On the Homefront

1
On the Homefront

• America goes to war

2
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

3
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

4

• 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

5
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

6
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

7
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 nations 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

8

• 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

9

• 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