“They used to call it the the ‘Great War’, but I’ll be damned if I could tell you what was so ‘Great’ about it. They also called it ‘The war to end all wars’...”  

The Harlem Hellfighters is a book mainly about War and racism that African Americans faced during World War I as they fought alongside white Americans. This book informs you about reality from life in the past as well as democracy and the history of our nation in World War I.

I like to read Graphic Novels, but I’m a picky one when it comes to specific kinds of genres that suits my tastes. This genre I chose to read isn’t usually what I’d normally pick, but this book had changed my perspective towards these kinds of genres.

The main character, Mark, grew up in the US; he had his reasons to join the army. Reasons that went back during the Spring of 1915, when he had worn another uniform. Mark is a very outgoing person and one with pride, that doesn’t let anyone stomp all over him, and I respect that part about him, as a character, even though he isn’t the only African American that joined. There were also other African Americans that joined as well. They were put into a segregated unit, known as the “Colored” unit. The word “Colored”,  “Negro” or “Black”, was about the only thing that white people only sees in common among all of them. They had different backgrounds, classes and even locations from where they are from.

In my opinion, I believe that this is a good book to read about our Nation’s history, how it sets up a great form of democracy and politics about the society in World War I. I highly recommend this Graphic Novel to people because it can build up confidence of their nationality or whoever wants to serve in the US army and help our nation and people who enjoys to read about historic events held in the past.

By,

Kim Xiong