http://dl.lib.brown.edu/repository2/repoman.php?verb=render&id=129294798...

I found this article to be contradictory in its attitude towards civil rights and the war.  On the one hand, the very title of the war, when placed in context, is describing the unequal opportunities between blacks and whites as the "first great tragedy of the war".  The article laments the forced ignorance of black soldiers called to the front, many of whom allegedly have no understanding of the war's basis, participants, or gravity.  As J.B. Watson claims, "they had just known for a few weeks that a great war was raging, and had not the slightest idea what it was all about", leaving their families likewise in a daze of confusion and helplessness as wives and children sent their husbands off to die for seemingly no reason at all.  Watson calls African-Americans a people "long neglected, repressed and exploited", indicating an eagerness to right these wrongs.  However, the very next paragraph reveals a drastic shift in approach.  Suddenly, Watson's activist voice morphs into an echo of the Secretary of War's empty praises.  While Watson's accolades may not ring as falsely as Newton D. Baker's, His choice to conclude his letter with such mild compromise as to be proud of the men "making a fine showing" necessarily brings into question his stance as a true and loyal defender of the plea for racial equality.