and has a promising future. Many of you have heard his name. Lonnie bunch the third. We were pleased that our founding director was able to and willing to write the introduction and epilogue to this book. Which is the work of many hands. And i would like to quote from his epilogue to frame a little bit about what you are going to hear tonight from these amazing , Krewasky Salter and greg carr. He says no sigel volume can fully capture the African American experience and one where one or tell us what the war meant for black americans in the decades afterward, whether the echoes were heard in president Harry S Trumans desegregation order. The landmark brown v. Board of education segregation decision of 1954 and the long battles of the 1960s to gain for black citizens the democracy for which all those young men had died so long ago. Although the war did not swing open the doors of enfranchisement for africanamericans, it could be said that its sheer scale, the ofp across the world face the first truly global war did open for us, a new sense of our own potential and possibility. And thus set into motion and incremental Movement Toward freedom. The burdens on the backs of black americans, military or civilian, remain heavy. Sacrificed inars world war i and all the wars that have followed have not been forgotten. And they remain incontrovertible to full our entitlement rights as citizens of our own country. The great w eb to boys who was one of the major intellectuals, web dubois, one of the major intellectuals who frame the issues run one where one. Stated in his article for the crisis magazine, the complexities of world war i. And he wrote, we return. We returned from fighting. We return fighting. Make way for democracy. We saved it in france and by the great jehovah, we will save it in the United States of america. Why the two reason gentlemen or know the reason why. The two gentlemen you here tonight talking about this book and the title of an exhibition almost same title that will debut in december, will help us unpack those complexities and that sentiment. Dr. Ight, you will hear from our guestlter, curator for the exhibition. This major contributor to publication. He is also the executive director of the First Division museum. Associaterr, professor of African Studies and the chair of the department of afroamerican studies at howard university. Faculty at the Howard School of law. As they discuss the vital role of africanamericans in world war i. Toicanamericans who hoped live out postcivil war expectations of full citizenship upon returning home. This book reveals the many ways world war i shaped the identity of black people and lent fuel to their longstanding efforts to demand full Citizenship Rights and to claim their place in this countrys cultural and political landscape. Had we many more hours, i could give you the amazing credentials of these brilliant men. Say, they suffice to are not only holders of phds and their respective subjects, but they have spoken widely and traveled widely on the subject. Dr. Salter is a retired u. S. Army colonel. He also curated our exhibition on military history and our inaugural exhibitions here in the museum. Double victory, the africanamerican military experience. His publications also include, the story of black military officers, 18611948. Numerous has credentials to his name. In addition to his work at howard university, he is also deeply involved in the development of curriculum, particularly with the city of philadelphia. He is also work around the world he has also worked around the world in places including ghana, egypt, el salvador, bahia. His publications have appeared in the African American studies reader, publications of the modern leg which association of america and moderate Language Association of america and the National Urban league, 212 state of black america and welcome x, a historical reader. In addition to those of you we have with us in the upper wintry theater tonight, there are others watching in the Oprah Winfrey theater tonight, there others watching on you streaming. There others and we ask that you asider on social media nations story. Theres one other person i would like to recognize, juliet lasalle who was the cultural attache to the French Embassy and one of our main connections to our colleagues in france. And then not for them centennial that was headed by joseph samet, we would not have the wonderful objects you will see in the activation that opens in december. Mr. Samet and madame lasalle helps us open the doors. We are grateful to them and to our donors, to all of them. There is one more thing i want to say. This program is made possible through the support of this Arena Foundation and this exhibition which opens in december is generously supported by altria group. Zamet robertide, and the mccormick foundation. It is created, the exhibition in the french with hundredth anniversary of the First World War organization. Dr. Se join me in welcoming and dr. Greger carr. [applause] how is everybody doing . Business, iser of just a welcome. We heard from our Deputy Director and our director and all the folks here at the museum. It is an honor to be here again. And colonel is that a particular honor to sit here with you, realizing that you have been deeply involved with this museum since before it was opened. You have curated and this is the third exhibit. Dr. Carr that i curated . Terms of then exhibits that rotated through the halls. Dr. Carr this is the third that rotates through the temper exhibit space. Of all this isst incredibly conceived book. If you have already bought it, great. If not, do not leave here without it. Though much information in such a tightly packed place, but not overburdened. The language is clean. Everything in here. Lets start with that. Thank you, somebody. Good. [laughter] fighting. We return how did you conceive this book . How did you put it together . Dr. Carr the book is born out of the exhibition. A decision was made to do the exhibition. Once that decision was made, i started to meeting with kinshasa on a reglet basis. We were talking about the story on a regular basis. And can touch up plays poker very well. So i was kinshasha plays poker very well. I was talking with her and she would ask me questions. I would leave the office. And i would have meetings with my then boss, rex ellis. And he says, she likes what youre saying. I do not know what youre saying when you meet with her. And then i realize that she might play poker but now i know that she is listening. So the next time i met with her, she said, not only should we do an exhibition, i think we can do a book. And so the book was actually born when i had my oneonone meetings, sitting down with kinshasha. And from that point on, not only were we x getting an exhibition, we started developing the construct for a book. Not only were we executing an exhibition, but we started developing the construct for a book. In a moment well talk about why world war i. But in this book one of the brilliant things about it is youre taking some things we know that we are aware of, but youre reading it differently. How did you curate the authors and then parse out the work and then go through the editorial process to get this kind of distinct way of, not only talking about africanamericans but talking about World History through the lens of world war i. Dr. Carr exactly. What we did, we already had scholarly advisors to the exhibition. It was very easy, we selected all of the scholarly advisors who were working on the exhibition. What the scholarly advisors are is, those are the people that bring the curators down to earth. You pick big brain people and you send your script to them. And they help to make sure you get your ex to rotations right that your interpretations right. One thing we had to do with the exhibition was make sure we did not want to drop our readers nor our visitors into the black experience in world war i, without them understanding what world war i really was. So we have a part called the global war. The first chapter is written by j winters, a Professor Emeritus of yale university, who now lives in france. His chapter is the first chapter. Why worlds understand war i . In a few pagesil on how world war i became a global war, in a patient half. Then he talks about stalemate in a page and a half. Any talks about stalemate. That is the first chapter that sets the stage. It was my mission in chapter two to do two things. One was to have readers understandand we do this in the exhibition, that African Americans do not to step on the battlefield in world war i. They had been there from the beginning of the nation. My mission was to be sure we understood that. And also to be sure people world and what a dark america was for black americans. So when you read chapter two, you see the turning back of time, after the ending of slavery. The rise of jim crow is him. Extreme segregation. The 1883 Civil Rights Act which turns back the clock. 13 years later plessy versus ferguson. All along, you have people who are being lynched and killed. We have a quote in there from robert smalls, a world war ii veteran who says in 1895, that he estimates that time, over 53,000 africanamericans had been killed. We talk about mob violence. We talk about those, while at the same time, African Americans are serving in the military. So that was my mission. In chapter two. And also to talk about the service of africanamericans in world war i. Chapter three was written by another one of our rhodes scholars, dr. John morrow, who is the john hope frankel and professor of history and chair at the university of georgia. It was his mission to create a tight shot group im a soldier. So i shot group is you want to hit that target. A tight shot group between 1913 and 1919. So he went a little further in detail, in the service of africanamericans. Woody also brought to the table he was an imperialist researcher and writer. This was the time during imperialism. He talks about when the europeans went to war, the rest of the world went to war because they had all these colonies. He goes into detail. That really is a linchpin for this later on. Dr. Carr and then he talks about the further mob violence that is going on. He talks about east st. Louis. And houston in 1917. And the key to those two rights is that we had already entered the war and we were still having these types of incidents going on. So that was jay morrows piece. Then we had 10 profiles. Three of our other scholars, chad williams, Lisa Boudreau and curtis young, they write profiles. Then we picked up another scholar, brittany cooper. Powerful. On she writes of peace charles and ida b wells. That is the construct. When you read the book, we also have a beautiful timeline. Bill pretzer and one of our research assistants, alicia norwood, you pour that out and it goes from 1863 to 1963 and it weaves in the social, cultural and economic and military service, all in the timeline. Captionsore than 140 of some of the artifacts and images. In our exhibition and research trea hogan, she wrote half of that and i read the other half. Writelter i want to about the ask about the exhibit and what is in the book. Before we get there, they exhibit opens next month . Dr. Carr the 13th of december. By project manager is here too, carlas best monday. Carlos bustamante. Dr. Salter were going to talk for the while and then we will open it up. One of your heroes i think we talk about more is Charles Young. I think it was according to judge wilkins in his work it long word hard truth, it was a hundred years ago this december that young if the talk because the veterans have come back and they say they want a new graham memorial. Some war veterans come back, George Washington williams and them, we want a memorial. Maybe it is supposed to be near howard. That wouldve been great. They cannot afford to buy the property now. But then we have this, we are good. Then world war i veterans come back and say we want a new graham memorial. Maybe it should be bigger than that. Charles young gives a talk where he says, you know it would be nice to have a building and to have brass and monuments. But perhaps the real monument soldiersto give these the thing they went abroad to fight for. The rights. Stop letting people heard all of this stuff stop lynching people. The thing you put together in your essay and the span of this book. It echoes what you did in the first publication for the museum where you talk about this double victory. Then you to get backward in time. About world war i and how people of african descent enter the war not just from the United States but around the world, this concept of double victory. And as a career military man who has risen to the highest ranks as a scholar, and now as a man who is helping us interpret experiences of not only our. Eople how delicate in this world war i narrative is this balance between what black people are trying to do . You point out in your essay in the earlier book and then gestured toward in this one that probably more black people thought for the british then for the United States. Fought for the british. Dr. Carr and why was world war one so important . The essence of will victories when African Americans fought for this nation, their nations write history, they were not only fighting to help the nation win. There were fighting to achieve democracy and equality for themselves and their families. So that is what double victory really means. When you go back to the american estimated 6000 africanamericans fight for the u. S. Forces. An estimated 20,000 fight for the british. When you take that victory to the other side, African Americans were always fighting for the side that offer the best chances for freedom. African americans had was been there. The reason world war i was so important as a bridge is because africanamericans thought, when president wilson said, we must fight to make the world safe for democracy, they thought that meant them. [laughter] so when they want to fight, the double victory they were fighting for was not just to help america win the war when they went overseas. We were fighting that, hopefully, when they got back, that the equalities of being a citizen, democracy, mob violence, economic stability, educational up left and host of other things, would come to them. But within 24 months after the declaration of war was given on the sixth of april, 1917, this thing called the red summer erected. Erected. That is what Charles Young was talking about. These africanamerican soldiers did not put europe just to help americans win, they went to help their citizens when in america. And that did not happen. That is why this term the new negro came about. The phrase came about 25 years earlier. But that was an intellectual and economic new negra. Most of us know the new nero from 1919. He was the one emboldened after fighting on the battlefield and his family members and friends were also emboldened to make sure that what we went to fight for, to make the world safe for democracy, was also going to make america safer democracy. That is why we have the quote with a Philip Randolph. Dr. Salter i would rather make georgia safer democracy. When the president said, make the world safe for democracy. A Philip Randolph said i would rather make georgia safe for the need. Or the negro. Dr. Salter a Philip Randolph, inmost dangerous negro america, an open socialist. Dr. Carr the title you pick and also the exhibit. I want to get the housekeeping at the weight and i want to housekeeping out of the way. We return fighting is from wasis. But randolph distinguishing himself from as you narrate here, these conservative blacks, alain locke is credited with the new negro. In douglas hall. Dr. Salter a professor of military silence. Science. Dr. Carr how it is like atlanta, Everybody Knows someone who went to howard. Randall is critical not only of locke. But elaine he writes relative to the war appeared why you picked, we return fighting, and make the delivery choice not to say world war i and the shaping of black participation in the war, but this broader concept. Dubois is bouncing something. Dr. Salter