Chicago’s black world war i veterans
Below you will find links to the raw data and Geographic Information System (GIS) files used to construct the maps of Black World War I veterans’ addresses in Chicago first published in “The ‘Spirit of Revolt’: A Reappraisal of Black Veterans in Chicago’s Red Summer,” a Journal of Urban History article that I co-authored with the late Dr. Christopher Lamberti. The raw data comes from U.S. Army Transport ships manifests containing the names of American soldiers who deployed to France during the war. This is not a comprehensive list of Black World War I veterans from Chicago; the regiments listed below were the three with the most African American Chicagoans, but Black men from the Second City served in many other outfits in France and stateside. You can access all of the passenger manifests through the fold3 website. (For those without a fold3 subscription, please contract me at sdinces@lbcc.edu if you would like assistance locating a particular manifest or servicemember.)
address lists
365th infantry
Addresses of Black World War I Veterans from the 365th Infantry Regiment
Outgoing (U.S.-to-France) ship manifests
370th infantry
Addresses of Black World War I Veterans from the 370th Infantry Regiment
The 370th was the wartime designation for the famed 8th Illinois National Guard Regiment.
Outgoing (U.S.-to-France) ship manifests
803rd pioneer
Addresses of Black World War I Veterans from the 803rd Pioneer Infantry Regiment
The 803rd was a logistical support regiment that served, for the most part, behind front lines.
Outgoing (U.S.-to-France) ship manifests
maps
Click on the map title below to access a Dropbox folder containing the associated data files (spreadsheets), export files (.jpeg images and Adobe Illustrator files), shapefiles, .mxd (ArcMap) files, and ArcGIS project files. If you want to work with the project files in ArcMap, click the map link below, then click “Download” button at the top of the Dropbox page. Once the download completes, decompress/unzip the folder (using the same folder name for the unzipped version) and open the project file. Do not reorganize the subfolders or files, as this will un-link the underlying shapefiles and data from the project file.