World War I was the first war in which African American men were drafted in a lottery. How did this military service affect draftees decisions after the war? 

In this video, HKS Professor Desmond Ang discusses his latest research, co-authored by Sahil Chinoy, which used the random variation that came from the WWI draft to determine whether military service led to higher levels of civic engagement for Black veterans, relative to other Black citizens. They find that Black men who served in WWI were three times more likely to join the NAACP after their service ended, and were similarly more likely to become prominent civic activists after the war. Professor Ang and co-author Chinoy's paper is a fascinating look into the causal drivers of the early Civil Rights Movement, and sheds light on individuals who have often been overlooked in previous historical analyses.

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