Primary Source Analysis 2

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Old Dominion University *

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352

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History

Date

Oct 30, 2023

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docx

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Uploaded by CorporalFoxMaster996

For my Primary analysis I chose W.E.B. DuBois's Returning Soldiers. It was written in May 1919, just after World War I. In the article, DuBois talks about the experiences of war and the black soldiers who fought in the war and returned to a country that continued to oppress and belittle them. The article reflects the political and social climate of the early 20th century and covers the struggles and discrimination faced by Black Americans. DuBois begins the article by telling the reasons why black soldiers fought in the war. They fought for the ideals of democracy and against the threat of German race arrogance. However, they were also forced to fight for the dominant southern oligarchy that was entrenched in Washington. DuBois notes that this oligarchy represents and gloats in lynching, disfranchisement, caste, brutality, and devilish insult. For fifty years, the United States lynched two black people a week, and this continued right through the war. Disfranchisement was also rampant, robbing poor and black citizens of their only protection against the rich and white. DuBois further argues that America encourages ignorance and has never really tried to educate black people. He claims that a dominant minority does not want black people educated; instead, they want them to be servants, dogs, whores, and monkeys. This group, he says, uses its stolen political power to force black people into these categories, and then cries in contemptible hypocrisy that they threaten us with degeneracy and cannot be educated. Furthermore, he accuses the American system of stealing from black people; He claims that it organizes industry to cheat them, confiscates their savings, reduces their wages, raises their rent, steals their profit, and taxes them without representation. The result is that black people are

consistently and universally poor, and the system then feeds them on charity and derides their poverty. DuBois concludes by stating that black soldiers are returning to a country that has organized nationwide and world-wide propaganda of deliberate and continuous insult and defamation of black blood wherever found. It decrees that it shall not be possible in travel nor residence, work nor play, education nor instruction for a black man to exist without tacit or open acknowledgment of his inferiority to the dirtiest white dog. And it looks upon any attempt to question or even discuss this dogma as arrogance, unwarranted assumption, and treason. Overall, DuBois's "Returning Soldiers" demonstrates the hardships faced by Black Americans in early American history. The primary source reveals a society that was deeply racist, one that lynched and disfranchised black citizens, encouraged ignorance and stole from them. DuBois's article shows how the concept of what it means to be an American was limited and exclusive during this time. It was the need to fight against the forces of hell in their own land and to make way for democracy. In this way, the primary source speaks to what it means to be an American over time, as the country has struggled to live up to its founding ideals and to ensure equal rights and justice for all its citizens. To be an American today means to acknowledge the country's flaws and past and work towards a new better society. That means acknowledging challenges faced by marginalized communities, including Black Americans, and working towards making up for past injustices and unfair acts. It really just means standing up for democracy and ensuring that all citizens have equal access to rights and opportunities. Ultimately, being an American means actively participating in the ongoing fight for a more equitable, just, and fair society.

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