After looking through a variety of pamphlets, one immediately grabbed my attention. “Virginia’s War History” was published in 1920 in an effort to preserve the history of World War in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The subject itself is very intriguing, as when one thinks about the Great War time period in the United States, Virginia isn’t typically the first state to come to mind. However, Chairman Arthur Kyle was determined to ensure that future Virginians would always have knowledge of their state’s history and participation in the first World War. He accomplished this through what became known as “The Virginia Plan”, which sought to preserve the civilian history of the war in Virginia. Not only was it the first state in the Union “to adopt and publish a definite and comprehensive plan of treatment for a State war history” (3), but it also specifically highlighted the story of civilian activities throughout the war. People criticized the Virginia plan because of this, but it’s interesting and important to have these records now as they give us an insight into what life in Virginia was like during the war.
The whole pamphlet lays out the planned design of the Virginia plan as well as makes an argument for it. As a result, it doesn’t give too much information on the state of Virginia at the time. However, there is a little bit of insight on racial relations which I find very interesting. Kyle talks about “The Virginia Negroes” and the role in which they would play in the assembling of the Virginia plan. Virginia had “a central board of thirty negro collaborators” which would be responsible for gathering facts and history of “negro civilian activities in war time” (6). What I find most interesting about this section of the pamphlet is Kyle’s opinion on race relations of the time which he subtly makes clear. He says, “It is the belief of the executive committee… that Virginia will have reason to be proud of the story of the negroes in war time as told by their own writers” (6).
His view contrasts the discussion and readings that our class has had, but they also prove our class right. His beliefs are what would have been expected from a white man at this time. While it is significant that he had African-Americans actually write their own history of what happened, his belief that future Virginians would be proud of the story of negroes in war time was clearly misguided. As seen throughout various readings and discussed in class, this time period resulted in mass segregation and was incredibly challenging for African-Americans. Kyle’s sentiment here, even though he believed he was helping, reflects the ignorance of white Americans toward racial relations.
While the pamphlet itself didn’t give much indication about civilian life in Virginia at the time, it was very interesting to read as it set the stage for creating the Virginia plan. I enjoyed reading Kyle’s argument as to why it should be written, because without sources like this, it’s arguable that we wouldn’t even have this class (considering our class is all about civilian life during the Great War).
This is an interesting pamphlet, Bradley, because of what it would mean later — indeed, for us now. Virginia does have one of the best archives for American participation the war. The “Virginia Plan” resulted in hundreds of interviews with Virginian soldiers now housed at the Library of Virginia. Indeed, it is the largest trove of black soldiers’ war experiences available and was critical to the work of historians we read like Chad Williams and Adriane Lentz-Smith. Dr. Rainville could tell you more about the “Virginia Plan,” but it is really interesting to see it at an early stage in this pamphlet.