W.E.B. Du Bois Publishes 'Returning Soldiers': 'We Return Fighting'

In The Crisis magazine, W.E.B. Du Bois published 'Returning Soldiers,' one of the most radical editorials of his career, calling on Black veterans not to accept second-class status after fighting for democracy abroad. 'We return from the slavery of uniform which the world's madness demanded us to don to the freedom of civil garb. We stand again to look America squarely in the face... We return fighting.' The editorial was monitored by the Justice Department as potentially seditious. It defined the militant consciousness of the New Negro generation.