David Krugler

If We Must Die: African Americans’ Fight in the Race War of 1919

If We Must Die is a book-length project examining black self defense measures and armed resistance to white mob violence after World War I. Special attention is given to the role of black veterans, formation of the New Negro identity, and efforts to secure justice for African Americans accused of crimes during major episodes of racial conflict. This book will be the first complete study of African Americans’ responses to postwar mob violence, focusing on conflicts in Charleston, S.C.; Longview, Texas; Bisbee, Ariz.; Chicago, Ill.; Washington, D.C.; Knoxville, Tenn.; Omaha, Nebr.; and Elaine, Ark.

David Krugler is Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin–Platteville, where he has taught since completing his Ph.D. at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1997. A historian of the modern United States, his research interests include Cold War propaganda, civil defense and continuity of government, and race relations. He is the author of The Voice of America and the Domestic Propaganda Battles, 1945-1953 (University of Missouri Press, 2000) and This Is Only a Test: How Washington, D.C., Prepared for Nuclear War (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006). Currently he is writing a book on racial conflict in the United States in 1919. Krugler frequently serves as a faculty leader for teacher education programs at the Newberry Library in Chicago, Illinois. He is the past recipient of research grants and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Organization of American Historians, the White House Historical Association, and the UW System Institute on Race and Ethnicity.