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Black Martial Imagery During the Spanish-American War Era

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Black Martial Imagery During the Spanish-American War Era HELL FIGHTERS, BLACK DEVILS, AND ONE WICK-ED MA-AN: HOW MARTIAL IMAGERY IN BLACK POPULAR CULTURE HELPED DEFINE MANHOOD DURING THE WORLD WAR I ERA by ANDREW DAVID AMRON JOHN M. GIGGIE, COMMITTEE CHAIR KARI FREDERICKSON ANDREW HUEBNER LISA LINDQUIST-DORR W. FITZHUGH BRUNDAGE A DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of History in the Graduate School of The University of Alabama TUSCALOOSA, ALABAMA 2013 Copyright Andrew David Amron 2013 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ABSTRACT This dissertation explores the popularization of modern black masculinity during the World War I era. Focusing on mass media representations of black soldiers before, during, and after the war, it reveals a near-total popular culture saturation of aggressive and courageous imagery that black men increasingly used as a guide to confront racism, justify armed self- defense, and force local and federal governments to address black grievances. These martial representations in film, inexpensive artwork, black “histories” of the war, editorial cartoons, popular novels and poems, and in commemorative events featuring black soldiers provided a well-defined guide outlining the modern, masculine black man. Too often historians of the period focus on the “Talented Tenth,” young, energetic middle-class African Americans, and the complications they experienced as they struggled to maintain respectability and redefine their gender and social standing in a rapidly modernizing world. Prior to World War I, the primary model for manly protest was through quiet petitions to government officials and the grudgingly passive acceptance of a racist society that might eventually bestow equality based on thrift and hard work. The war provided African Americans with a more forceful, but now domesticated model that encouraged assertiveness, and at times violence to secure full citizenship and civil rights based on the heroic actions of the black soldier. ii DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to my family and close friends that kept me sane throughout this long and arduous process, to my colleagues who remain buried under mountains of their own research, and most of all, to my beautiful wife for all of her love, support, and sacrifice. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am grateful for this opportunity to recognize the many colleagues, friends, faculty members, research assistants, and family members who have contributed their time, energy, and expertise to this project. I am most indebted to John M. Giggie, the chairman of this dissertation, for his guidance throughout, and for encouraging me to consider the challenges facing black men in the early twentieth century with a greater depth and breadth. I would also like to thank all of my committee members, Kari Frederickson, Andrew Huebner, Lisa Lindquist-Dorr, and W. Fitzhugh Brundage for their invaluable comments, questions, and critiques. Your input has driven me to produce a more thoughtful and complete dissertation. I must also acknowledge the contributions of Bill Link, Alan Petigny, Jack Davis, Jeffery Adler, Brian Ward, and Bertram Wyatt-Brown for their influence on both this project and myself as a young historian. This dissertation was made possible by the intellectual and financial support of a select group who deserve recognition as well. The generous dissertation fellowships and research grants provided by the History Department and Graduate Council at the University of Alabama, and the John Hope Franklin Research Center enabled me to devote my full attention to such a monumental task. I am grateful for the research assistance provided by Brett Spencer, Peter Malanchuk, Alison Quammie, and Tammi Lawson at the Universities of Alabama and Florida, and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, respectively, and the many talented research assistants and archivists at the College Park and Washington branches of the National Archives. Equally invaluable was the consideration exhibited by my department chairs at Santa iv Fe College, Bill Little and Doug Diekow, and Dave Tegeder for being so very flexible with my teaching schedule. To my colleagues, both formerly and currently in the History Departments at the University of Alabama and the University of Florida, I thank you for helping me develop the ideas behind this work, many of which took shape during the hour-long carpool to and from campus in Colin Chapell’s Honda Civic and John Mitcham’s Chevy Cobalt. David, Megan, Matt, Jonathan Medley, Mouse, Jared, and the Seminole were all critically important sounding boards as well. To my family and friends in Birmingham and Gainesville, I thank you for your honest opinions and patience. Tom and Andrea, I always looked forward to giving you drafts of my chapters, and I equally anticipated your thoughtful critiques. And finally, this project would be lost without the three most important women in my life. To my grandmother, your editorial brilliance I cannot thank you enough for. Mom, your loving encouragement and thought- provoking questions were the perfect motivation throughout this grind. And to my wife, Kristin, your unyielding support inspires me to be the best friend, husband, and historian I can be. v The recent race riots at Longview, Texas, Washington, D.C. and Chicago, Ills., call for a brief analysis of the general causes underlying such outbreaks. Some of the causes, such as lynching, disfranchisement, jimcrowism and segregation, have been long standing; but it required the awakened spirit of the Negro soldier returning from France full of bitter resentment to set the spark that has released the pent up feelings of the masses. Conditions have been very tense in many places since demobilization started. Primarily, the colored soldiers returned from France very much embittered. Their grievances were compound. In addition to the grievances common to white and colored soldiers alike, were added the sting of the insidious propaganda and prejudice from which Negro soldiers keenly suffered in France at the hands of white Americans. The free social intermingling in France made the discriminating restraints of America more galling. The total absence of color prejudice among Frenchmen made the returning Negro soldier impatient and resentful of proscription at home. Open acts of hostility on the part of white Americans against them, the report of which to the War Department brought no redress or relief, intensified the discontent. Such nefarious communications as the confidential circular sent out from the American army to French officers in August, 1918, in which the French were requested to conform with American customs and traditions in their attitude toward colored American soldiers, have aroused the most bitter resentment among Negroes throughout the country. It was but natural that the bitter feeling of the returning soldiers should be communicated to the civilian population… …Here military lessons come into play. The Negro has been taught to fight. Added to a natural pugnacious instinct, he has been given the equipment, both intellectual and physical. The government has taught him the lessons of violence during the world war. Defense of himself against German whites is quickly shifted to defense of himself against American whites. As a whole Negroes have resolved never again to submit to the treatment which they have received in the past, and any attempt to deny them such privileges and rights as they are entitled to, in common with other men, will be promptly resented. The above is a true statement of existing conditions, verified by personal observation and contact with Negroes of all classes. Major Walter H. Loving, Military Intelligence Division August 6, 1919 vi CONTENTS ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................... ii DEDICATION ............................................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................................. iv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ....................................................................................................... viii Prologue: A New Definition of Manhood Forged in Battle ............................................................1 Chapter 1: A Safe and Manly Middle Ground: Black Martial Imagery During the Spanish- American War Era .............................................................................................................22 Chapter 2: The Worm has Turned: Black Masculinity and the World War I Soldier in Editorial Cartoons ..............................................................................................................55 Chapter 3: Cherished Gifts in Print: Affordable Artwork and Published Histories of Black Participation in World War I .............................................................................................87 Chapter 4: Witnessed by a Dense Mass of Humanity: Soldier Parades and Public Displays in the World War I Era ..............................................................................................................122 Chapter 5: Projecting Martial Imagery for All to See: Black Soldiers on the Silver Screen .......164 Chapter 6: A More Equal Fight: The Expression of Martial Masculinity in Postwar Race Riots .................................................................................................................................189
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