http://dl.lib.brown.edu/pdfs/1292430415289125.pdf

To the United States of North America - Thomas Campbell 

I chose to analyze a short poem by Thomas Campbell partially because of its placement within the journal and partially because it is just so striking in its brevity and frankness. The poem (included as a screenshot) is under a list of negro casualties and above a report of thirteen military members being hung. It speaks to the overlooked sacrifice made my African Americans in the success of American endeavors. In describing the stripes on the American flag as representing "your negroes scars" this poem very harshly acknowledges that America is built on the unrecognized, uncelebrated sacrifice of an entire race. The placement of this poem, written before World War One, is crucial in understanding the stance taken on the war by the writers of The Crisis. It is a white mans war fought by young African American men eager to be part of the nation and instead, murdered by mobs at home and hung overseas. 

I found this to be very distressing. It's one thing to study a tragic social issue objectively, but it's another to see it published and written about in a timely periodical and realize this was reality for an entire race within our country. After watching videos and seeing accounts of white soldiers suffering the atrocities of war and coming home as celebrated, albeit damaged, war heroes, it's incredibly more disheartening to realize African Americans were suffering the same and worse, as well as having to deal with racism and segregation while fighting for a country that wouldn't recognize their legitimacy as equal human beings. Then to realize they came home to a racist, segregated country and had to continue fighting for their rights within their own country even after the war was over.