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Full-Text Articles in African American Studies

Historical Society Has Tools To Dig Deep, John M. Rudy Jul 2017

Historical Society Has Tools To Dig Deep, John M. Rudy

Civil War Era Studies Faculty Publications

"On last Wednesday night, Lincoln's Birthday," the Star and Sentinel reported in 1908, "a colored lodge of Elks was instituted in Xavier Hall this place with 45 members." The Improved Benevolent Protective Order of Elks of the World was originally formed as an African-American fraternal organization in the 1890s after a white elks lodge in Philadelphia denied local black men membership. By 1908, the organization was quickly working its way through Pennsylvania. And now Gettysburg had "Colored Elks," working as a social safety net for the black community of the Third Ward. They provided aid to the sick and the …


From Crusaders To Flunkies: American Newspaper Coverage Of Black First World War Soldiers From 1915 And 1930., Matthew D. Laroche Jan 2017

From Crusaders To Flunkies: American Newspaper Coverage Of Black First World War Soldiers From 1915 And 1930., Matthew D. Laroche

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

This article concerns itself with the U.S. newspaper coverage given to black soldiers (primarily African-American) in the lead up to the U.S. entry into the First World War, through the war, and into the 1930's. In so doing, it chronicles the divisions that appeared within the black community in America as black Americans debated whether or not to serve a country that did not respect their liberties at home, the portrayal of black soldiers in U.S. newspapers, and the post-war betrayal that saw the rise of a popular silence on the rights of black veterans, and a forced return to …