“Safe for Democracy”?: African American Soldiers and the Home Front

The First World War was supposed to make the world safe for democracy, as the US President Woodrow Wilson famously said. His 14 Point plan called for the restructuring of Europe with an emphasis on the self determination of its people but on the American home front democracy and self determination were still complicated issues, especially among African Americans. Racism and instutionalized discrimination shaped their everyday life, both, before and after, the war. But the Great War also broug..