When people think about World War II, they are likely to picture black and white photos of young soldiers going up against the Axis Powers. Yet there were many soldiers having to fight across the ocean as well as at home.
“Looking at the war from an African American perspective foregrounds a number of different and fascinating stories about black soldiers and nurses who served proudly, despite the fact that the military was racially segregated during the war,” said Matthew Delmont, professor of history and director of the School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies.
Delmont received a Guggenheim Fellowship for his book proposal, "To Live Half American: African Americans at Home and Abroad During World War II," which is projected to be completed in 2019. He is leading an Undergraduate Research Experience that allows undergraduate students to help find sources for his book, work alongside him and develop skills applicable to their field of study. The research project takes a look at the war from the perspective of African Americans by looking at the stories of black soldiers and nurses.
“African Americans rallied around something called the Double Victory campaign, which meant victory of fascism abroad and victory over racism at home,” said Delmont. “The students and I were working with digital databases, via ASU Libraries, that allowed us to search for articles from African American newspapers published during the war. Students were able to travel back in time to see how black communities in Chicago, New York, Pittsburgh and other cities learned about events like Pearl Harbor.”
The team of nine undergraduate research assistants has been collecting primary sources for the book. They have located over 5,000 news articles, some of which have not been seen since the 1940s.
“For students, undergraduate research is important because they learn about to gather and analyze massive amounts of information,” said Delmont. “Each of them found research materials that will make important contributions to what we know about an important era in our nation's history. The Undergraduate Research Experience is one of the best things I've experienced since coming to ASU.”
Stephanie Williamson, an undergraduate student studying history and Jewish studies, was one of the research assistants for the fall semester. She was collecting data from the ProQuest database and hopes the research will show that the Civil Rights Movement started earlier than thought by most Americans. Surprisingly, she was working on the project from Colorado as an online student.
“I have known that I wanted to study history since I was in seventh grade,” said Williamson. “There is something so fascinating about reading and studying someone else’s life and experiences. I believe studying history broadens your worldview, especially when you’re studying it from another person’s perspective.”
Williamson is grateful for the opportunity to have worked on the project because it helps her build skills for the career she wants to pursue. She wants to continue her education in archival studies and work with databases and primary sources on a daily basis.
“My goal would be to work in an academic library and this project helped me understand how online primary source databases work,” said Williamson.
Her contributions to the project have been just as impressive as if she were an in-person student.
“Working with Stephanie was fantastic,” Delmont said. "She is a smart, curious and engaged student. For me, it was a perfect realization of what ASU is trying to do in terms of using digital technologies to reach students across the country and around the world. Stephanie participated fully and seamlessly in the project. We also bonded over the fact that we have young children who are the same age.”
The project will continue into the spring semester with another group of nine undergraduate students, four of which were working on the project in the fall of 2017.