Foner discusses this change on page 708 in the ‘closing ranks’ paragraph. This war was a hope for many African-Americans to have freedom. They were supposed to fight and then Wilson was supposed to give them their freedom that they deserved. Du Bois called out African-Americans in an editorial magazine to fight in this war to “help ‘make our own America a real land of the free”’. After the war, there was a victory parade in Paris which was unfortunately unfair for blacks because they were stopped by Wilson administration from participating.

Foner does not discuss much about this event. I feel he discussed a decent amount for us to understand what had happened. He told us the reason as to why the African-Americans went to war. I think he can explain a little bit more on why they were not allowed to participate in the victory parade in Paris.

Question # 1) Why couldn’t African-Americans participate in the parade?

Question # 2) How exactly did Du Bois promote the Blacks to join the war?