Portrait of William Edward Burghardt Du Bois

Portrait of William Edward Burghardt Du Bois

As early as 1915, Du Bois wrote most lucidly about the impact of World War I on the darker peoples of the world and how their futures were bound to be shaped by the outcome of the European conflict. In Crisis, Du Bois used his editorial pen to demand on behalf of the American Negro the right to serve as soldiers and officers on the battlefields of Europe. He believed that during America’s time of need, African Americans needed to demonstrate their “unfaltering loyalty” to realize the “larger finer objects of this world battle.”

Bain News Service, Publisher. Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <https://www.loc.gov/item/ggb2004007435/>.