As the
previous educators mentioned, the First World War resulted in both spiritual and physical
disfigurement. Many soldiers returned home with disfigured faces, due to shrapnel explosions,
and physically handicapped, missing limbs.
Many also returned home
disillusioned, unsure of how they could fit back into American society after experiencing
horrors in Europe. Some were "shell-shocked," a condition that we now refer to as
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), which is common, though not limited to, soldiers
returning from war zones.
They also began to question the American values in
which they had previously believed, thinking that morality was not as clearly defined as they
had thought and that the institutions that had existed for their instruction were fallible. This
sense of social alienation resulted in some of the best literature of the twentieth century.
Prominent figures in modernist American literature include Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott
Fitzgerald, both of whom served in the First World War.
What is less often
mentioned is the contribution of black soldiers during the war, and particularly their
experiences after the war. Those who returned home, especially to Southern states, faced
retaliation from white citizens over the perception that veterans would expect rights on par
with those of whites. Anger and fears over racial equality caused major riots in several
American cities, particularly St. Louis, whose bloody riot became known as "Red
Summer."
In Harlem, on the other hand, they were welcomed back with a
major parade. Some veterans remained there and contributed to the cultural flowering that is
referred to as the Harlem Renaissance. A few others remained in Europe, particularly in France,
and contributed to the popularity of jazz in Paris. The best known of these veterans turned
expatriates was James Reese Europe who had fought with the 369th Regimentthe "Harlem
Hellfighters"and worked as a bandleader.
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