Published in Chicago in 1918 by Charles Gustrine, this CPI
poster shows African American soldiers slaughtering the Huns
beneath a benevolent portrait of Abraham Lincoln and the quote
"Liberty and Freedom Shall Not Perish. " Yet, at the time of
this poster, black soldiers were segregated and faced
discrimination and often violence after completing their service
and returning to their homes. Their President's record on race
relations was not very good, either. When Wilson was elected, he
fired most of the African Americans who held federal posts and
segregated the Navy, which until then had been desegregated.
During Wilson's first term in office, the House passed a law
making racial intermarriage a felony in the District of Columbia
and his Washington offices were segregated, with the those of
the Treasury and Navy soon following suit. Wilson had to deal
with a new generation of African American leaders, men such as
William Monroe Trotter, W.E.B. Du Bois and Marcus Garvey, and
the results were not always pleasa