<P> The African - American community did not take a strong position one way or the other . A month after congress declared war, W.E.B. Du Bois called on African - Americans to "fight shoulder to shoulder with the world to gain a world where war shall be no more". Once war began and black men were drafted, they worked to achieve equality . Many had hoped the community's help in the war efforts abroad would earn civil rights at home . When such civil liberties were still not granted, many African - Americans grew tired of waiting for recognition of their rights as American citizens . </P> <P> There was a strong antiwar element in the white South and border states . In rural Missouri for example, distrust of powerful Eastern influences focused on the risk that Wall Street would lead America into war . Across the South poor white farmers warned each other that "a rich man's war meant a poor man's fight," and they wanted nothing of it . Congressman James Hay, Democrat of Virginia was the powerful chairman of the House Committee on Military Affairs . He repeatedly blocked prewar efforts to modernize and enlarge the army . Preparedness was not needed because Americans were already safe, he insisted in January 1915: </P> <Dl> <Dd> Isolated as we are, safe in our vastness, protected by a great navy, and possessed of an army sufficient for any emergency that may arise, we may disregard the lamentations and predictions of the militarists . </Dd> </Dl> <Dd> Isolated as we are, safe in our vastness, protected by a great navy, and possessed of an army sufficient for any emergency that may arise, we may disregard the lamentations and predictions of the militarists . </Dd>

Compared to british and french troops the time americans spent fighting in world war i was