In one of the few book-length treatments of the subject, Nina Mjagkij conveys the full range of the African American experience during the "Great War.” Prior to World War I, most African Americans did not challenge the racial status quo. But nearly 370,000 black soldiers served in the military during the war, and some 400,000 black civilians migrated from the rural South to the urban North for defense jobs. Following the war, emboldened by their military service and their support of the war on the home front, African Americans were determined to fight for equality. These two factors forced America to confront the impact of segregation and racism.

Product Description: Black members of the military served in every war, conflict and military engagement between 1861 and 1948. Beyond serving only as enlisted soldiers and non-commissioned officers, many also served as commissioned officers in positions of leadership and authority...read more

Product Description:   The U.S. Armed Forces started integrating its services in 1948, and with that push, more African Americans started rising through the ranks to become officers, although the number of black officers has always been much lower than African Americans’ total percentage in the military...read more

Product Description: African Americans' long campaign for "the right to fight" forced Harry Truman to issue his 1948 executive order calling for equality of treatment and opportunity in the armed forces. In War! What Is It Good For?, Kimberley Phillips examines how blacks' participation in the nation's wars after Truman's order and their protracted struggles for equal citizenship galvanized a vibrant antiwar activism that reshaped their struggles for freedom...read more

Draws on the account of World War II French court interpreter Louis Guilloux, who witnessed general Patton's example-setting executions of seventy American troops, many of whom he believed were condemned because of their race.

A National Book Award finalist examines the United States' turbulent history of ethnic assimilation and racial strife through the experience of the legendary World War I regiments, the fabled Harlem Hell Fighters of the 369th infantry and the legendary 'lost battalion' of the 77th division. Reprint.