The Unknown Soldiers: Experiences Of The Unknown Soldiers

The Unknown Soldiers When learning about World War 1 you never learned about the African American soldiers that fought and died for our country just as the white soldiers did. During this time period African Americans didn’t have the same equal rights as white men and women. Even though the 14th amendment had already been ratified many years before America got involved in the war. The 370,000 African Americans that labored, fought and died for a democracy that refused to give them equal rights on the home front, never got the recognition they deserved, all because the color of their skin. This summarization of The Unknown Soldiers focuses on the experiences of the African American troops that were drafted into and volunteered for the United States Army during World War 1. The country’s attitudes towards African Americans leading up to and during the war were the same as they had been for years. The white man dominated and controlled the African American population in America. “For example, figures for 1911 and 1912 indicate that the South spent an average of $10.32 in educating each white child, but only $2.89 for each black child.” (Barbeau 3). This was one of the ways the white man kept control because if most of the newly young “free” African Americans were illiterate, they would not be allowed to vote, voice their opinion, run

They proved to the white man that the only thing that was different between them was the color of their skin. Despite all the complications the black man had to endure during this time period, they still performed admirably under fire; the 369th infantry regiment was in continuous combat longer than any other American unit. They were the ones who put America on the offensive side when fighting with Germany. Without the African Americans, America as we know it today could be a very different