early in 1919, dr. george edmund haynes, an educator employed as director of negro economics for the u.s. department of labor, wrote: "the return of the negro soldier to civil life is one of the most delicate and difficult questions confronting the nation, north and south." one black veteran wrote a letter to the editor of the "chicago daily news" saying the returning black veterans "are now new men and world men, if you please; and their possibilities for direction, guidance, honest use, and power are limitless, only they must be instructed and led. they have awakened, but they have not yet the complete conception of what they have awakened to." w. e. b. du bois, an official of the naacp and editor of its monthly magazine, saw an opportunity: "by the god of heaven, we are cowards and jackasses if now that the war is over, we do not marshal every ounce of our brain and brawn to fight a sterner, longer, more unbending battle against the forces of hell in our own land."