How WWI Veterans Influenced the Civil Rights Movement

Black men conscripted into the U.S. Army during World War I were significantly more inclined to join the NAACP and take on pivotal leadership positions in the early Civil Rights Movement, largely due to the bias they endured while serving the nation, according to a recent research conducted by Harvard Kennedy School economist Desmond Ang and Sahil Chinoy, a doctoral candidate in economics.

In an effort to assess what triggered the rise in political engagement among Black veterans post-war, the investigators analyzed millions of military records, U.S. Census data, and membership lists for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in the decade following the conflict. They discovered that by 1930, veterans of World War I represented 15 percent of male NAACP members, the foremost civil rights organization of that era.

The considerable discrimination that Black soldiers encountered while serving during the Great War — operating in segregated units with minimal formal training — “fostered profound sentiments of institutional betrayal and dissatisfaction” that urged numerous veterans to confront the established order after 1918, Ang and Chinoy deduced.

The research indicated that Black men who were drafted were three times more likely to affiliate with the NAACP. From the early 1800s, Black Americans had been excluded from serving in the military and attending institutions such as West Point and the U.S. Naval Academy. With World War I erupting, the U.S. needed to quickly augment its defensive forces, leading to the first nationwide draft of Black men in 1917, enlisting nearly 400,000. This move faced resistance, especially among all-white military ranks, as Black and white service members were segregated. Almost 90 percent of Black servicemen were assigned laborious or menial roles, according to the researchers, and the majority were denied combat and leadership training, weaponry, and promotions.

Those soldiers who experienced the most shock from the adverse treatment they faced were the most likely to engage politically, the study found. For instance, the researchers traced the highest NAACP involvement to veterans of the 92nd Division, who risked their lives in combat while enduring constant racial insults. The study noted lower enrollment among noncombatants and veterans of the 93rd Division, who faced less discriminatory treatment while serving with the French military.

Gaining insight into the personal motivations of veterans from a century ago posed challenges, prompting Ang and Chinoy to review questionnaires issued by state commissions that asked veterans to reflect on their service and its effects on them. Those who had served in camps lacking training or promotion opportunities were over twice as likely to mention injustice in their survey responses.

Another valuable source of information, stated Ang, came from contemporaneous reports compiled by U.S. military intelligence, which monitored what it termed “Negro subversion.” White officers would traverse from camp to camp gauging the sentiments of Black troops. The primary grievances highlighted by Black service members in these reports were the scarcity of promotion opportunities while working under often harsh and unqualified white superiors, coupled with insufficient military training in exchange for their service.

“The government had a clear understanding of what truly troubled Black individuals,” which “highlights the notion that many of these were very intentional, systemic decisions being made,” emphasized Ang. “It strongly supports the narrative that [historian] Chad Williams and others have discussed, which is the sense of hypocrisy and injustice that was prevalent.”

Ang and Chinoy suggest that the research may “underestimate” the degree to which World War I veterans influenced potential spillover effects on their families, acquaintances, and the broader Black community — a topic they intend to investigate further. Furthermore, the researchers are beginning to examine how the backlash against the NAACP’s emergence and the Civil Rights Movement ignited a resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan and Jim Crow in the 1920s.

Drawing parallels to the white power movement following the Vietnam War and the paramilitary style of some far-right factions today in the U.S., Ang questions whether the dynamics present during World War I are part of a larger complex. “Can we historically observe this, and what specific elements of military service” could motivate individuals to engage politically?