When the United States entered Europe’s Great War in 1917, Connecticut manufacturers provided the military with munitions, clothing, and other goods. From Manchester silk and Waterbury brass to Bridgeport’s Remington Arms, which produced 50 percent of the US Army’s small arms cartridges, the industrial ramp up—and curtailed immigration from Europe—produced labor shortages. African Americans migrating from the South sought to fill these jobs. Many found opportunity and settled, but they also encountered racial discrimination from whites and class prejudice within established black communities. In addition to the men and women who worked on the home front, roughly 63,000 state residents served in the US or Allied forces. Among those remembered today are flying ace Raoul Lufbery and Stubby, the canine mascot of the 102nd Infantry, 26th Yankee Division.
Photograph: An enlistment banner hangs across Hartford’s Main Street, just before Pearl Street, urging men to enlist in the Connecticut National Guard or the regular army – Connecticut State Library, Dudley Photograph Collection
Poster: “First Call: I Need You in the Navy this Minute! Our Country will always be proudest of those who answered the FIRST CALL,” by James Montgomery Flagg, ca. 1917 – Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Detail from the letter from Charles F. Coughlin to his mother, November 16, 1917. Click here to read the entire four pages – Connecticut Historical Society, Matthew E. and Charles F. Coughlin World War I correspondence and memorabilia, 1879-1921, 66232
