Preferred Name
Giovanni Nickolette Gibbs
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
ORCID
https://orcid.org/0009-0009-7591-3078
Date of Graduation
8-14-2026
Semester of Graduation
Summer
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
Department of History
First Advisor
Maura Hametz
Second Advisor
Colleen Moore
Third Advisor
Yongguang Hu
Fourth Advisor
Abel A Bartley
Abstract
This thesis examines the US government’s pilgrimages for Gold Star Mothers of the First World War. It focuses on the Jim-Crowing of black Gold Star Mothers. Through the analysis of archival records, letters, telegrams, newspaper articles, poems, and secondary literature, the thesis explores how two domineering forces, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the federal government of the United States of America, captured dissension when seeking to send black Gold Star Mothers on segregated pilgrimages to Europe. The War Department’s announcement that the widows’ pilgrimages to Europe in the 1930s would be segregated caused a great uproar from black social reform groups who argued that these segregated pilgrimages were an insult to the sacrifices made by those who died while enlisted. The aim of this thesis is to thoroughly examine how both the War Department and the NAACP attempted to influence the decisions of these women in hopes of furthering their own agendas while the mothers concomitantly dealt with grief and racial discrimination.
Included in
African American Studies Commons, Black History Commons, Public History Commons, Women's History Commons
