1918

Lieutenant James Reese Europe led the 369th Infantry regimental band on a concert tour of France, introducing jazz and syncopated Black American music to European audiences. The band's performances were sensations in Paris and across France, planting seeds for the jazz age that would flower in Europe in the following decade and cementing Black American music's global reach.

The 369th Infantry Regiment, composed entirely of Black American soldiers, served 191 consecutive days in the trenches in France — longer than any other American unit. They never lost a man captured by the enemy and were the first American unit awarded the French Croix de Guerre as a regiment.

Lieutenant James Reese Europe led the 369th Infantry Regiment band on a concert tour across France, introducing syncopated jazz and ragtime to French audiences. The performances sparked enormous popular interest in Black American music across Europe and helped establish the global spread of jazz. Europe's band played to crowds of thousands in Paris and other French cities.

Private Henry Johnson and Private Needham Roberts of the 369th Infantry became the first Americans — of any race — to receive France's Croix de Guerre with Palm for their heroic defense against a German raiding party in the Argonne Forest. Johnson fought off more than a dozen enemy soldiers alone after being wounded multiple times.

Ernest Everett Just, professor at Howard University and researcher at the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, published significant research on cell division, fertilization, and the role of the cell surface. Just became the first recipient of the NAACP's Spingarn Medal in 1915 for his scientific contributions. His work on egg cell development was internationally recognized despite his exclusion from white research institutions.

Georgia Douglas Johnson published 'The Heart of a Woman and Other Poems' in 1918, the first significant poetry collection by a Black woman in the twentieth century. The book received wide praise and established Johnson as a major literary voice. Her Washington D.C. home became a literary salon that nurtured Harlem Renaissance writers throughout the 1920s.

W.E.B. Du Bois published his controversial 'Close Ranks' editorial in The Crisis in July 1918, urging Black Americans to set aside their grievances and support the war effort. The editorial drew sharp criticism from A. Philip Randolph, Hubert Harrison, and others who argued Black Americans should demand rights in exchange for service. The debate reflected deep tensions over strategy within Black leadership.

Missouri Representative Leonidas Dyer, backed by the NAACP, introduced the first serious federal anti-lynching bill in Congress. Though it did not pass in this session, Dyer continued introducing the bill until it passed the House in 1922 only to be killed by a Senate filibuster. The campaign represented the first major federal legislative effort against racial terror.

Ernest Everett Just, professor at Howard University and researcher at the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, published significant research on cell division, fertilization, and the role of the cell surface. Just became the first recipient of the NAACP's Spingarn Medal in 1915 for his scientific contributions. His work on egg cell development was internationally recognized.

W.E.B. Du Bois published his controversial 'Close Ranks' editorial in The Crisis in July 1918, urging Black Americans to set aside their grievances and support the war effort. The editorial drew sharp criticism from A. Philip Randolph, Hubert Harrison, and others who argued Black Americans should demand rights in exchange for service, reflecting deep strategic tensions within Black leadership.

Lewis Latimer, who had invented improvements to the incandescent light bulb filament and worked directly with both Edison and Bell, was recognized as a founding member of the Edison Pioneers, the only Black member of the elite group of inventors.

The American Red Cross and the Army Nurse Corps refused to enlist Black nurses for overseas service during World War I despite the urgent need for medical personnel. The NAACP and Black women's organizations including the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses campaigned vigorously against the exclusion. A handful of Black nurses were finally accepted just as the armistice was signed in November 1918.

The 92nd Infantry Division, an all-Black unit commanded by white officers, served on the Western Front in France. Despite systematic discrimination and sabotage by Army leadership, individual soldiers performed with distinction. Post-war, General Pershing and others unfairly blamed Black soldiers for battlefield difficulties, and the division's treatment became a symbol of institutional racism in the American military.

Missouri Representative Leonidas Dyer, backed by the NAACP, introduced the first serious federal anti-lynching bill in Congress. Though it did not pass in this session, Dyer continued introducing the bill until it passed the House in 1922 only to be killed by a Senate filibuster. The campaign represented the first major federal legislative effort against racial terror.

Mary B. Talbert, president of the National Association of Colored Women, became a key NAACP leader in the late 1910s and went on to organize the Anti-Lynching Crusaders in 1922. Throughout the World War I era she was one of the most prominent Black women in national civil rights leadership, arguing that racial violence at home undermined America's democratic war aims abroad.

Throughout the late 1910s, W.E.B. Du Bois used The Crisis not only as a political organ but as a literary magazine, publishing poetry, short fiction, and essays by emerging Black writers including Georgia Douglas Johnson, Fenton Johnson, and others. This editorial vision turned The Crisis into a nursery for the literary talent that would define the Harlem Renaissance.

Mary B. Talbert, president of the National Association of Colored Women, became a key NAACP leader in the late 1910s and organized the Anti-Lynching Crusaders in 1922. Throughout the World War I era she was one of the most prominent Black women in national civil rights leadership, arguing that racial violence at home undermined America's democratic war aims abroad.

Addie Waites Hunton and Kathryn Johnson were among the very few Black women allowed to serve with the YMCA supporting Black American troops in France during World War I, despite the Red Cross barring Black women from nursing roles. They documented their experiences in the 1920 book 'Two Colored Women with the American Expeditionary Forces,' a key primary source on Black WWI service.

Anne Spencer, a librarian in Lynchburg, Virginia, began writing the poetry that would be published in The Crisis and other outlets in the early 1920s. Her garden in Lynchburg became a gathering place for visiting Black intellectuals including James Weldon Johnson, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Langston Hughes. Spencer was a distinctive Harlem Renaissance poet whose work drew on nature and classical themes while addressing race.