As the influenza pandemic, known colloquially as “la grippe” or the Spanish Flu, spread across the globe, governments and health officials immediately began to call for the use of masks as a solution to keep more people from getting sick. Soon, the streets were filled with people wearing these gauze masks, much to the tut-tutting …
Tag: WWI
The Silent March That Shook American Race Relations 100 Years Ago
Amidst the patriotic fervor whipped up by President Woodrow Wilson’s declaration of war against Germany was the continuing racial violence and racism against African Americans. At the beginning of July, a bloody riot in East St. Louis, Illinois left an entire black neighborhood decimated and countless residents murdered, maimed, and left homeless. In response to …
America and the Great War
On April 6, 1917, the United States formally declared war on Germany and the Central Powers. Unlike Europeans, during that fateful summer of 1914, the American response to the nation finally entering the conflagration raging across the Atlantic was mixed. The U.S., being made up of multiple nationalities, political identities, religious beliefs, and heritages, found …