Four Questions for Jerolyn Barbee and Paul LaRue

"The role of African Americans in the WWI war effort is often overlooked in the textbooks"

By Chris Isleib
Director of Public Affairs, U.S. World War I Centennial Commission

There is a remarkable new exhibit at the National Afro-American Museum & Cultural Center in Dayton Ohio. The exhibit is called "African Americans Fighting for a Double Victory", and it includes a special section on World War I. The exhibit just opened this past weekend, on Sept. 23, 2017. Further, the museum is also hosting amazing public programs related to the exhibit, to include talks on African American genealogy, as it relates to World War I. We spoke to Jerolyn Barbee, Assistant Director for the museum, along with Paul LaRue, a noted historian and educator, who will give the public presentation on genealogy.

You have great World War I-related efforts going on. The National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center has an amazing long-term exhibit, "African-Americans Fighting for a Double Victory". What is in the exhibit?

Barbee: "African Americans Fighting for a Double Victory" spotlights African American civilian and military service during World War II and explain how African American service during wartime advanced civil rights on the home front.

Jerolyn BarbeeThe exhibition will present an overview of African American military service abroad, the limitations imposed on them through segregationist policies, as well as the many accomplishments achieved in all of the military branches despite rampant discrimination.

The first section of "African Americans Fighting for a Double Victory" will include an overview of African American military service from the colonial period through World War I.

The exhibition will feature digital images of African American muralist Charles Alston, whose drawings were commissioned by the Office of War Information during World War II. Alston created a series of drawings to promote the war effort at home and abroad. Unlike the many other war propaganda materials produced, Alston’s work features African Americans and sought to motivate and energize the African American community. The goal was to encourage African American support of the war effort at home and abroad.

Through these images, and a wide variety two and three-dimensional materials from the National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center (NAAMCC) archives and collections, visitors will learn more about the impact of African American military and civilian service. They will experience what daily life was like on the home front. Like all Americans, Blacks purchased war bonds, grew victory gardens, conserved resources, and supported the troops with letters to family members and friends in uniform.

The exhibit will also tell the stories of local Wilberforce veterans, national civil rights activists involved with the Double V campaign, and efforts to end discrimination in the military and wartime civilian employment. The exhibition features the remarkable story of the Tuskegee Airmen and will explore aspects of African American military service that are little known today, such as the Red Ball Express, the Triple Nickels, and Black celebrities who entertained the troops. The final section of the exhibit explains the impact of the returning veterans and civilians on the civil rights movement from 1950 and beyond.

The museum also is hosting a number of related public programs, as well as a Veterans Day commemoration event. Please tell us about these -- what can people see & do?

Barbee: In addition to Paul’s program on Ohioan Homer Lawson, will have our Express Yourself Saturday art class. We will be creating cards for members of the military that will be sent during the holiday season. All workshop art materials will be supplied to participants. The workshops are open to families and children.

Paul’s program will begin at 1:00 p.m. and the Express Yourself Saturday workshop will begin at 2:30 p.m.

We also have three other exhibits in addition to African Americans Fighting for a Double Victory:

· Black Heritage Through Visual Rhythms National Juried Art Exhibition—now through Jan. 13, 2018

· Freed Will: The Randolph Freedpeople From Slavery to Settlement—now through Nov. 25, 2017

· Celebrating Our Past & Embracing Our Future: Wilberforce University—now through Nov. 1, 2017

Paul, You are also giving a remarkable presentation in October at the Ohio Local History Alliance meeting on World War I-related genealogy. Tell us about it.

LaRue: My session will help local museum and historical groups engage with their communities using Ohio's rich African American World War I heritage. I will show folks ways to partner with their local schools and Veterans organizations to highlight diversity and inclusion with World War I.

I will share the story of Homer Lawson, a local (Washington C.H. , Ohio) African American Soldier. Private Lawson was a member of the 372nd Infantry, and killed in action I France September 28, 1918. American Legion Post 653, Washington Court House, is named for Homer Lawson. The Post is one of only two African American Legion Posts in SE Ohio.

Paul LaRueI will encourage local history groups to research similar stories in their communities. To often these important stories are hidden in plain site. I hope the WWI Centennial provides an opportunity to talk about the important, and to often overlooked role of African American WWI Soldiers.

The genealogy of World War I veterans presents some challenges -- there was the National Archives fire in 1973, other records are found is sources that are far & wide (Library of Congress; the Army Center for Military History, Army Heritage and Education Center, which is a whole other Army entity, etc. etc.). Tell us a little about how you approach the research effort, and how you advise people who are diving into their our genealogical research.

LaRue: Genealogy is challenging doing WWI research. Ohio has records of the 263,000 Ohioans who served in World War I; a good place to start your research (if you are an Ohioan). Honestly, for students, a great way is to talk with grandparents, great aunts and uncles about family members with WWI service. This provides an opportunity for students to connect with family and start a dialogue. Look in other less tradition sources: e.g. National Soldiers Home Records.

I was researching an African American infantry officer; Soldier's Home records tipped me off to his service as an officer in a machine gun company. The NAACP's magazine, The Crisis, is a fascinating resource on the African American World War I military experience. The great historian W.E.B. Du Bois writes extensively in the Crisis about the service and discrimination faced by African American Soldiers.

Fortunately, The Crisis is available online at http://www.modjourn.org/render.php?view=mjp_object&id=crisiscollection

Why is this important to you? World War I was an awful war, and took place so long ago. Why should people remember these stories? What should they take from them?

LaRue: I spent thirty years in the high school classroom in rural southern Ohio. World War I provides an opportunity for students understand the contribution their community made in the war. The role of African Americans in the war effort is often overlooked in the textbooks. Stories of the service and sacrifice by African Americans in WWI is vital to a balanced explanation and understanding of the war and its impact on American Society.

About the National Afro-American Museum & Cultural Center—Located at 1350 Brush Row Rd. in Wilberforce, Ohio, the National Afro-American Museum & Cultural Center is open Weds.–Sat. 9 a.m.–4 p.m. Museum admission is $6/adults, $5/senior, military members, $3/ages 6–17 and Free/Ohio History Connection members or age 5 & under. For more information, or to learn about scheduling group tours, call 800.752.2603 ext. 2113
or visit www.ohiohistory.org/naamcc, or https://www.facebook.com/naamcc.