Hi everyone,
I'm researching different primary source propaganda outlets during different wars in American history in order to analyze them in the context of each other. During my research, I found an interesting NAACP publication(1) from 1918 commending the black soldiers fighting for the US, France, and Britain in Europe and Africa.
In one of the sections of the text, there is a sonnet called "A Sonnet to the Negro Soldiers". What strikes me as odd was the usage of 4 swastika symbols directly below the title of this sonnet. Is there any historical context behind this I should be aware of (obviously outside of Nazi usage. I think it's safe to say the NAACP were not Nazis especially 25 years-ish before Hitler's nazis.)? I had never heard of the NAACP using swastikas before, and never had I seen them connected to the fight for black Americans' civil rights.
(1) The Crisis: NAACP Journal . June 1918. Memorial Collection. Special Collections Department, Tampa Library, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida.
This is a great question, rarely in history do we get direct answers to questions like this but here we are.
September 23, 1924, Journalist Max Barth asked editor of The Crisis WEB Du Bois about their use of the swastikas in the magazine and he states that it was a bit of an accident because it was one of the stock decorations on the printer, then stating that it dates back to Asia and Nazis had taken it over as their symbol of choice.
In short, the NAACP was just using what they had available