World War I African American Recruitment Poster

On April 2, 1917, after pledging to keep the country out of the European conflict, President Woodrow Wilson stood before Congress and issued a declaration of war against Germany. "The world must be made safe for democracy," he stated, framing the war effort as a crusade to secure the rights of democracy and self-determination on a global scale. The words spoken by President Wilson resonated with many people, who viewed the war as an opportunity to bring about true democracy in the United States. Some argued that it would be insincere for the United States to fight for democracy in Europe while Black Americans had limited rights at home. In a letter to the New York Age published on May 31, 1917, Arthur G. Shaw proclaimed that "if America truly understands the functions of democracy and justice, she must know that she must begin to promote democracy and justice at home first of all."

The Baltimore Afro-American, the longest running African American family-owned newspaper in the United States, used Wilson's pronouncement to frame the war as a struggle for African American civil rights. "Let us have a real democracy for the United States," an editorial asserted on April 28, 1917, "and then we can advise a house cleaning over on the other side of the water." For African Americans, the war became a crucial test of America's commitment to the ideal of democracy and the rights of citizenship for all people, regardless of race.

The United States government mobilized the entire nation for war, and African Americans were expected to do their part. The military instituted a draft in order to create an army capable of winning the war. The government demanded "100% Americanism." Some Black Americans, however, remained hesitant to support a cause they deemed hypocritical. A small but vocal number explicitly opposed African American participation in the war. A. Philip Randolph and Chandler Owen, editors of the radical socialist newspaper The Messenger, openly encouraged African Americans to resist military service and, as a result, Randolph and Owen were closely monitored by federal intelligence agents. 

Nevertheless, many Black citizens saw the war as an opportunity to demonstrate their patriotism and their place as equal citizens in the nation. "Colored folks should be patriotic," the Richmond Planet insisted on April 21, 1917. "Do not let us be chargeable with being disloyal to the flag." More than one million Black men responded to their draft calls, and roughly 370,000 Black men were inducted into the army. Charles Pettus Brodnax, a farmer from Brunswick County, Virginia, recalled, "I felt that I belonged to the Government of my country and should answer to the call and obey the orders in defense of Democracy." In reality, a larger proportion of Black men were put into the highest draft category and a larger percentage of those were inducted into the draft than white men. About half served as laborers in segregated units.

This lithograph was created by E.G. Renesch in 1918 to encourage Black men to enlist. 

Citation: “Colored Man Is No Slacker,” World War I Poster Collection, Special Collections, Library of Virginia

Learn more about African American veterans of World War I in the Library's online exhibition True Sons of Freedom. 

See the Library's World War I Poster Collection at our Digital Collections Discovery page.

Preview Activity

Look at It: Have students partner or work in groups with only one able to see the poster. This person is the describer and should describe the poster in as much detail as possible to their group/partner. They should not interpret the poster, but only state the details they see. The listeners should take notes on what they “see” and form a hypothesis of the purpose of the poster and reasons for artistic decisions.

Post Activities

Artistic Exploration: Examine poster with class and discuss the overall message of the poster (what it wants the public to do); any emotions the poster plays upon; the effect that the poster would likely have on people at the time. Students should describe how the overall message is conveyed by the symbols, imagery, words, and colors of the poster.

Another Perspective: Why might some members of the African American community feel that participation in the war effort might be hypocritical? Consider the time period and the status of most African Americans early in the 20th century.