Good evening, good evening. First of all thank you for coming out on this rainy evening, i know its a challenge but i think it will be well worth your time to be here this evening for this discussion. It is my pleasure to welcome you to our program entitled historically speaking, we return fading, world war one and the shaping of the modern black identity. Published by story in books, this is a collection of essays that chronicles the experiences of men and women who served the country on the battlefield, as well as on the home front. And their struggles for civil rights. One of the main things we learned this evening is that while the Civil Rights Movement is decades away, world war i established important questions about citizenship that paved the way towards future progress. We are fortunate to be joined tonight by kinshasha holman, the images are very powerful. They are of americans on the home front. It also gives us a different look at African Americans when they return from the war. Let me start by showing you and welcoming you to this wonderful evening. Thank you for joining us, im sure you will have a great evening. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the Deputy Director of the museum of african history, kinshasha conwell. Good evening. Thank you for braving the rain which we know in washington is like snow, thank you spencer for that warm wall come, and the wonderful introduction of this buck. I hope that you will purchase it, and when you do, do read the acknowledgment. If i had time i would mention names like christina weeding, rex ellis, but i dont have time. And many others. If you look at the back, the names are all there. One of the people that i would like to quote from is a young man who had eight promising future, many have heard his name, its lanny g the third. We. Our lucky that our director was willing to write the instruction and a bullet to this book, which is the work of many hands. I would like to quote from his epilogue, to frame a little bit about what you are going to hear tonight from these amazing gentlemen, Krewasky Salter and greg carr. Doctor carr says a single account cannot capture the American Experience in world war one, and what was meant for African Americans in the decade afterwards. When the echoes were heard and the truman segregation order was put in place, the segregation decision of 1954, and the long battles of the 1960s to gain for black citizens the democracy for which all of those young men had died so long ago. Although the war did not swing open the doors of enfranchisement for African Americans, it could be said that it is sheer scale, the slap on the worlds face of the first truly global war opened for us a new sense of our own potential, and possibilities. And thus, set into motion a incremental Movement Towards freedom. The burdens of americans, civility, remain heavy. They made sacrifices in world war one. Also all of the wars that have followed have not been forgotten. They remain in controversial proof of our entitlement to full rights as citizens of our own country. The great w. He the boys was one of the intellectuals that framed the issues in world war one, aptly stated in his we fight article written for the crisis magazine, the complexities of world war one. He wrote, we return, we return from fighting, we return fighting. Make way for democracy by the greek jehovah we will save it in the United States of america, or know the reason why. The two gentlemen you will hear tonight talking of this book, which is a companion to a exhibition of almost the same title, which will dubuque in december will help us to unpack the complexities and that sentiment. Tonight you will hear from doctor Krewasky Salter, our guest associate curator for the exhibition, we return fighting, and a major contributor to this publication. He is also the executive director of the First Division museum. Doctor greg carr, associate professor of african studies, and chair of the department of afro american studies at howard university. And adjunct faculty at the Howard School of law, as they discuss the vital role of African Americans in world war one. African americans who hoped to live out post civil war expectations of full citizenship, upon returning home. This book reveals the many ways world war one shaped the identity of black people, and lent fuel to their long standing efforts to demand full citizenship rights, and to claim their place in this countrys local and political landscape. Had we many more hours, i could give you the amazing credentials of these brilliant men, but let me suffice to say that they are not only holders of phds in their respective subjects, but they have spoken widely and troubled widely on this subject. Doctor Krewasky Salter is a retired u. S. Army colonel, and he also curated a major exhibition on military history in our exhibitions here in the museum. Double victory. The African American military experience. His publications also include the story of black military officers, 1861 to 1948. Doctor carr has numerous credentials to his name, and in addition to his work at howard university, he is also deeply involved in the development of criteria, curriculum particularly in philadelphia but he has also worked around the world including fox sov adore, ghana, egypt. His publications have appeared among other places the African American studies, reader african studies, publication studies, and in the National Urban leaks, the state of america, and malcolm x a historical reader. In addition to those of you that we have with us in the abrupt one free theater tonight, there are others watching on view stream. We ask that you consider social media, hashtag and nations story. I have one other person that i dont have time to recognize, but if she is here i would like to recognize. Her julie lasalle, the main connection to our colleagues in france. Were not for them, which was headed by joseph we wouldnt have the wonderful options that you will see in the exhibit that opens in december. Mr. Zemett held open the door through museums for their country for loans unimportant objects. There are a series of donors who are able to help us as well and we are grateful to all of them. And one more thing i want to say all in on so that no one will think i do not know my job. This program is made possible through the support of the shoe Reena Foundation and this exhibition which opens in december is generally supported by altria group and we do have members here tonight. Nationwide foundation and the robert our mccormack foundation. It is created the exhibition in partnership with the ms. Oldest sultan air of the first world war, ladies and gentlemen please first of all, thank you for being here and joining me in welcoming doctor Krewasky Salter and doctor azar. applause doctor, how is it going . I appreciate you being here. How is everybody doing . First order of business is to say welcome. Youve heard from our Deputy Director bought were so happy to be here again. Colonel, it is a particular honor to see you with you bought relaxing their. Youve been deeply involved with this museum since before the opening. Youve curated it and this is the third exhibit nurse that i curated . In terms of the exhibits rotating. This is the third exhibition that we are rotating through the exhibition space. Excellent. Let us get right to it. First of all, this is an incredibly conceived book. If you have already bought it, great. If not, do not leave it without it. So much information and such a tightly packed place bought. The language is clean. Let us start with that. Thank you so much. Cricket good. Pocket its good to see you all. This text. We return fighting. How did you conceive this book . How did you put it together . The book is borne out of the exhibition. A decision was made to do the exhibition and then once that decision was made, i started meeting on a regular basis, and can sasha plays poker very well so i was talking to her and she was taking everything in and she would ask me questions. I would leave the office but i would have meetings with my then boss mr. Ellis. And i said concession, i dont know what you are saying. But she likes what you are saying. Then i realized that, okay, she might play poker, but now i know she is listening. The next time i met with concession she said, not only should we do an exhibition, i think we can do a book. So the book was actually born when i had my oneonone meeting with concession and from that point on, not only were we executing an exhibition, we started developing the construct for a book. In a moment we will talk about why world war one. But before we get there, one of the brilliant all the way this book is conceived, what is brilliant about it is you are taking some things that we know. Things we are aware of, but you are reading into very differently. How did you cure eight and parse out the work to get this kind of distinct way and talking about World History through this lens. We already have scholarly advisers for the exhibition. What we decided, is who was going to be individuals trite for the book. We selected all of the scholarly advisers who were working on the exhibition. With the scholarly advisers are, is they are the people that bring the curators down to earth. When you pick a big brain people and you send your script to them. They help you make sure that you get your interpretations right. We selected all of the scholars but one thing we did with the exhibition was to make sure that we did not want to drop our readers nor our visitors into the black experience and world war one without them understanding what world war one really was. We have a part called the global war. The first chapter is written by jay winters, professor at Yale University who now lives in france. His chapter is the first chapter. It helps us understand why world war one. He goes in detail in a very few pages on how world war i became a global war on a page and a half. And he talks about stale mate anne, on into the war, and that is the first chapter that sets the stage. It was my mission in chapter two to do two distinct that was to have reserves understand, and we do this in the exhibition, africans americans did not just step on the battlefield in world war one, they had been there from the beginning of the nation. My mission was to make sure that we understood that, but also to make sure people understood what a dark world in america was for black americans. When you reach up in says two you see the turning back of time. Extreme segregation, the 1883 civil rights acts which turns back the clock. 13 years later, plus he versus ferguson. All along, you i have people who have been lynched and killed. We have a quote in there from robert small, a world war ii veteran who says in 1895 will estimates that by that time over 53,000 African Americans had been killed. We talk about violence. We talk about those, while at the same time, African Americans are serving in the military. That was my mission in chapter two, and also to talk about the service of African Americans and world war one. Chapter three was written by another one of our scholars, doctor john murrow coop a professor of history at the university of georgia. It was his mission to create a tight shot says. Imam a shoulder. A shot group means you want to hit that target. Between 1913 and 1919, so he went a little further in detail in the service of African Americans but what he also brought to the table if he is an imperialist researcher and writer. This was the time during imperialism so he talks about when europeans went to war, the rest of the world went to war because they had all these colonies and so he goes into detail that is key. I will talk about that a little later on. He also talks about the further mob violence that is going on. He talks about east st. Louis and houston in 1917. The key to those two riots is we had already entered the war. We are still having these types of incidents is going on. That was jay morose piece. So three of our other scholars, chad williams, lisa goudreau, curtis young, they write profiles and we picked up another scholar, Britney Cooper who wrote, ida b wells. That is the construct. When you read the book, you also have a beautiful timeline. Bill presser, one of our researchers assistance, alicia nor would. It goes from 1863 to 1963. And it reads into social cultural and economic and military service all in that timeline. We have more than 140 captions. Some of the artifacts and images and our Exhibition Research assistant, she wrote half of those an i wrote the other half. That is how the book is laid out. Im going to ask about the distinction of what is in the exhibition that may not be in the book or vice versa. Before we get there, the exhibit opens next month. 13th of december. Look at my project manager. There he is. Were going to make sure we all i was interested thinking about one of your heroes, and by the way we will talk about in a little while, folks think about things you want to ask and comment on. One of your heroes is colonel Charles Young. I think it was according to the judge, it was 100 years ago, this december, that young gives a top, because the veterans had come back and said we want to have a memorial. We want a museum. We want a memorial. It was supposed to be near howard. That wouldve been great but he could not afford to buy the property now. But we have this so we are good. And the world war one veterans come back and say we want amy grow memorial. Maybe it should be bigger than that. It would be nice to have a building and nice to have monuments, that perhaps the real monument wed be to give these soldiers the thing they went abroad to fight for. The rights. Stop lynching people. I say that because of the theme that you really put together, not only in your and say but as the span of this book. It kind of echoes what you did in the first for the museum when you talk about the double victory and take it backward in time and world war ii, but you conceptualize it. Thinking about world war one and how the people of african descent entered that war, not just from the United States but the world. This concept of double victory as a career military man risen to the highest ranks as a scholar, and now as a man who can help us interpret the experiences of americans in general, how delicate in this world war one narrative is this balance between what back black people are trying to do . You point out in your essay in the earlier book, and then gesture toward it in this one, that probably more black people fought for the british. In the American Revolution war. Double victory, the essence of double victories when African Americans fought for this nation, their nation throughout history, they were not only fighting to help their nation win, they were fighting to achieve democracy and the quality for themselves, and their families. That is what double victory really means. When you go back to the American Revolution, an estimated number of 6000 African Americans fight for the u. S. Forces, but an estimated 20,005 for the british. When you take that theme up to the beginning of the american civil war, African Americans were always fighting for that side which offered them the best chance at freedom. That is what double victory is so when you go to world war one, African Americans had always been there. The reason why world war one to me was so important and is a bridge is because African Americans fought when president wilson said, we must fight to make the world safe for democracy. They thought that meant them. So when they went to fight, the double victory they were fighting for was not just to help america win the war when they went overseas. They were fighting, so that hopefully when they got back, the qualities of being a citizen, democracy, mob violence, economic stability, educational uplift, and a host of other things, would come to them. But within 24 months, after the declaration of war was given on 6th of april 1917, this thing called direct summer erupted. That is kind of where Charles Young was talking about. The soldiers of african descent did not go to europe just a fight to help america win, they fought to help their citizens. I did not happen. That is why this term the new negro came about. Then you negro, the phrase came about 25 years earlier. It was an intellectual and economic new negro. Most of us knew the new me grow from 1919. He was the one that was 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 safe for democracy. That is why we have the quote with a philip round off. I would rather make georgia safe for democracy. When the president said make the world safe for democracy, randall said i would rather make georgia safe for the knee grow, and georgia was a metaphor for the america because Jay Edgar Hoover was fresh out of law school in this town. He said rain dolphins the most dangerous negro in america. He was an open socialist. But that is interesting because he is in part, weve seen it in terms of the title, and also what is in the exhibit, im going to come right back to that. I do want to ask you, relative to we return fighting, says rand all they do brilliantly in this book. Rand office distinguishing himself. As you narrate here, these conservative blacks, they all came to see you brother. He was an douglas hall. Howard is like atlanta. Everybody knows somebody who went there. Everybody knows somebody in atlanta. Rand off is very critical of not duboiss and these conservative folks. The boys himself rights to the war. Why do you pick, we return fighting and make a deliberate choice not to say wwi and the shaping of black participation in the war. Do voices balancing something. The first one, you are exactly right. Rand dolphin w. Y de the boys, he was in his mid forties and 1917. A philip rand off was 28 years old. The boys was what you call the old crowd need row. At that time they were labeling these individuals to old crowd negroes. In the article of 1918, the sentiment had already been there from the 15 16 17. He was writing about the war when it started in 1914. You mentioned in 1915, the atlantic monthly. Dubois did a trip to france and it started in december of 1918 for three months after the war. He was disturbed at what he found. He was an intellectual that mainly convinced African Americans to close ranks and go toward. He did a research and he found out about all the discrimination and some African Americans who had lost their lives on the battlefield and some who had lost their lives on not on the battlefield. He came back in may of 1919 and that is when he wrote a juxtaposition of closed ranks and said we would be fools and cowards if we would go and fight for our nation and come back to the same nation that we left. The reason we return fighting, world war one is really over, but this year is the centennial of the new negro and so that is why the exhibition isnt titled we returned fighting. I think one of the questions you may want to ask me is one word you do not see in the title or in the book, you do not see military. It is not entitled, the exhibition is not entitled, the African American military experience in world war one. The book is not entitled, world war one and the military shaping and black identity. You do not see military and there for a reason. This exhibition, just like double victory is not about the service, necessarily of African Americans on the battlefield. It is why they serve and the reason they serve is because they were citizens of this country. They wanted to make sure that they reaped all the benefits. The exhibition is not late it is on time. We always intended for it to open it in 1919 because it is the nuisance tenure of the new negro. When folks go through the exhibit, they will see remarkable things. So many things. In this book, when you pick up this book and start reading this book, what is in here that is not in the exhibit and vice versa . Number one, what is in the exhibition that is not in the book, are the live artifacts that you can really see up close. The book allows us to get more detail to put meat on the bones. Why there was a world war one. Why the entire world went to war in a matter of six weeks. The book also allows us to get more detail on what is the difference between the 92nd and 93rd division, and why the 93rd division in the three 69, but the three 70, three 71st, three 72nd was so important. You have that in the book. The exhibition, we also have just a few additional vineyards, the one thing i like to say is the big difference between the exhibition and the book, they both have a shelf life. The exhibition shelf life will and on the 14th of june. This book, if you buy it, it has a shelf life that will be on your library forever. That is the big difference between the book and the exhibition. The exhibition will lead and we will amount another exhibition that is important. I will not say what it is yet. The book will be there forever. Now we are going to shift and talk about believe me, every page in this book, every paragraph can open up into a whole conversation. For me as somebody who is a reader, i am reading this like, wow. There are many number of places we can go to. Well talk about the role of women. We can start with heroic figures. 1915. The birth of a nation comes out in 1915. You have woodrow wilson. Lets pick a figure that helps us work around to some of the other conversations we are in d. C. Lets talk about charlie houston. The people who killed the lawyer, but this dude was one of the highest black ranking officers and world war one. He was a lieutenant. I see soldiers and sailors here. But an African American at that time he was a lieutenant. I ask people all the time, do you know who charles houston is . What is he important for . Everyone who knows him knows him as a lawyer. But few people know that he was one of those individuals who went to fort des moines, earned an officer ship and served as a lieutenant overseas and fought in france and the 368 infantry regiment of the nine eight second division. It was that experience that he had in the military when he saw the way he was treated and other African Americans were treated, that he decided that what his father had always wanted him to be, which was to be a lawyer. His father was a lawyer himself. You have a picture. Where did you find this . That is where he got his foundation to be a lawyer. Lets talk about, so we opened the book. We have that picture. It was a story we knew where his typewriter was. It was in the National Museum of African American museum culture. We wanted artifacts that resonated all kinds of things, but we want it that resonated something with military. Nobody had it. They had the address of his son. Oh yes. My wife is in the audience. She knows the story. I have to be careful. He gave me that picture and that pistol, so i will tell the story. I think rex knows about this. I got it in my car and i drove up to baltimore to the address. I had my smithsonian badge in my hand and i knock on the door and i step back, and im going like this, and his wife came through the door. To make a long story short, i announced who i was. I work for the smithsonian, are you use tense sun . To make a long story short, you talk to people, you make a connection. They had nothing to give. We do not know. The second visit, after they called me they said, you know what . Charles had been keeping his fathers revolver from world war one. I said you gotta be kidding me. To make a long story short, go back up there. I got the pistol, i had never seen that image before. They had it meticulously written on the back. That is his father. They gave us for objects. They gave a stories like that for all the objects that are in the exhibition that we own, they donated this to us. They did not want to give it up because they did not want his father to be seen as a militant with a weapon. That is what they told me. They said because of this reason, that is one thing, it is convincing people to give up artifacts that they have had for years tucked away somewhere. I remember getting that. I wrapped it up, put it in my car drove up, out of baltimore, and it is going to be in the exhibition and now belongs to the museum of national African American museum culture. Please. His granddaughter i think is a student. His granddaughter or great granddaughter is a stewart student at howard law school. No question. We are keeping a tight. We return fighting. laughs and we still talk to these individuals. Houston, who is clearly got a vision. He empowers them to keep going. They are differences between black people participating in this war. We are reading about these cats that came these young guys from philadelphia are light, were not taking the stuff. Its in here. We did put it in there. Zero on and on the difference between the black folks. Talk about the three 69. You wrote another incident, what happened in South Carolina . And the southern white dues, they really want a whole racial but these are not need grows that are used to hanging. They are not monolithic. They are not the same depending on what the region of the country were from. When a three 69th, new york city boys but not all of them were new york city boys. Three 69th was recruited from all over the north. There were few individuals from the south, but where they were sent to train, and South Carolina. There was a clash. The white southern status quo from South Carolina, and then you have these northern African Americans coming down the train that were supposed to be there for three for five months. They only state four and a half weeks. They had to get them out. There was going to be a clash. This was in september, october, but the reason is, i think john writes about this in the book. It is in the exhibition. September, october of 1917 is only three months after brownsville and after east st. Louis. You have to put it into context. They did not want another brownsville where the 24th they would actually shoot up the town. Unlike the 25th what happened in brownsville . Brownsville, there was one in 1906 with the 25th, i get the mixed up sometimes, where the accusations were not true and president roosevelt discharged 167 soldiers for something that was unfounded and has never been proven. However, in houston, when a white Police Officer began to beat up a black woman when he was looking for a soldier, those brothers did go out and shoot up the town. To make a long story short, 19 of them were sent to the gallows and we will talk about that in the exhibition. I know we cant cover everything, but just so folks know that is why they were the first African American unit in france. Instead of sending them to retrain, they sent them to the demarcation point and they arrived in france on new years day. The rest of the 93rd division, they were never together, they did not arrive till april. That is one of the main reasons why the three 69th was the first unit. Im going to ask about women in this larger concept. Before we do, let us at least now that the brothers are in, not just the brothers. The ymca. We have an entire section and women are weaved throughout. Let us do that. We will end with the global scope. Talk about the women. You did a chapter on goal star. She is one of our scholars. She is a senior curator in tennessee, state museum of history. She writes about the gold star mother. They were mothers who lost a son during world war one. So white and black. They had the spill majorities that went to france. 30, 31, and 32, maybe three three, they were also segregated. There was discussion our sons and husbands fought in a segregated military and we are going to visit their grave sites 12 years later and segregated pill mythologies. Lisa goudreau writes that. They write about ida b. Wells and other individuals. This goes into the fact that African Americans have never been monolithic. We are wrapping it up i know. We have a Philip Randall never means were the same. Better lives for African Americans. Just like ida b wells. They had different ways of doing it. Welsh was a fire breather, mary was a dignified agitator. She says in her book. She believed in doing things in a unified manner but their instincts were the same. We chose people for who they are and not only African Americans but we talk about, we always say African Americans and their white supporters. You will see stories about white americans, something you see throughout the museum who were friends with African Americans. We are going to open it up if folks want to start moving towards the microphone. We just scratch the surface. Everybody isnt here. It really is a remarkable moment. As folks are moving toward the microphone, i will ask this. We did not touch on the global scope of how African People around the world came to know each other in this moment. When these women are going to give support, they need black people from other places. I will keep this quick so we can open it up. A part of the global war is African Americans, although they entered the war with white americans in 1917 and made it to france in 1918, when the world went to war because this was a period of imperialism, france had at least 17 colonies that went to war when they went to war. The british had colonies in the east indies, the caribbean, all over the world. When they went to war guess who else went to war . Their colonial soldiers went to war. Germany had four colonies. They went to war. Those for germanys went, the four german colonies. Thats why you have people african descent fighting world war one beginning in 1914. They do meet each other. This was in the exhibit, right . This is one of our artifacts that we got from france. All from different places of the after world. The caribbean, africa. I dont even know these black people. How you doing brother . Please. How you doing guys . Excuse me gentlemen. Were all going to do one thing. We are going to thank them, hes gentleman. Now we are going to q a. Please thank our guests. applause i want to encourage everyone to step up to the microphone. And help us keep on time. John. Thank you for this wonderful session. I would be pleased if you could talk about the challenge of creating this exhibition, because so much of this information is not in u. S. Archives, because under which will wilson, those fighting are fighting under the french flag, and therefore the whole process has been working with the French Military archives. Can you please share some of that story with us . Yes quickly. I guess the challenge was to present to a body of my colleagues, that the information was there because i had been studying it for a long time, and so i started studying military in 1993. I had interviews with individuals. I had heard stories from individuals i knew about footage that existed. I think one of the challenges was just to make sure that my passion and what i knew was coming across to the effect that, yes we can do an exhibition, and i see my old boss sitting in the front row, and i tell you he was my biggest supporter at the beginning, making sure that, okay, you have all this information. Make sure we can share it and package it in a fashion that we can share it with the public. So a lot of these documents are also buried in the french archives. Rex was with me on one of the trips when we went to the french archives and had people who translated some of this information. The challenges was to make sure the information came out that African American history had been very. I wrote in the book where African Americans were challenged to suppress the fact that they served in world war one because soldiers were being attacked. A lot of this was just buried and not talked about. But it does exist, and people have it like Charles Hamilton houstons family in a shoe box in a basement. I hope i answered your question in some way. Can i ask a question as well . As a professor who deals every day with younger mines, as you approach african studies, where it is a scholarship like that across the contributors to this book fit in with what you are trying to convey and stir up in these young intellects . I will say this. Weve talked about this a little bit. I think museums are really the future of this work in a lot of ways. The universities, we are in classrooms, we are doing what we can. Digital platforms, life platforms. But this work allowed access to people of all walks of life. When you come in and deal with an artifact. We can linger, particularly here. We realize his father is buried in a segregated part of a cemetery, and in tying that through this exhibit. It is almost more powerful to bring this into this building and sit and linger through these exhibits then it is to sit in a classroom somewhere else and tell through it. There is more you can do and 30 minutes here, and this is from somebody who is a i was playing Louis Armstrong this morning. Armstrong, the master in his time. It emerges in this moment of a new world coming out of world war one. And it means something more to go through this exhibit and go to the top floor and see Louis Armstrong. Now lets sit here and have this conversation. Museums are the future of how we begin to narrate and think critically who we are in the world. This is one of the most important places i can think of really, in the world for us to have this conversation in education. We will go now to the next question. A couple of quick questions. Just a followup on what john mentioned. Black troops i dont understand why, here is a man, john j persian, here is a man who served with black troops at the spanish american war, but yet, he was willing to transfer all the black combat troops to france to the french. I would like to know if there is a back story to that. My second question is, those units that they were transferred to, if im not mistaken, or the units that the french used to consolidate their colonel troops. I just wanted to clarify that. As i understand it, im surprised you guy did not mention scott. We talk about him in the exhibition. He wrote the book on the American Negro in the world war. In terms of historical documentation, how is that received . I know he was a very conservative guy relative to the documentation of dubois. Now i will be quiet. I will take the first question first about the three 69th. To set the record straight, there were two black divisions in world war one. The 92nd and 93rd. The 93rd division of four regiments is the division that went to the french. It was a complete regiment that stay with the u. S. Not all of the black combat troops went to the french. John persian did have a history. That is where he got his nickname black jack. There are all kinds of stories. Term of endearment. It was a slap in the face so we will not go into that. I read a book about this dichotomy about five or six years ago. John j persian was poured from many different directions. American soldiers will not fight under the french, so why did we have an entire African American division to the french . The political juxtaposition, social juxtaposition from a lot of the white officers on the staff that were serving in his unit. They did not want African American soldiers to fight alongside white soldiers. When you say john j persian, you gave this division to the french, he does bear responsibility because he was in command. That is the way military officers are trained. He has the ultimate responsibility. But he was being tugged from the top, beside, the bottom, and the french were clambering that you said you are going to put the men on the battlefield. It is not a clean answer. On john j persian assigning the division. Were clear about the way we choose our words in the gallery upstairs and in this gallery. We say john j persian made the ultimate decision, but there is an entire book that talks about just what i said about why he made that decision. To get back to johns question. Kelly miller, there were a host of African Americans who wrote about their experience in world war one, but the books never got published. Ive read most of those over the years being an African American military historian. I began to combine those in 1996. That is where the information exists. It exists in libraries, in the library of congress and archives collecting dust, because no one was reading it. I want to really catapult people to start studying African American history in the military. This is the turning point. Before glory, there were only a few books. George washington williams, written back in the 18 eighties, one of the books collecting dust. It has always been there but people were not just if that is not what you are looking for, you are not finding it. Glory is the turning point. That is when people realized, they did fight. That is the generalization. I was going to say, that is the great strength of the work that he has brought to us in his role as a guest curator. He is uncovering things that we did not know. The work that you do, howard, professor car. Some things are hiding in plain sight. I would like to take the next two questions in a row and then asked that their questions be addressed so that we can make sure that we have time for additional discussion. We have an additional treat. There is nothing more of a treat than this. We have something the young people tell me its called a sizzle real, whatever that is. I thought it was called a sizzler. I dont even know what that means. Hi. I am a freshman at howard university. When talking about this idea of values that the soldiers learned during this time, how would you say that have kind of been passed down to this current generation or the modern black identity. What do you think are some examples of these values, how can we see the flash of the spirit in the present day in not only in the black community in the u. S. But around the world . Yes sir. I would like to take a course from you after this. My goodness. Okay, meeting making. One second, gentlemen at the mic. My name is robert harris. I am from cornell university. I would like to say on emits scotts book, i also thought of emmet scott as being very conservative but he does not pull any punches in his study of black soldiers and world war one. Two questions, number one, i wish you would speak a little bit about the military directive that United States army circulated during world war one cautioning, especially the french, from fraternizing with African American soldiers. Can you comment a little bit about that . Secondly, what do you mean by modern black identity . I did speak a little bit about the new negro movement, but could you expand about modern black identity . We have five minutes, which should be a piece of cake. Gentlemen, do you want to do meeting making or identity . I will do the three of them in five minutes. First of all, that is what a philip ran dolphin always say this. A Philip Randall was 28 years old when he stepped onto the stone age and challenged a sitting president. He was also the guy that planned the first marshal washington. He did not have to do that march because he got what he wanted. If you look at the picture of 1963 april 28th, who is sitting there . A philip ran dolphin. What i would say to young individuals today taking these lessons from a philip brown golf and joseph in baker, get your message out there. To this question about emmett scott, and also about the secret documents. Very briefly, we talk about the secret document about the military gallery. There was someone who informed the french that we socialized and treated African Americans, the way you treated them here. It was a long letter. Im not going to detail about it. That is the gist of it. That letter was quickly rescinded and did come out of persians headquarters. That is why dubois wrote, we return fighting. He covered that document during his tore. That is why it is printed in this magazine and 1919. Very briefly. A little word from one of our local intellectuals. I have no prejudice towards and you know that i dont. To add to the brilliance, tell us a little bit about that intellectual context and the shaping of the identity, dr. Carr. So hands up at howard. They write to the world war one books. Doctor harris is a national historian. When he raises that doesnt scott go to france . These are all intellectuals trying to figure it out. Scott goes to france, the soldiers are saying i dont know when you sent them here to calm them down. The president went and he told African American soldiers, calm down, dont rock the boat, etc. Of course, dubois comes back and rocks the boat. Yes. As you say, the intellectuals of that period, and now, the ones who were engaged thinkers. Rand off and ultimately and world war ii when he does call off everybodys like hold on. That is not the only reason we were coming to d. C. Howard these black women are like, wait a minute. We are not just coming to integrate the military john, we are coming to talk about what our race needs. These thinkers of inclusion are not just writing, they are in the middle of the fight. We will get to johnson, when they come back red summer, its part of that. We talk about the same man with the socalled he and his brother one is a poet, the other one is on an alley. There is also another venue of artists and thinkers. The intellectual milieu or dont think of intellectuals as armchair people who write and research. They are thinkers who are engaged. That is the best way to be a thinker. Can i trust the other question. What we mean by that, where he said something about the four runners of the Civil Rights Movement. I firmly believe that the world war ii generation whom executed the Civil Rights Movement, they were the determination of the seats that were planted by the world war one generation. That new negro, they planted those seats. They said we fought for this country and we want our equality. That is stated. The reason we picked some of those individuals, joseph in baker i believe was the only woman who spoke in 1963. A Philip Randolph was there in 1953. Those individuals played a critical part and world war one and planted the seeds for modern identity which set the stage for the modernday Civil Rights Movement. That is what we mean. The anti Colonial Movement in many ways, it starts with the turfs. It is in the exhibition. We also would like you to, as they say, by this book. Read more about the great riding of our colleague. Brittany cooper chad williams, and curtis young, as i said i have very little time on the stage so i cannot give a shout out to all the people, but if i had time i would. Let us do one more very important thing. I see a beautiful young women in uniform there. She reminds me of something. Can i ask an active duty and all members of the military who have made the sacrifice for this country to stand . You can stand to colonel. Could you please stand . applause bless you. Thank you. Thank you. People say, almost as a throwaway, thank you for your service. But we really mean it. Thank you for your service. You stood up, so i cant deny you madam. You gentlemen have done an excellent job. What would you say would be the key elements for us to galvanize the military inaudible of what happened to society. As my grandma would say, the more things change, the struggle we are still fighting. The United States army, the minority of inaudible we are invested in each others future, and her future. We are moving out of communities. We are forgetting where we came from. We are engaged in as opposed to supporting each other. We are tearing each other down. What would you say our top three factors three . laughs the Vice President of communications for African American officers. inaudible no pressure. No pressure, and other words. Top three in terms of how we held each other and reclaimed our legacy and building each other up. You got your three, brother . I will address one related to the military, because we do not have a lot of time. I served for 25 years under exactly what you are saying. Briefly, a couple years ago i ran into an African American officer and i mentioned to him, who is in the pipeline . He was like, its going to be fine. They are in the pipeline. I know they are not in the pipeline because i was studying it. What we have to do as a community, and this is a tough sell. Its a tough sell. We have got to let our Young Brothers and sisters know that the military is a viable occupation. When i was at whisper for three years that was a recruiter. I recruited African Americans to come to west point to go into the military. It is a tough sell, but we have got to let our Young Brothers and sisters know that when you go into the military, you are not just going to fight for your country and be used and abused. The reason i have a masters and ph. D. , its because i was in the military. I was a young lieutenant who was selected. I received a letter that said because of your academic background and military success, you are in a candidate to teach at the United States military academy. I followed through with that. I was on a fiveyear program. For five years i got paid to be a student for two years, and an instructor for three years. I had a professor who luckily told me about this thing called a beady. I took all of my phd classes and three years later i finished my phd when i was teaching at west point. There are a host of men and women, white, brown, black who had retired from the military and have a second profession because the military created a platform for us. It is not just what you see on tv. I always tell people, i love boys and the hood. But i was a second lieutenant. Cuba gooding jr. The army is no place for a brother. I was like, no the military is a place for a brother. Its a hard sell, but we have got to. What is not a hard sell is this great book. We are going to be selling this. At the heritage hall. Lets thank these gentlemen once again. Thank you gentlemen, and god bless you. Okay, i think we will get started. Thank you for coming out early. Attending the conference, my name is seth cotlar, i teach history