and probably the thing that dominates african-american concern in this era is the spread of racialized violence. we talk about lynching and it is apparent, in terms of how much of a problem this is, how it

comes to define unfairly, in many respects, an entire region of the country, where lynching is happening almost everywhere in the country. the additional practice of racial terrorism that deeply concerned african americans, in fact terrorizes them, is the bizarre, macabre, deeply disturbing practice of lighting african-americans on fire. not just their property. arson is a problem, but lighting black people, in particular, on fire. so again, these are the kinds of things we're talking about. therefore, an important backdrop for how then african-americans will compare and contrast their position with what is happening in the rest of the world. even before african-americans suited up for war, they were aware of other black people involved in the great war. in particular, african soldiers who are normally referred to by a french name, regardless of where they are from.

there are going to be called senegalese sharpshooters by people all over the world. they are concerned about them, about black people in the caribbean who are now, as a result of being a part of the british empire, drawn into the war, and canadians. i will come back to that. these men articulating, and women articulating, political concerns are known by a term that web dubois coined. the man on your right. they are called soldiers without swords. after the war, it captures the sense of urgency for a lot of asking americans. yesterday, dr. king talked about how african american organizations like the naacp are in their stage of infancy at this time. it is important for us to remember that so, too, are

african-american newspapers. for these men and women who are professionally trained, college educated, usually elite college educated, the newspaper will become an important way of not only legitimizing and explaining the war, but also legitimizing and explaining their professional voices, as these intellectual activists, these soldiers without swords. the man on your left is mr. trotter, who makes everyone seem soft. harvard educated, unrepentant, he becomes a thorn in wilson's side because he holds the president's feet to is the fire. in the he's in particular known for opposing, or at least questioning the terms under which african-americans will enlist in the war. but also, really coordinating an international campaign to quash the release of "birth of a nation," the homage to the klan. that came out in 1915.

one of my favorite quotes by web dubois on the war, written before the united states enters the war officially, he says, "absolute loyalty in arms and civil duties need not for a moment lead us to abate our just complaints and just demand." for african americans, like other americans, they will say, against the accusation that they lack patriotism, they lack a robust understanding of a citizenship duty to the nation, -- a citizen's do determination, he will say instead, "it is precisely because i understand the true meaning of patriotism that i say that my country must listen to our urgent needs, and must respond in exchange for our support." this is exactly what women are doing. let's be clear, war is a perfect time for concessions, or at least to ask for them, as you -- because you are needed. it is true. to the it is totally true. another person who is, i describe her as a little lady

who packs a lot of punch, ida wells. she had in fact made the case for the urgency and alarming practice of lynching, long before her male counterparts understood this problem. ida b. wells is another journalist who is writing about the war and writing about this crisis, both moral and physical, for african-americans. in the case of wells and dubois in particular, though not exclusively, it is important to remember that they have connections overseas. they went to school overseas or lectured overseas, so they are able to tap into those alliances to find out what is happening in europe, to find out what humanitarian responses might be needed, and to bring that information back to african-american communities. this next picture is of african-american journalists who

are gathering at a conference in washington dc and trying to the outline what will be the key issue that issues that they may press with the president. you will notice that there are, in the front row, some french soldiers who are already there. and some french diplomats who are involved in the war. web dubois and monroe trotter are at the center. this meeting proved so contentious, wilson has one of his many conniptions and decides he will no longer have african americans come to the white house to air their grievances. the man could hold a grudge

because by the versailles treaty and negotiations, he also refuses to hear or have an audience with dubois in particular but african americans at large. my second point was this question of a global war, and what does it mean for african-americans. this political cartoon captures perfectly, for me, how african-americans thought globally and use this global language to reflect back on the case of the african-american experience. this is from the crisis magazine. the script that was on the bottom, it might be too small, i retyped -- voice of the congo: if you only left us our hands, albert, we could be of more use to you now. this, to me, is powerful because it makes clear both an interest for african americans and these -- in these global debates, and absolute understanding of what

is happening, and indictment of what was happening in the belgian congo before. but also a warning for americans of what could happen here, in their own time of need. there are a few countries that african-americans talked about repeatedly leading up to 1917. they used these as platforms for a sublimation of their own political concerns. this, of course in addition to a genuine humanitarian concern for these locations. it is serving double duty. in the case of belgium, african american intellectual activists would say that in some respects, what the germans were doing to the belgians was a comeuppance long overdue given what the belgians did in the congo, and that this kind of brutal exploitation that was reserved

for the congolese was the very essence of a belgian moral and spiritual decay. that is what awaited americans if they did not pull back from their commitment to racialized terrorism. for many african-americans, south africa is in a close second, especially given its growing commitment to apartheid. we see a lot of comparable editorials calling attention to the brutality that south africans and especially the separatists in south africa are starting to do in that little pocket at the bottom of africa. poland and ireland are frequent guests in african-american newspapers, in part because african-americans will hold onto those two countries in particular as kind of a hope for an independent, successful independent future for otherwise

oppressed europeans. sometimes, in the case of poland they will even talk about how they are europe's negroes. this language is especially important in poland and ireland because there it is religious and in some senses, ethnic, especially in the case of poland. russia is very important for african-americans prior to 1917, both because again the patterns that occurred in russia leading up to the war, and because of the revolution in 1917, that becomes a place where it seems possible to topple the impossible. so for african americans it will become a way of talking about

what they might want to consider for themselves. finally, the armenian genocide. a matter that african-americans take up as early as 1890's. maybe even earlier. i have a separate piece on that in particular. there are so many echoes between the experiences of african americans and armenians, including this bizarre practice of lighting people on fire. in the case of all of these countries, african-americans pooled their very limited resources and create either programs or campaigns to help these imperiled europeans. for example, by 1917, african-americans will have a campaign to raise money to send enough baby food to take care of belgian babies for three months. they will pledge, by 1917, to raise $1 million for african

orphans and their widows. again, there is this constant in the newspaper of what is happening to african soldiers. they are in artillery units. they are in machine gun units. while the u.s. is still debating whether african americans should be part of the war in 1917, african americans will say, the french and british have been doing this for three years, why are we still talking about this? there is even a very bizarre case of a jamaican born turned austrian fanatic who wins the iron cross for the austrians in 1917. he is celebrated in the african-american press as again, a possibility of what can happen when you take jim crow out of the equation. we are talking about a population that is

overwhelmingly working in a cash poor sector. right? cotton farming. to take the few dollars that they do get when they get them and to make the decisions to spend them, in effect, on an abstract concept, african soldiers all the way over there. to make that decision as early as 1914, is for me, another way that the war is something that african-americans start to contemplate a lot earlier. of course, african-americans will talk about the caribbean as a cautionary tale, because they believed, and dubois would be in that group, that the united states is stretching itself into the caribbean, trying to make it yet another deep south under the distraction of war. haiti, puerto rico, even the panama canal zone become hotly contested racial spaces, and african-americans think that

this is only the start. the attractions are the deep ports available in some of these islands like the danish west indies, st. kitts. there is another problem, the british. the frenemy. at this very time, canada was making the hard sell to great britain to have a caribbean island, ideally jamaica, given to them as a thanks for coming out with this war gift. we nearly got jamaica as a province but instead got newfoundland. no fair. the argument made consistently, both in the press and in official military documentation is that canada needed its own deep south. it needed to prove its modernity by having black people they could control. there is a lot of concern over what to do with the vote if we have this extra island because we don't necessarily have a legal jim crow structure, like the united states.

african-americans are keeping an eye in all of these places as the war unfolds. one of those spaces is france. where african-americans are joining the war before as individuals, just like other americans. here we have eugene bullard who joins the lafayette espadrilles. what is important here is that african-americans are seduced by the same language of patriotic martial heroism as all other americans. in particular because successes like bullard's gives the lie to the core promise offered by jim crowe, by segregation. that is, when racial lines hold violently, if necessary blacks and their inescapable

inferiority will be confirmed. when eugene bullard -- when we see him here, what is dangerous about him is not that he is an ace pilot fighting alongside ivy leaguers, it is that we see this healthy body decorated with awards, the very embodiment of manliness that is not, in a cosmopolitanism, that is not supposed to happen. this is a mistake. worse, the french celebrate him. this question of black men in uniform will be such a prickly one that after the war we have an uptick in not just black veterans being singled out for attacks, we know that some are even lynched in their uniforms, but there are also these small-scale attacks, spitting on them, ripping off parts of their uniform.

the canadians are so distraught by what they see happening in the united states that they take the added precaution of requiring that their black soldiers take off their uniforms before they even board the ship in great britain to come back to the americas. again, this spreads beyond the simple american borders. images like this would have been problematic. these are the french elite cavalry. they are working with, training with african soldiers that i mentioned earlier. roughly translated to african sharpshooters. by the war's end, at least 500,000 african soldiers will have served under the french flag alone. that does not even yet account for the british, the west

indians, the black canadians who also joined the armed forces. americans enter world war i having already thought about a black martial experience before they reach european shores. here we see a picture of canada's number two construction battalion, attached to the forrester he -- for history --forestry corps. you are not looking at canadians. you are looking at largely americans. by my calculation, african-americans accounted for at least 40% of black men serving under the canadian flag, not that we actually have one. that does not even yet include descendents of african americans who would have come -- whose ancestors came as black loyalists or who came during and after the war of 1812. this is also an army that has a robust representation of west

indians. the british will float them up from the caribbean to all gather up at halifax and have one shipment across. from what i have seen with charting the borders and when these men are coming, they are arriving largely from the detroit area, but not exclusively. many of these men are coming from georgia, florida, alabama. they are citing at the border that joining the army is a correction to unemployment. what does this mean to me? first of all, we are getting a concrete reminder that the great migration expanded beyond chicago and cleveland in the way that we normally talk about it. that these men continued seeking work wherever that work was available. and if it meant crossing borders, they did. crossing the border would not have been easy for black people at this time. canada adopted a ban on african-american immigration in

particular in 1911. it did not stay on the books for long, but it was there. the spirit of that law never went away. there are all of these shady, to use current street parlance of ways of keeping these men out. what i love is that canadians were not very good at identifying race, though they wanted to be. so they did. you see on the enlistment records, all of these, i think he is black but i'm not sure. he looks sallow. all the different words they used have become quite comical me, a, and now i can -- for and now i can decipher them. they will describe them as yellow, as perhaps not well cleaned. at the end of the summer, they have tanned. my brother would fall in that category. it points to this desire to identify race, but inability to

do it as well as the americans. bizarrely, once the canadians mandate that everyone must serve, then they actually send headhunters down into the united states to bring back canadians who had moved and west indians who had moved to the united states and forcibly marched them back to canada to serve. the last thing i want to say, about the canadians, is that the reason cited for not wanting black soldiers are of course comical, including my personal favorite, they would not look good in kilts, because so many were in highland units. one often overlooked way that african americans had been engaging in this war physically and intellectually is that african-americans had been cutting across the atlantic since 1914.

as men working ships, mending, caring for the horses and mules that the british and the french were buying by the hundreds of thousands. new orleans and newport news, virginia, were awash in black people, southerners in particular, who had not only been keenly aware of the war, but had navigated the submarine infested waters back and forth throughout the month, and there is a great case of a sinking that i don't have time to talk about, but i spent a summer writing about it. there is something weird for all of us who are historians. when you find a great story, you are so excited. it seems wrong, but you are like, i found a sinking, 200 people died, it will be great. i was definitely that happy. now, of course, the punitive war, right?

that is what war meant to african-americans before we turn -- turned to europe. the quote under this political cartoon says, "uncle sam, did you send the eighth regiment of illinois to protect this country or be shot down by texans?" you see them towering behind. so african-americans were seasoned soldiers. in fact in the press, you see constant references to having been in the war of independence or the most recent conflict. they had been in the philippines. there is no question of their , not only their patriotism but their martial heroism. they found it quite insulting that it even took, that there was any public debate about it, but that it took so long for the wilson administration to make some firm decisions. going into the war, there were approximately 10,000 career soldiers and another 5000 african americans who were

national guardsmen. however, especially after the mutiny, as it was called, in houston, the united states does the exact opposite of what would seem logical. rather than take the men who had field experience, the very few american soldiers who had field experience, who even had some experience with the debacle called our aerial warfare in mexico, rather than send them to france as the first wave, we in fact send them to the deep parts of the philippines and hawaii in order to quell this concern that if you taught black men to shoot, the first thing they would do is turn their guns on white people. for african-americans, this is an added insult because they feel as though they are in fact well positioned to serve their country. in the case of the expedition, pershing had singled them out as

his right-hand men. there had even been some attempts at informal integration during the punitive expedition. not something to brag about, but pershing had turned the other cheek when it came to integrated brothels in mexico. he well swaying to the total opposite when it comes to france. there were, for african-americans, also some heroes. charles young, the west point graduate. for most, he seemed like the logical choice as a black officer who could lead, ideally, african-americans but whoever wanted to work with him, into battle. of course, we know the war department would have none of it. they forcibly retire him. one of the concessions that we get instead is officer training camp in fort des moines, iowa.

a location selected, the war department said, because it was in the middle of nowhere, 400 acres landlocked in iowa, and that iowa, because it had no people, had no racial tensions. and because they were in the middle of nowhere, it would make it harder for white women to get to these men. this officer training camp becomes the embodiment of that hope and promise for african-americans in 1917. what is important for us to also remember here is that it is not just soldiers. this is also a camp where nearly 1000 african-american medical professionals are being trained and hoping for a commission, though none will get to be in the medical corps, will be in charge of black troops. now, jim crow requires commitment and resources. so this is a photograph of african-american dentists who

are being prepared to send over to france. when you're talking about a country that has only 478 black dentists for 10 million people, the impact of a single loss is felt greatly. in the 50 years of howard university's existence, it had graduated roughly 4500 people and half of all of the doctors in the country. howard was the university that sent the most medical doctors into this war. nearly 20%. so the impact on the cost for african-americans is great and for them then it is a measure of their commitment and contribution to the nation. so, black fraternities, historically black colleges and universities, are the first to respond to this call to war and in particular, this calling of

the nation for officers. but women, of course, respond, as well. while the red cross initially banned black women, once the influenza outbreak begins, and it begins earlier in the united states, they realize they are going to need help. so they finally admit 2000, or they ask for 2000 black women. as with white women, these were not just nurses, but they were also, as part of that talented tents, the rare educated crest of american society. these were women who spoke french and german, and therefore were translators, cultural conduits, and far more important given their small numbers. in the end, the red cross would have 16 black nurses in france for 50,000 soldiers.

so what we get as our starting point for 1917 is a replication, of a chiaroscuro nation, carefully crafted since jim crow, replicated overseas. black, white, black, white and not necessarily together. even the hostess huts or hostess houses that the ymca set up over -- overseas were separated by race. we have here again a photograph of black women who were at that officer training camp in iowa. here we have motor corp. women who are driving around helping wounded soldiers as they find them. we know that there was a lot of concern about what to do with these black men socially. because if nothing else, the women are white in france and

the french are looser in many ways. we have a lot of these photographs reassuring americans that the disruption, the language they use at the time is, we can't let the french ruin roes.groes -- neg but it is large, the concern about ruin. it is a sexual ruin, it is about an ideological or political ruin. they are especially concerned in 1917 that communists will get to the black soldiers, especially disgruntled russians who are still stuck in france. and that they will start having all these ideas. we know that during the st. louis riots, there is also a concern of not just germans but also japanese and mexicans getting into african-american minds. why are we concerned about the ruin of our black people? it is in part because they are on the move. they are voting with their feet. they are leaving regions where

it is no longer feasible for them to maintain a healthy lifestyle. we think of this great migration is being forced by a panic over racial violence and of course, that is true, but it is also because boll weevils and floods and other types of -- the collapse of cotton prices have made a barely sustainable life altogether impossible. the army's pay of $30 per month, in cash no less, will be a very seductive, will have its own seductive appeal for people leaving the region. but for all the panic, it is important to remember that only about 5% of african americans left the south in 1916. african-americans are still largely southern, rural farmers, even into world war i. in fact, this army's ability to pay in cash will be a reason cited, african-americans

couldn't be excused from service. they will say the $30 you will make with us is more than you would have made cotton farming, so even if you have dependents, you still have to go and do your bit for the nation. however -- sorry, i skipped a page. here, i wanted you to remember that the way african-americans move will be determined by the pre-existing networks and paths available to them. the mississippi and steamship is still the cheapest way to get out of the south. rail lines and actual roads. there are several rail lines that go along the yellow line. these is in part what speeds up that migration and the ability to get that money in your pocket and buy a ticket for the first time. this wonderful painting captures that promise that we are talking about.

it is children, old people, people in top hats, and people with a rag on their head, the woman through the chicago door on the left. it is really an opportunity for african-americans, like europeans coming here, to follow their dreams three migrant experience. migrant experience. however, 1917 is also a year of extreme violence. these are just five locations where we have race riots between may and late fall of 1917. so precisely as we were asking african-americans to die for their country, they are being killed in their country. the one that is best known is east st. louis. it is written about as a labor dispute that, unions had been opposing or calling attention to the fact that african-americans were being brought in as strike breakers. they respond violently and this is what happens. but in truth, it is much more

complicated than that. what is more disturbing is the role that women and children had eastrticular during the st. louis crisis. the accounts of ripping peoples hair out and hitting them with frying pans and so on, it really indicates the level of vitriol. it is estimated that 1500 african-americans sped out of the region just during the early days of this race riot. the response by the local press and to a certain extent, the government, the response of saying that, if african-americans fought back, it is because the germans were whispering in their ears, right? it isn't something they would've done by themselves. they have always been happy with their oppression. if they had an opinion at all. the thing is, i argue that this

turn to a german or japanese or mexican plot actually allows for greater surveillance of african-americans, especially african-american intellectuals, under the espionage act. unless it is the work of an enemy, then there is not as great of an urgency. so this is also a period for african-americans when there is a heightened surveillance of their talent, their most educated, vocal, politically alighted. it is said of hoover that he's cut his teeth trying to silence these african-americans. but they are no fools. they quickly adopt alternative ways of making themselves heard. this is the silent parade that we get in 1917. emphasis here on the word "parade," they deliberately do not call it a march so as to

ensure it is a patriotic act and not a protest. it is a celebration of what is right. that is, the first blood for american independence was shed by a negro. crispus addicks. a reminder in the various signage that we see on this long walk up 5th avenue, of the politics of respectability right? , these are church women, children, they are wearing white, the color of mourning but also a color of protection so that if shot or stabbed, you could see it well in the photograph, a tragedy that continued through the civil rights movement of the 1950's. as with other parts of society, african-american children are mobilized in support of this war. here, we get a newsboy selling war bonds, and judging by his missing front teeth, he is about six or so years old.

so again, a reminder of how young it is. we have posters, poems, recipes, reminders of how black women could stretch a dime into a dollar with respect to their food during the war. all the work that is needed. by the same measure, all of the support from those communities that we ask of other americans. the committee for public information, cpi run by george creel even develops a negro section for its propaganda and has black four-minute men, black film, black posters, postcards like this one here. but meant to make african-americans feel as though they are part of an important moment. so my next to last point, france, this utopian space. 89% of african-americans who

went over to france did so as laborers and stevedores in particular. when you got to france, whether you were an american or other allied forces, what you saw were all black people manning them. so brest in the north has about 40,000 african-americans. a tiny town on the western coast that today, if you go, there is a huge car depot. -- carter gill depot. they adopted the footprint that the americans had. they become these contested terrains where we have early race riots as a result of these encounters on the docks. they are not even just african americans. in the united states, in the case of philadelphia, 50% of longshoremen were actually jamaican.

in the case of miami, they control the union and they are bahamian. these are the same men who are coming over under the american army, and working those docs. -- docks. these images are in stark contrast to these kinds of colorful magazines that are targeted at african-americans, children in particular. our prideful soldiers, beautifully healthy looking, and manly. this cpi poster produced in 1918, but note here the african-american soldiers are keeping the germans at bay and actually killing them in the dead center near the flag. nobody is wearing overalls and lifting a crate. this disjunction between the propaganda and what african-americans are actually doing is very complicated and the black press addresses it. when these african-americans

arrive in france, what do they encounter? they encounter a continent that has spent a lot of the war thinking about fighting over race, including this one, this was a postcard and it says "that is what they call a savage over here." so this idea that african-americans came to a france that welcomes them and was happy to see them is nonsense. the french had been using their own tropes to encourage black enlistment and denigrate their german enemy. the americans will arrive in the aftermath of the disastrous offensive of 1917. they suffered very high losses, and this idea championed by a

general on the right is the idea that france's secret is its black force. its black power. the ability to call up an almost inexhaustible number of black people from the colonies who would be thrilled to do their part for the empire. it is the least they could do as a thank you gift for france's civilizing mission. and the gift of language in cash -- language and religion. this is what he actually said. should his paternalistic tableau prove unsatisfying, he told africans they had a blood oath to france. it was their turn to step up for a collective blood letting. in fact, probably my favorite character of the entire war said that he would rather see 10 black men dead to one frenchman. by 1917, that is the french response. not singularly, to have black people killed, but in truth, the french are like, the black body

will stop a bullet as one as -- well as anyone else's. we are happy to have the americans come, we have been waiting a long time, but they can catch a bullet as well as anybody else as well. we are happy that you are healthy. get in there. but it's not some deep passion for americans per se. at the civilian level, you hear much more of this. we also have plenty of examples of the exploitation of americans as kind of green. there are reports of overcharging black people for food. the germans had been crafty in proving themselves capable of manipulating a race card in this war pointing out that black , people were cannibals and that is what they ultimately would do if they were put on the western front. they were barbaric and a warring people. and turning this language of lynching on to americans saying,

why are you fighting for these people? they lynch people who look like you and we do not. you should join our side. there are already all of these debates about race in europe long before the african-americans get there. when they do, they fall into some immediately predictable stereotypes. they are the happy music playing people, right? he is sent to play for sometimes, european dignitaries, but oftentimes just for people in the hospital and who are sick. in this competition of race, the canadians quickly put a black band together and send them on a tour as well. so they were like we can do , this. we have a lot of these pictures of african-americans with instruments, rarely with actual weapons of war, which becomes an easy way to make light of their contributions. not because fewer saw combat, but the works they did overseas,

the overwhelming majority who were in labor battalions, did women's work, blue-collar work. cooking, cleaning, digging and cleaning toilets. that is not the stuff that gets you a vote. that is certainly not the stuff you can lean on after the war to be taken more seriously as a citizen. i will end here with the pictures of captain stewart alexander and lieutenant frank robinson. they were just two of many african-americans who earned the french decoration for bravery in battle. these medals that you see on these men, and what they have on their shoulders, will become, for african-americans, another powerful measure of a failed possibility in 1917. that the french recognized what the americans were ready to hang

on a tree or light ablaze. that, for many, will be the real shame, the real loss of the war. i promised at the beginning that i would talk about the cost of war for african-americans. how timely that i am on my last slide. just as laura is coming down. icwant to end with the disgen impact of war. disgenic usually means gene loss, but here there is a broader cultural impact. for one thing, the war halts civil rights campaigns. those things i started with, the money sent to support legal cases, legal challenges to jim crow cars, restaurants, unequal pay for black teachers. instead, that gets redirected towards suiting these guys up for war, making sure they have the socks that they need, the candy they need, the care packages they need, the right kind of rifle, the right kind of thing to keep them warm and

happy. it is a strain on already limited and meager resources, both in terms of income but also food. we are talking about people who barely had food to begin with to ration more because of the war. it is a dramatic loss of that talented generation, to have made it through school, to have sat through hbcus and graduated from medical schools, to have graduated from law schools. the professionals we need in order to keep up the fight against jim crow. those with the know-how are left in europe. it is a tremendous loss of medical professionals that we cannot afford. it will take entirely too long to replace. it leads to a greater police surveillance of african-american communities especially in the north. that will slow civil rights. and of course, the war era gives

us an absolute spike in lynching and race riots and arson attacks that i talked about such , that it will become the main thing that consumes 1917 throughcans 1920. you will have to come back next year to see what happens. [laughter] thank you. [applause] we have just a short amount of time for a question. >> you had a couple of references to pershing but given his history of lady in black troops to the spanish -- ladybug trips to the spanish-american war, what can you say about that? what were his views? mess.pershing, what a

[laughter] his experience with african-american soldiers predates the spanish-american war. he was involved with the buffalo soldiers in the indian war. and in the border wars. even before the philippines and cuba. he has a mixed experience. on the one hand, his white peers mocon by calling him nigger ja to then it gets cleaned up blackjack pershing. but i have read this man's biographies. i have read more than i ever cared to and he never express es any particular affinity for black soldiers. neither is he concerned or disdainful of them. but when it comes to world war i, he is obsessed with having a perfect army, no matter the cost. right?

so so black dots are not a part of it. his willingness to send black combatant troops to the french really falls -- it is an easy solution to his problem. thehey fail, as he expects will, it is over here and no one will write about it or talk about it. it's over, the experiment is finished. we can go back and say to the african-americans, we can't have an integrated army because you sucked. if they succeed, which they do, then it's all the way over in france and with censorship, the news never quite made it over. so it is a convenient solution. he gives the french what they want which is american soldiers , that they can control and train, but he has no particular war i.for them by world lora: i know that there are more questions in this auditorium. the pleasure of being in the room where it happens is -- thank you for the one laugh. [laughter]

you are going to have the opportunity during our break to ask those questions. i would also encourage you, most of your nametags have two use those there, to or offer one of those in a conversation with dr. matthew and ask her those questions you -- you think i sell for cheap. lora: this is why you don't want to be watching it on tv or online. you want to be here in person. please join me in thanking her. [applause] announcer: on monday, 10:00 a.m. eastern, queen elizabeth delivers her annual christmas message. and at 8:00 p.m. eastern the debate on israel and its impact on middle east peace. >> what kind of moral character,

what kind of human values are we willing to promote? are we going to forget the ugly realities in gaza and the west bank? >> if you look at the united nations today, there is one country in the world that is the focus of 90% of u.n. resolutions and that is israel. announcer: on book tv, at 6:30 p.m. eastern, world war ii veteran chair yellen recalls his bombing missions over japan with his book "the last fighter pilot." a> emission on june -- mission on june 1, the squadron took off and 27 fighter planes went to down come up with five guys were killed -- and 25 guys were killed. it is hard to say how i felt then. but i miss my airplane. we were there to protect our

freedom and to fight and we did that. it was after the war that i suffered for 30 years. american history tv on c-span3 at 8:00 p.m. eastern, the hamilton playwright lin-manuel miranda except the u.s. capital historical society's 2017 freedom award. >> when you are a theater kid you make friends from different social groups, you learn to work hard to create something greater than the sum of your parts, and just for the sake of making something great you learn to trust your passion and let it lead the way. announcer: watch on monday, christmas day, on the c-span networks. on sunday on c-span, heritage foundation distinguished fellow lee edwards chronicles his involvement in the conservative movement. >> i met joe mccarthy through my father, who was something of a confidant to him and he was a fellow well met, he liked the

party and he liked a drink or two. as long as you did not talk about communism you could not have asked for a more fun guy to be with, but he was serious about that and he was someone who do not take advice very well. and he consequently said things, even did things, that hurt the cause of anti-communism. announcer: sunday night at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. announcer: each week, american artifacts takes you to museums and historic places to learn about american history. located in the heart of washington dc the willard hotel , has been a witness to history for 200 years. guests have included abraham lincoln, mark twain, world war ii soldiers and at the first japanese delegation to the united states in .