29 / 31
27
few. According to Du Bois’ accounting, the 369th division showed incredible valor as the regiment was “under
fire for 191 days—a record for any American unit. It received over 170 citations for the Croix de Guerre…and
was the first unit of the Allied armies to reach the Rhine, November 18th, with the Second French Army” (Du
Bois, 712). Du Bois’ accounts serve to question the very accuracy of the textbook accounts of the war. When
simply reading over his essay, it is clear the AP and IB curriculums are not providing the whole truth about the
role of blacks in the American effort in WWI. Obviously, the AP and IB curriculums cannot include every detail
Du Bois does as knowing which regiment built how much road does not give the students an understanding of
WWI. Furthermore, the AP and IB curriculums also focus on the war effort on the home front, something Du
Bois does not catalogue. However, neither curriculum gives more than a passing mention to the contributions
of these troops who were critical parts of the Allied victory.
In addition to omitting the contributions of black troops, AP and IB curriculums also gloss over much of
the treatment the black soldiers suffered at the hands of their commanding officers as Du Bois notes, “As war
means tyranny, the company officer is largely at the mercy of his superior officers” (Du Bois, 705). During the
war, the superior officers were racist and sought to ensure the segregation that was so prominent in America
extended to the armed forces abroad. Du Bois also notes that a concentrated effort was made to ensure that
blacks were only able to serve as laborers as whites did not want them to rise above their station (Du Bois,
708). Any infantry division which had black men serving in it was automatically singled out for censure,
and the black soldiers were blamed for crimes that they did not commit. In fact, the black soldiers were only
deemed to be part of the official record when they were framed and hanged for rape. By contrast, they were not
part of the official record for the award ceremony for the Distinguished Service Cross (Du Bois, 708). Beyond
the injustices black soldiers suffered at the hands of their own commanding officers, American commanding
officers tried to ensure that the French abided by the racist system which existed in America by spreading pro-
paganda about black soldiers (Du Bois, 710). White American soldiers also went above and beyond to support
this racist propaganda by detailing all the crimes blacks were supposedly responsible for, saying “everyone of
them [blacks] would rape a white woman if he was not held down by the whites” (Du Bois, 710). There is no
mention of the racist treatment in either of the history curriculums, contributing to this view that the United
States’ army was this wave of fury that was intent on spreading democracy to all of Europe. In reality, however,
the U.S. army was segregated and every attempt was made to discredit black soldiers so the same race prejudice
which was ingrained in America would permeate through Europe, particularly France.
The primary problem with the way history curriculums treat black contributions and attitudes towards
black soldiers during WWI is that they do not mention them. The AP and IB curriculums are not guilty of
getting the facts wrong, they are guilty of completely omitting the facts of what blacks contributed to the
American effort. In his piece, the
Propaganda of History
, Du Bois comes to the conclusion that American his-
tory is “simply lies agreed upon” so as to ensure America’s guilty conscience is eased and her hypocrisy well
camouflaged in good intentions (Du Bois, 213). Du Bois goes on to systematically prove what is wrong about
how Reconstruction is depicted by pulling statements from history textbooks and proving them wrong (Du
Bois, 201). However, this logical approach has no merit when assessing AP’s and IB’s understanding of black
contributions to WWI because there are no incorrect statements to correct. There are simply no statements
at all, making it seem as if AP and IB are trying to make the black soldier in WWI invisible. Essentially, Du
Bois would be horrified at the fact that the AP and IB curriculums are not merely incorrect on the subject of
black soldiers in WWI, they are silent on the subject, almost as if they will seek to continue the racist legacy of
Americans in WWI and have their students believe these black soldiers did not have any sort of impact.
Another area in which the AP and IB curriculums are not wholly accurate is the portrayal of President
Woodrow Wilson. Both of the curriculums acknowledge the fact Wilson was unable to successfully convince
the American government to join the League of Nations. Other than that admission, however, both curricu-
lums depict Wilson in a positive light. The IB curriculum only mentions Wilson in relation to his Fourteen
Points (“IB History Review Guide/The Causes, Course, and Effect of World War One”). This detail implies the
IB curriculum only views Wilson as a figure that was heavily involved in his desire for world peace and uni-
versal democracy and his desire was what primarily motivated him to involve the United States in WWI. The
AP curriculum is slightly more forthcoming on Wilson, noting he reluctantly gave the vote to women and was
not the complete progressive he is depicted to be. Yet, the AP curriculum still places an undue emphasis on
Wilson’s plan for international peace, noting he played a critical role in the drafting of the Treaty of Versailles
and won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts (Quizlet, “APUSH
The American Pageant
Chapter 29 Vocab Flash-
cards”). Essentially, both curriculums focus on Wilson’s progressive efforts, particularly his international ones,
and basically demonstrate Wilson is to be lauded for his attempt, albeit unsuccessful, to create “a world safe
for democracy.”
However, both curriculums do not give a comprehensive picture of President Wilson. Du Bois, in his
An-
other Open Letter to Woodrow Wilson
, notes that under Wilson, the public service has become unduly segregated,
with one black clerk being placed inside of a cage so his white counterparts would not have to unduly interact
with him (Du Bois, 446). While Wilson may have not actually ordered the black clerk to be placed inside of