W.E.

B Du Bois
Returning Soldiers

W.E.B Du Boiss Returning Soldiers is about African American soldiers returning home from the
Franco-Prussian War after having being drafted in large numbers to help France against Germany
from July of 1870 to May of 1871. The main point in this essay is that the soldiers return to a
country that racially discriminates against them, placing them a lower class and a disparity when
compared to the strong White background America truly stands for. The returning African
American soldiers look upon America as a shameful place full of bigotry, but also look upon it as
a chance to continue fighting for the betterment of America. In his essay, Du Bois describes
African American soldiers who bravely defend France from German hands for America and her
highest ideals, yet Americas ideals at the time were racist as he points out.

Du Bois also explains serving in war in an interesting way as well, slavery of the uniform
which the worlds madness demanded us This statement rings true even today, and says
something about all wars and soldiers serving in them; he
continues to say that upon return they sing This country of ours, despite all its better souls
Have done and dreamed, is yet ashameful land. This is an acknowledgment that America in its
time has had great people within it but at its current state is shameful. Same can be said now,
With many good progressive people inside this country there are still lots of bad things that
need to be changed.
It steals from us. This quote is trying to explain is that America steals from its
own people. Du Bois explains that Americas organized industry cheats many African
Americans out of their own land, labor, savings, and wages. In our own present time in America,
the same can be said about many middle class Americans that are being hit the hardest right
now financially. Even though its not exactly the same today, there are still people being stolen

The truce of November 1l, 1918 ended the World War without stopping the unrest, and paranoia
in the United States. A communist revolution in Russia
and radical uprisings in postwar Europe sparked fears that the red tide might swamp the western
hemisphere. Labor strikes, racial unrest, and a struggling post-war economy fueled impressions
that America stood on the brink of disaster.
Black intellectual, W. E. B. Du Bois, a founding member of the NAACP (National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People) saw fit to invest his efforts into inspiring
the inhabitants of this unsettled environment. The Crisis, traveled to Paris after the war
to press President Wilson and other delegates at the peace conference to
end European colonization of Africa and white domination of the United
States. is pleas fell upon deaf ears. DuBois expressed his frustrations in a
Crisis editorial written upon his return to New York City entitled Returning
Soldiers", which highlighted the gap between America's egalitarian (principles that all people
are equal and deserve equal rights and opportunities) fundamentals and
its bigoted reality. He argued that the 200,000 African Americans soldiers had fought for victory
at home as well as abroad, thus, DuBois helped
set the stage for the New Negro movement that revolutionized black
thought during the 1920s.

Research
America Between the Wars. 1919-1941: A Documentary Reader, First Edition.