On the HomefrontAmerica goes to war

Mobilizing for War

• Selective Service Act of 1917– Men from ages 21-30 required to register– 3 million men served as draftees in WWI

• African American Soldiers

African Americans in WWI

• Segregated Units– Plessy v. Ferguson (1896): Establishes “separate but

equal” as both the legal and social status quo in American society

– Selective Service: drafts white and black men alike• Segregated units• Not allowed to join the Navy or the Marines• Black community organizes protests/ Pressure from the

NAACP– African Americans trained as officers for the first time; still

never put in command of troops-only one officer training camp

• 400,000 African Americans fought with the divisions of the French Army

• 380,000 African Americans serve in the Army in WWI– 42,000 see combat

• 200,000 sent to Europe• More than ½ are assigned to labor jobs: building roads,

bridges, trenches to support the soldiers at the front lines

369th Infantry Division

• Who were the Harlem Hellfighters? – One of the most famous infantry divisions in

Europe– Fought with the French Army– Spent 191 days in combat; longer than any other

American unit in the war– Heroic in battle at Belleau Wood and Chateau-

Thierry– First Americans to be awarded the Croix de

Guerre (Cross of War), given by the French– Treated as heroes in France

Home sweet home?

The Great Migration: Many African Americans had moved North for jobs in the cities during the War

African American soldiers return home

-little to advance civil rights

* Rise of KKK in 1920s

*1919 Race Riots

* Lynchings increase

* segregation across the nation

Organizing for War: Supplying the Armies

• Economically: – Congress increases taxes and authorized the use of war bonds

» Liberty Bonds

• War Industries Board– Set up to oversee the production and distribution of goods

manufactured by the nation’s war industries

• Food Supply– Lever Food and Fuel Control Act of 1917

» Gave Wilson the right to establish price and production controls over food and fuel

– Food Administration: created to increase food supplies for troops by expanding agricultural production and decreasing domestic consumption

• Overseas– 25,000 Women volunteers serve in France

• Nurses, signalers, typists, interpreters, telephone service

• Some worked as nurses and ambulance drivers on the front lines

• Red Cross volunteers

• On the Homefront– 1.5 million women worked in factory positions

left vacant by departing soldiers• American products essential to Allied troops

fighting in Europe• War= labor shortage• Immigration stops during the war• Pushed for higher wages and working conditions

– 4 million workers go on strike– NWLB