Primary Source Analysis:



Primary Source Analysis:

WWI Home Front

Directions- Analyze the primary sources that correspond with each group below. Describe the sources in detail in the space provided. Finally, evaluate government actions from “World War I: Home Front” in order to determine which government actions impacted each group. Identify is the impact was positive or negative and EXPLAIN!

|Group |Source Type |Description |Government Action |

| |(Poster, Letter…etc) |(Details and P.O.V.) |& “rights of mankind” |

|Women | | |( |

| | | |Government Action(s) that impacted the |

| | | |group: |

| | | | |

| | | | |

| | | |Explanation: |

|African Americans | | |( |

| | | |Government Action(s) that impacted the |

| | | |group: |

| | | | |

| | | | |

| | | |Explanation: |

|German | | |( |

|(Immigrants) | | |Government Action(s) that impacted the |

| | | |group: |

| | | | |

| | | | |

| | | |Explanation: |

ONE MORE TIME… In President Wilson’s Declaration of War Speech, he announced that America’s role was “one of the champions of the rights of mankind.” Has the information provided in the primary sources changed your view of government actions during WWI? EXPLAIN!

Women at Work:

At Home & Abroad

Quotes:

“To be in the front ranks in this most dramatic event that was ever staged, and to be in the first group of women ever called out for duty with the United States Army…is al too much good fortune for any one person.”

-Julia Stimson, nurse

“It isn’t exactly an alluring [glamorous] prospect to be exiled in the backwoods of Russia for a couple of months with only two English-speaking people to run an infectious hospital, but it will be rather fun.”

-Ruth Holden, nurse

“It was not until our men were called overseas that we made any real onslaught [accomplishments] on the realm of finance, and became tellers, managers of departments, and junior and senior officers.”

-female banking executive

“We have made partners of the women in this war; shall we admit them only to a partnership of suffering and sacrifice and toil and not to a partnership of privilege and right?”

President Woodrow Wilson, 1919

Posters:

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|[pic] |[pic] |

Photo(s):

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African Americans:

At Home & Abroad

Photo(s):

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|[pic] |[pic] |

TEXTBOOK: (This is NOT a primary source)

There were about 10,000 black regulars in the U.S. Army in 1917: The 9th and 10th Calvary regiments and the 24th and 25th Infantry regiments. There were more than 5,000 black men in the Navy, but virtually all of them were waiters, kitchen attendants, and stokers for the ship’ boilers. The Marine Corps did not admit black men. During World War I, the newly formed Selective Service system drafted more than 370,000 black men-13 percent of all draftees –though none of the local draft boards had black members. Several all-black state National Guard units were also incorporated into federal service.

Though the military remained rigidly segregated, there was political pressure from black news papers and the NAACP to commission black officers to lead black troops. The War Department created an officer training school at Fort Des Moines, Iowa. Nearly 1,250 black men enrolled-1,000 were civilians and 250 from the regular regiments-and over 1,000 received commissions. Black officers, however, were confined to the lower ranks. None of these new black officers were promoted above captain, and the overall command of black units remained in white hands…

Military authorities did not expect to use black troops in combat. The Army preferred to employ black troops in labor battalions, as stevedores, in road constructions, and as cooks and bakers. Of more than 380,000 black men who served in World War I, only 42,000 went into combat. Black troops represented 3 percent of US combat strength. The Army did not prepare black soldiers adequately for combat, but military leaders complained when black soldiers who did face combat performed poorly in battle.

Quotes:

As founder-editor of the NAACP's Crisis Magazine, DuBois urged in 1918, "Let us, while this war lasts, forget our special grievances and close ranks shoulder to shoulder with our fellow citizens…"

Comments by W.E.B. DuBois on the war as a stimulus to Black Americans, 1919

We are returning from war! The Crisis and tens of thousands of black men were drafted into a great struggle. For bleeding France and what she means and has meant and will mean to us and humanity and against the threat of German race arrogance, we fought gladly and to the last drop of blood; for America and her highest ideals, we fought in far off hope; for the dominant southern oligarchy entrenched in Washington, we fought in bitter resignation. For the America that represents and gloats in lynching, disfranchisement, caste, brutality, and devilish insult – for this, in the hateful upturning and mixing of things, we were forced by vindictive fate to fight also.

But today we return! We return from slavery of uniform which the world’s madness demanded us to don to the freedom of civil garb. We stand again to look America squarely in the face and call a spade a spade. We sing: This country of ours, despite all its better souls have done and dreamed, is yet a shameful land.

It lynches…

It disfranchises its own citizens…

It encourages ignorance…

It steals from us…

It insults us…

This is the country to which we Soldiers of Democracy return. This is the fatherland for which we fought! But it is our fatherland. It was right for us to fight. The faults of our country are our faults. Under similar circumstances, we would fight again. But by the God of Heaven, we are cowards and jackasses if now that the war is over, we do not marshal every ounce of our brain and brawn to fight a sterner, longer, more unbending battle against the forces of hell in our own land.

We return.

We return 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, or know the reason why.

From The Crisis, 1919. Reprinted in Meltzer, In Their Own Words: A History of the American Negro, 1916-1966, pages 25-27.

German Americans:

At Home & Abroad

Comics & Posters:

|[pic] |[pic] |

|[pic] |

Letters:

A Close Call in Cleveland: Even pro-war immigrants sometimes found wartime America a dangerous place to live.

In Cleveland a few days ago, a foreign-looking man got into a street car and, taking a seat, noticed pasted onto the window next to him a Liberty Loan poster, which he immediately tore down, tore into small bits, and stamped under his feet. The people in the car surged around him with the demand that he be lynched, when a Secret Service man showed his badge and placed him under arrest, taking him in a car to the police station, where he was searched and found to have two Liberty Bonds in his pocket, and to be a [non-English-speaking] Pole. When an interpreter was procured, it was discovered that the circular which he had destroyed had on it a picture of the German emperor, which so infuriated the fellow that he had destroyed the circular to show his vehement hatred of the common enemy. As he was unable to speak a single word of English, he would undoubtedly had been hanged but for the intervention and entirely accidental presence of the Secret Service agent.

- From Frederick Palmer, Newton T. Baker, (New York, 1951) vol. 2, pp162-163

A letter to the Governor: As the letter below indicates, even churches became targets of anti-German activities. Below a pastor writes a letter of concern to the Wisconsin governor.

My dear Governor: -

Permit me to again trouble you with a case similar tot hat I wrote you about October 7th…Following is a true copy of the notification of the Bayfield County Council of Defense addressed tome personally and to the Trustees of our congregation:

“To Rev. R. Krenke and the Trustees of the

German Lutheran Church, Washburn, Wisconsin,

The following resolution was unanimously adopted by the County Council of Defense, at its regular meeting held on Friday evening, October 18th, 1918:

“Whereas, a great many complaints have been made to the County Council of Defense, regarding the conduct of the German Lutheran Church in Washburn and Bayfield County, in that German School is being conducted on Saturdays and German Church services are being held on Sundays.

This Council believes that the teaching of the German language at this time should not be permitted under any condition. Our country is at war with Germany and any attempt either to teach the german language to t he children or to encourage the speaking of it is giving aid and comfort to the enemy, we believe further that the holding of services at which the German language is spoken exclusively tends to engender hate and enmity in the hearts and minds of true loyal Americans.

This Council therefore demands that that German School be immediately discontinued, and that Church services be henceforth conducted in the English language or not al all.

Resolved further that a copy of this resolution be sent to the proper authorities of the said German Lutheran Church, and that in the event of a refusal to comply therewith, that such steps be taken as may be deemed necessary.

Dated October 18th, 1918

BAYFIELD COUNTY COUNCIL OF DEFENSE

By Nels M. Oscar, Secretary”

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