We Return Fighting: Red Summer Remembered

National Archives at Kansas City

On Tuesday, July 30 at 6:30 p.m., the National Archives in partnership with the National World War I Museum and Memorial will present an evening lecture titled We Return Fighting: Red Summer Remembered with Dr. Saje Mathieu and Cameron McWhirter. This program will take place at the National World War I Museum and Memorial in the J.C. Nichols Auditorium, 2 Memorial Drive, Kansas City, MO. Reservations are requested for this free program.

Black soldiers returned from World War I with a newfound sense of pride and determination for full citizenship and equality. These veterans, however, came home to a country actively plagued by racial violence, discrimination and inequality. Their patriotic service aggravated racial tensions, catalyzing in the “Red Summer.” From May through September 1919, 25 riots targeting African Americans broke out in major cities across the U.S. from D.C. to Houston to East St. Louis, killing and injuring hundreds. On the centennial of this critical period in American history, Mathieu and McWhirter will examine the legacies of the Red Summer.

Dr. Saje Mathieu is the author of the upcoming The Glory of Their Deeds: A Global History of Black Soldiers and the Great War Era and Cameron McWhirter is a Wall Street Journal reporter and author of Red Summer: The Summer of 1919 and the Awakening of Black America. This program is presented in partnership with the National World War I Museum and Memorial and the Greater Kansas City Black History Study Group.

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