@article{439058,
      recid = {439058},
      author = {Williams, Chad Louis,},
      title = {Torchbearers of democracy African American soldiers in the  World War I era / [electronic resource] :},
      publisher = {University of North Carolina Press,},
      address = {Chapel Hill :},
      pages = {1 online resource (xiii, 452 p.) :},
      year = {2010},
      abstract = {On April 2, 1917, Woodrow Wilson thrust the United States  into World War I by declaring, "The world must be made safe  for democracy." For the 380,000 African American soldiers  who fought and labored in the global conflict, these words  carried life or death meaning. Relating stories bridging  the war and postwar years, spanning the streets of Chicago  and the streets of Harlem, from the battlefields of the  American South to the battlefields of the Western Front,  the speaker reveals the central role of African American  soldiers in World War I and how they, along with race  activists and ordinary citizens alike, committed to  fighting for democracy at home and beyond. Using a diverse  range of sources, the author connects the history of  African American soldiers and veterans to issues such as  the obligations of citizenship, combat and labor, diaspora  and internationalism, homecoming and racial violence, "New  Negro" militancy, and African American historical memories  of the war. Democracy may have been distant from the  everyday lives of African Americans at the dawn of the war,  but it nevertheless remained a powerful ideal that sparked  the hopes of black people throughout the country for  societal change. Torchbearers of democracy reclaims the  legacy of black soldiers and establishes the World War I  era as a defining moment in the history of African  Americans and peoples of African descent more broadly.},
      url = {http://library.usi.edu/record/439058},
}