The Harlem Hellfighters Analysis

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The Harlem Hellfighters, written by Max Brooks and Illustrated by Caanan White, is a skillfully written and beautifully illustrated Historical Fiction graphic novel that details a Black-American regiment’s experience in World War I. The graphic novel is brimming with inconspicuous references and cerebral content meant to show the treatment black soldiers received and how they felt during The Great War. The 15th/369th regiment was negligently treated, treated as inferiors because due to their race, and ultimately felt unwelcome in their own country. From reading The Harlem Hellfighters, it is apparent that, though the 369th regiment was all black, they did not have the same background and had not joined the war for the same reasons. This fact is important because the 369th regiment is in some ways a microcosm of the entire United States in the early 1900s and even today. ‘Black America’ is …show more content…

On page 43, while the Mayor’s letter is being read, the comic panel’s background, is storefronts in the town plastered with signs that say “WHITES ONLY!” and “NO DOGS or COLOREDS.” The 369th regiment ended up having a small skirmish with the white townsfolk who made lynching jokes at them. The black regiment fighting back was not allowed, but luckily a white regiment was there to save them. The government’s negligence is evident in this episode of racial violence; they were sent to a dangerous area (where they were unwelcome), and then were forbidden from fighting back because they could be lynched for it. Were there no other places for them to train? Could the military not do more to protect them? These men were supposed to be fighting for America, not being fought by

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