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African American GIs and the Struggle for Civil Rights Abroad

2008 Ford Scholars Project Description

Description of the Project:

Together with a colleague from Heidelberg University, we have applied for an NEH grant to support a Three-Year Material Development Project that will gather widely dispersed sources related to the American Civil Rights movement.  With the project we would like to resurrect a little known chapter of American history, namely the role that African American GIs played in carrying the Civil Rights movement to Europe. More specifically, our project will focus on Germany as a case study to illuminate the connection between the establishment of U.S. military bases abroad and the advancement of civil rights in the U.S.  With this project we will create an extensive Vassar-based educational website, which will be made accessible free of charge via the worldwide web to scholars, as well as college and high school students in the U.S. and across the globe.  Our website will include a digital archive of printed sources related to the civil rights struggle of African American GIs stationed in Germany.  These sources will be complemented by the rich historical record produced in the U.S. in response to the civil rights demands of African American soldiers stationed abroad.  A visual record of photographs, posters and flyers will provide clues to the breadth of activities of African American GIs, and the many alliances that became possible with German activists.  Furthermore, a digital archive of oral histories, and a variety of learning materials will help interested students and instructors understand that the creation of the world wide U.S. military base system also resulted in the expansion of the civil rights movement beyond the physical boundaries of the U.S.  Finally, to integrate our humanist commitment to both scholarship and teaching, we will produce a teaching guide that will help college and AP high school teachers to introduce this important topic to their students.

This semester, I am teaching a new colloquium on “African American Soldiers, Military Service and Civil Rights”.  This will be a wonderful way to get the project underway as the course will include a group project that involves the local community.  Thus, the colloquium will give me a great opportunity to get our students involved in gathering materials and oral histories of African American Veterans who were stationed in Germany.  For example, as part of the colloquium group project, the students will be gathering all editorials and newspaper articles related to African Americans, their role in WWI, WWII, Korean War, Vietnam War, and how those wars impacted debates on citizenship rights.  Students will be researching the Crisis, Negro Digest, Amsterdam News and Pittsburg Courier.  We will also be reaching out to the local community to find veterans who were stationed in Germany. Pete Leonard will help us make these contacts.  


Anticipated Summer Activities:

We will work on creating a website that will house research materials concerned with the experience of African-American GIs stationed in Germany.  The student will research newspapers, publications, etc., and would also be responsible for making materials available on the website.

Preferred Student Qualifications:

Some experience creating websites is preferred, but I am willing to work with a student who would be interested in the taking the web page training provided by CIS.

Anticipated follow-up teaching/professional activity for the student:

The student’s expertise would be called on when I teach my American Culture colloquium on "African Americans Soldiers, Military Service and Civil Rights."