African American Gold Star Mothers - Paris
After World War I and during the height of the Great Depression The Gold Star Pilgrimages (1930–1933) occurred following World War I, when the U.S. government funded all-expense-paid trips for mothers and unmarried widows to visit the overseas graves of their fallen soldiers. More than 6,000 women participated.
Of the 17, 389 American women eligible, more than 6,000 participated in these pilgrimages from 1930 to 1933, 624 of whom were African American. The program, launched at the height of the worst economic crisis in the nation’s history, illustrated the deep importance and honor of American war dead and the mission of the American Battle Monuments Commission.
Racial Segregation was enforced despite their shared grief, the U.S. War Department strictly segregated the pilgrimages. White American mothers traveled on luxury liners and stayed in first-class hotels, while African American mothers were relegated to commercial steamers and segregated accommodations.
In contrast, the cemeteries they visited were arranged without regard of race or rank, and African American soldiers were buried side by side with white American soldiers.
These Gold Star American Mothers pose outside a replica of Mt. Vernon which served as the United States pavilion during the 1931 Exposition Coloniale Internationale (Paris Colonial Exposition) while on pilgrimage to visit their sons and husbands graves in 1931.
The Mount Vernon Replica was built in the Bois de Vincennes by Sears, Roebuck & Co., this exact replica of Mount Vernon was the centerpiece of the American pavilion. It was meant to showcase America's territories (like Hawaii and Alaska), but its deep irony—using the home of a man who fought colonial tyranny to represent an empire at a colonial fair—was largely overlooked at the time.
The Women in the Photo This specific group (historically designated as "Party K") toured Paris and visited the exposition in July 1931 before traveling to the military cemeteries where their sons were laid to rest.
The women in this photograph were designated as "Party K" and they toured Paris and visited the exposition in July 1931 before traveling to the military cemeteries where their sons were laid.
Photograph source: National Archives—as part of the Gold Star Mothers Pilgrimage collection. (https://prologue.blogs.archives.gov/2021/05/24/gold-star-mothers-of-world-war-i/)