Military Racism Spurred Black Activism

Leveraging random induction from the WWI draft lottery and millions of digitized military and NAACP records, the study finds Black men drafted were significantly more likely to join the NAACP and become community leaders. The effect is strongest among soldiers who experienced the harshest discrimination and is not explained by migration or higher socioeconomic status. — It provides causal evidence that institutional racism can mobilize civic activism, reshaping how we understand the roots of the civil rights movement and the political effects of state institutions.