April 6th 2017, An Opportunity For Our Kids To Understand How 'The Great War' Changed America.

 

Typical WWI Scene of American Troops in Action

The First World War changed a lot about America as a country, but also American daily life, society and roles in society. During America’s time in the war, many women – including those who typically worked in a more domesticated work force – helped play their part in the war by enlisting  in the military. Though women at the time were not fighting on the front line, 21,000 enlisted in the Army and Navy Nurse Corps as there was an enormous need for nurses and medical assistance on battlefields. In many cases, nurses ended up wounded or even killed by gunfire while trying to attend to male soldiers’ needs after being injured. 

A Group of Nurses Outside Their Barracks.

            Back at home, however, women were also filling in  male positions in the workforce while so many of America’s men got drafted in to the war. Attending to new types of job opportunities and positions within society lead to many advancements and changes in gender roles for the female population. 

Women Building Boats During WWI

It became much more common to see women in pants, or “trouserettes,” as they needed less binding clothing that prevented them from being able to perform new duties in factories and other fields. 

 

Women in Trouserettes

These changes in gender roles lead America as a whole to see women as more valuable members of society than ever before, thus initiating the 19^th amendment to the constitution which gave women the right to vote. The same cannot be said, however, for African Americans who also played a major role in the war.

  Despite numerous women helping fill out societal roles, as the Great War put a halt on immigration, America still found itself with a lack of workers to fill much needed positions. This gave African Americans the perfect opportunity to seek out those very jobs and expand across America. The African American expansion initiated by World War I – when approximately 6 million African Americans migrated North – is known as The Great Migration, which lasted from 1915 to 1970. 

 

African Americans On The Move During WWI

During the great migration, many southern musicians migrated to New York, particularly Harlem, which sparked the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s. Musical styles that had been inherent to southern black culture suddenly became welcome and loved in the northern areas of the country, particularly jazz. Who knew WWI was a primary factor in the creation of the Jazz Age?

 

Lieutenant James Reese Europe & the 369th

Despite all of the migratingion, nearly 400,000 African Americans still enlisted in the United States Army. This number is particularly profound due to the fact that racism and intolerance were still thriving in the United States, so much so that African Americans were subject to Jim Crow laws even while in training to fight for their country. Out of those enlisted, nearly 200,000 went to serve in Europe, though only roughly 42,000 actually ever fought on the front lines. Others helped run military encampments by serving as cooks as other much needed jobs. However, out of the 42,000 that served in combative roles, particularly the 369^th infantry, better known as the Harlem Hell-Fighters, 191 of their days  in Europe were in spent combat, which was the longest of all American units at the time.

             African Americans were not the only minorities assisting America in WWI; Native Americans also played a major role in the war efforts. Approximately 12,000 enlisted in WWI, which is particularly interesting given that they were not even considered citizens at the time. In fact, they could not even vote! Perhaps the most important role Native Americans played in WWI was that of “code-talking,” which essentially was utilizing the nearly 30 different languages and dialects inherent to the Native Americans in order to disorient and perplex enemies when sending messages. 
 

Edward Denomie, Famous Code Talker.

The Code-Talkers, as they became known, would deliver messages in Native American tongue, and later translate them for their American counterparts. This ensured less breaches in security and military plans.
 

Back at home, however, Native Americans lost a lot of their already sparse reservation areas due to land being needed for things such as war gardens – a garden planted with the intended purpose of increasing American food supply during the war, especially being that the majority of soldiers now fighting in the war were previously American farmers. Much of the nation’s food supply was aided by Native Americans, women, and even children.

Famous WWI Propaganda Poster.

            The Boy Scouts of America (founded 1910) and the Girl Scouts of the United States of America (founded 1912) both went through great lengths to fundraise and provide resources for the war, including planting war gardens (the Boy Scouts alone planted over 12,000). While girl were busy learning about food production and conservation and working in hospitals, the boys worked on selling liberty loans or war bonds to the public, which essentially was a fundraising effort to help finance the war. With the use of these loans, the Boy Scouts raised over $355 million for war funding. Both Boy and Girl Scouts collected peach pits for the war, which were used in the filters for gas masks. Boy Scouts reportedly collected approximately 100 railroad cars full of peach pits!

 

1st Girl Scouts And Their Founder.

            Though everyone was working hard in the continental US to help soldiers overseas, many still found time to relax and attend theater screenings, though they did not exactly escape the war in the cinema, either. Many propaganda filled productions were in circulation at the time. Film such as Kaiser: The Beast of Berlin (1918), Wolves of Kulture (1918), and Hearts of the World (1918) were widely popular screenings to attend. Hearts of the World was an especially interesting production due to the fact that the director of the film, D.W. Griffith, also directed the film Birth of a Nation (1915) just three years earlier, which exemplified extraordinary values of racism and attempted to justify bigotry within the country. Many found it intriguing that Griffith used the same cinematic and propaganda tactics to sway audiences to be more passionate about the war and America’s involvement.

Raven Joyner
Principal Research Assistant
Over There Doughboys in The Great War

 

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