After World War I, Black soldiers believed their participation in the fight to make the world safe for democracy finally earned them rights they had been promised since the close of the Civil War. Instead, an unprecedented wave of racist riots and lynchings swept the country for eight months, and hundreds of lives were lost. In this riveting account, Cameron McWhirter chronicles the struggle, while also exploring the first stirrings of a civil rights movement that would transform American society 40 years later.