NEGROES RESPOND TO THE CALL.
SWIFT AND UNHALTING ARRAY--FEW PERMITTED TO VOLUNTEER--ONLY NATIONAL
GUARD ACCEPTED--NO NEW UNITS FORMED--SELECTIVE DRAFT THEIR
OPPORTUNITY--PARTIAL DIVISION OF GUARDSMEN--COMPLETE DIVISION OF
SELECTIVES--MANY IN TRAINING--ENTER MANY BRANCHES OF SERVICE--NEGRO
NURSES AUTHORIZED--NEGRO Y.M.C.A. WORKERS--NEGRO WAR
CORRESPONDENT--NEGRO ASSISTANT TO SECRETARY OF WAR--TRAINING CAMP FOR
NEGRO OFFICERS--FIRST TIME IN ARTILLERY--COMPLETE RACIAL SEGREGATION.
When the call to war was sounded by President Wilson, no response was
more swift and unhalting than that of the Negro in America. Before our
country was embroiled the black men of Africa had already contributed
their share in pushing back the Hun. When civilization was tottering and
all but overthrown, France and England were glad to avail themselves of
the aid of their Senegalese, Algerian, Soudanese and other troops from
the tribes of Africa. The story of their valor is written on the
battlefields of France in imperishable glory.
Considering the splendid service of the--in many cases--half wild blacks
from the region of the equator, it seems strange that our government did
not hasten sooner and without demur to enlist the loyal Blacks of this
country with their glowing record in former wars, their unquestioned
mental attainments, their industry, stamina and self reliance. Yet at
the beginning of America's participation in the war, it was plain that
the old feeling of intolerance; the disposition to treat the Negro
unfairly, was yet abroad in the land.
He was willing; anxious to volunteer and offered himself in large
numbers at every recruiting station, without avail. True, he was
accepted in numerous instances, but the condition precedent, that of
filling up and rounding out the few Negro Regular and National Guard
organizations below war strength, was chafing and humiliating. Had the
response to the call for volunteers been as ardent among all classes of
our people; especially the foreign born, as it was from the American
Negro, it is fair to say that the selective draft would not necessarily
have been so extensive.
It was not until the selective draft was authorized and the organization
of the National Army began, that the Negro was given his full
opportunity. His willingness and eagerness to serve were again
demonstrated. Some figures dealing with the matter, taken from the
official report of the Provost Marshall General (General E.H. Crowder)
will be cited later on.
Of the four colored regiments in the Regular Army, the 24th infantry had
been on the Mexican border since 1916; the 25th infantry in Hawaii all
the years of the war; the Ninth cavalry in the Philippines since 1916,
and the 10th cavalry had been doing patrol and garrison duty on the
Mexican border and elsewhere in the west since early in 1917. These four
regiments were all sterling organizations dating their foundation back
to the days immediately following the Civil war. Their record was and is
an enviable one. It is no reflection on them that they were not chosen
for overseas duty. The country needed a dependable force on the Mexican
border, in Hawaii, the Philippines, and in different garrisons at home.
A number of good white Regular Army regiments were kept on this side for
the same reasons; not however, overlooking or minimizing the fact not to
the honor of the nation in its final resolve, that there has always been
fostered a spirit in the counsels and orders of the Department of War,
as in all the other great government departments, to restrain rather
than to encourage the patriotic and civic zeal of their faithful and
qualified Negro aids and servants. That is to say, to draw before them
a certain imaginary line; beyond and over which the personal ambitions
of members of the race; smarting for honorable renown and promotion;
predicated on service and achievement, they were not permitted to go. A
virtual "Dead Line"; its parent and wet nurse being that strange thing
known as American Prejudice, unknown of anywhere else on earth, which
was at once a crime against its marked and selected victims, and a
burden of shame which still clings to it; upon the otherwise great
nation, that it has condoned and still remains silent in its presence.
Negro National Guard organizations had grown since the Spanish-American
war, but they still were far from being numerous in 1917. The ones
accepted by the war department were the Eighth Illinois Infantry, a
regiment manned and officered entirely by Negroes, the 15th New York
Infantry all Negroes with five Negro officers, all the senior officers
being white; the Ninth Ohio, a battalion manned and officered by
Negroes; the 1st Separate Battalion of the District of Columbia, an
infantry organization manned and officered by Negroes; and Negro
companies from the states of Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts and
Tennessee. Massachusetts also had a company known as the 101st
Headquarters company and Military Police. The Eighth Illinois became the
370th Infantry in the United States army; the 15th New York became the
369th Infantry; the Ninth Ohio battalion and the companies from
Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts and Tennessee, as well as the
District of Columbia battalion, were all consolidated into the 372nd
Infantry.
When the above organizations had been recruited up to war strength there
were between 12,000 and 14,000 colored men representing the National
Guard of the country. With a population of 12,000,000 Negroes to draw
from; the majority of those suitable for military service anxious to
enlist, it readily can be seen what a force could have been added to
this branch of the service had there been any encouragement of it. There
was not lacking a great number of the race, many of them college
graduates, competent to act as officers of National Guard units. Many of
those commissioned during the Spanish-American war had the experience
and age to fit them for senior regimental commands. The 8th Illinois was
commanded by Colonel Franklin A. Denison, a prominent colored attorney
of Chicago and a seasoned military man. He was the only colored man of
the rank of Colonel who was permitted to go to France in the combatant
or any other branch of the service. After a brief period in the earlier
campaigns he was invalided home very much against his will.
The 15th New York was commanded by Colonel William Hayward, a white man.
He was devoted to his black soldiers and they were very fond of him.
Officers immediately subordinate to him were white men. The District of
Columbia battalion might have retained its colored commander, Major
James E. Walker, as he was a fine soldierly figure and possessed of the
requisite ability, but he was removed by death while his unit was still
training near Washington. Some of the Negro officers of National Guard
organizations retained their commands, but the majority were superseded
or transferred before sailing or soon after arrival in France.
The 369th, the 370th and the 372nd infantry regiments in the United
States army, mentioned as having been formed from the colored National
Guard units, became a part of the 93rd division. Another regiment, the
371st, formed from the draft forces was also part of the same division.
This division was brigaded with the French from the start and saw
service through the war alongside the French poilus with whom they
became great friends. There grew up a spirit of which, side by side,
they faced and smashed the savage Hun, never wavered or changed. Besides
the soldiers from Illinois, New York, Ohio, District of Columbia,
Connecticut, Maryland and Tennessee, there were Negro contingents from
Mississippi and South Carolina in the 93rd division. One of the
regiments of this division, the 369th (15th New York) was of the first
of the American forces to reach France, following mutual admiration
between these two widely different representatives of the human family,
that during the period in the expeditionary force of Regulars which
reached France June 13, 1917; being among the first 100,000 that went
abroad. However, the 93rd division, exclusively Negro, had not been
fully formed then and the regiment did not see much real fighting until
the spring and summer of 1918.
[Illustration: NEGRO NURSES CARRYING BANNER OF FAMOUS NEGRO REGIMENT.
MARCHING DOWN FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK. IN GREAT PARADE WHICH OPENED RED
CROSS DRIVE.]
The 92nd division was another exclusively Negro division. There were
many more Negro troops in training in France and large numbers at
training camps in this country, but the 92nd and 93rd, being the earlier
formed and trained divisions, saw practically all the fighting. Units
belonging to one or both divisions fought with special distinction in
the Forest of Argonne, near Chateau Thierry, Belleau Wood, St. Mihiel
district, Champagne sector, at Metz and in the Vosges mountains.
In the 92nd division was the 325th Field Signal battalion, the only
Negro signal unit in the American army. The division also contained the
349th, 350th and 351st Artillery regiments, each containing a machine
gun battalion; the 317th Trench Mortar battery; the balance being made
up of Negro engineers, hospital units, etc., and the 365th, 366th, 367th
and 368th Infantry regiments.
Enlisted, drafted and assigned to active service, upwards of 400,000
Negroes participated in the war. The number serving abroad amounted to
about 200,000. They were inducted into the cavalry, infantry, field and
coast artillery, radio (wireless telegraphy, etc.), medical corps,
ambulance and hospital corps, sanitary and ammunition trains, stevedore
regiments, labor battalions, depot brigades and engineers. They also
served as regimental clerks, surveyors and draftsmen.
Sixty served as chaplains and over 350 as Y.M.C.A. secretaries, there
being a special and highly efficient Negro branch of the Y.M.C.A.
Numerous others were attached to the War Camp Community Service in
cities adjacent to the army camps.
Negro nurses were authorized by the war department for service in base
hospitals at six army camps--Funston, Sherman, Grant, Dix, Taylor and
Dodge. Race women also served as canteen workers in France and in charge
of hostess houses in this country.
One Negro, Ralph W. Tyler, served as an accredited war correspondent,
attached to the staff of General Pershing, Dr. R.R. Moton, who
succeeded the late Booker T. Washington as head of the Tuskegee
Institute, was sent on a special mission to France by President Wilson
and Secretary Baker.
A race woman, Mrs. Alice Dunbar Nelson of Wilmington, Delaware, was
named as a field worker to mobilize the Negro women of the country for
war work. Her activities were conducted in connection with the Women's
Committee of the Council of National Defense.
The most conspicuous honor paid to a Negro by the administration and the
war department, was in the appointment, October 1, 1917, of Emmett J.
Scott as special assistant to the Secretary of War. This was done that
the administration might not be accused of failing to grant full
protection to the Negroes, and that a thorough examination might be made
into all matters affecting their relation to the war and its many
agencies.
Having been for 18 years confidential secretary to Booker T. Washington,
and being at the time of his appointment secretary of the Tuskegee
Normal and Industrial Institute for Negroes, Mr. Scott was peculiarly
fitted to render necessary advice to the war department with respect to
the Negroes of the various states, to look after all matters affecting
the interests of Negro selectives and enlisted men, and to inquire into
the treatment accorded them by the various officials connected with the
war department. In the position occupied by him, he was thus enabled to
obtain a proper perspective both of the attitude of selective service
officials to the Negro, and of the Negro to the war, especially to the
draft. In a memorandum on the subject addressed to the Provost Marshall
General, December 12, 1918, he wrote:
"The attitude of the Negro was one of complete acceptance of the draft,
in fact of an eagerness to accept its terms. There was a deep
resentment in many quarters that he was not permitted to volunteer, as
white men by the thousands were permitted to do in connection with
National Guard units and other branches of military service which were
closed to colored men. One of the brightest chapters in the whole
history of the war is the Negro's eager acceptance of the draft and his
splendid willingness to fight. His only resentment was due to the
limited extent to which he was allowed to join and participate in
combatant or 'fighting' units. The number of colored draftees accepted
for military duty, and the comparatively small number of them claiming
exemptions, as compared with the total number of white and colored men
called and drafted, presents an interesting study and reflects much
credit upon this racial group."
Over 1,200 Negro officers, many of them college graduates, were
commissioned during the war. The only training camp exclusively for
Negro officers was at Fort Des Moines, Iowa. This camp ran from June 15,
1917, to October 15, 1917. A total of 638 officers was graduated and
commissioned from the camp. Negro Regulars and Negro National Army men
who had passed the tests for admission to officers training camps were
sent mainly to the training schools for machine gun officers at Camp
Hancock, Augusta, Georgia; the infantry officers training school at Camp
Pike, Little Rock, Arkansas, and the artillery officers training school
at Camp Taylor, Louisville, Kentucky. They were trained along with the
white officers. The graduates from these camps along with a few National
Guardsmen who had taken the officers' examinations, and others trained
in France, made up the balance of the 1,200 commissioned.
In connection with the artillery training an interesting fact developed.
It had been charged that Negroes could not develop into artilleryman. A
strong prejudice against inducting them into that branch of the service
had always existed in the army. It was especially affirmed that the
Negro did not possess the mathematical ability necessary to qualify as
an expert artillery officer. Nevertheless, out of a number of Negro
aspirants, very small in comparison with the white men in training for
officers' commissions at the camp, five of the Negroes stood alongside
their white brothers at the head of the class. The remainder were
sprinkled down the line about in the same proportion and occupying the
same relative positions as the whites. The prejudice against the Negro
as an artilleryman was further and effectually dispelled in the record
made by the 349th, 350th and 351st artillery regiments and their machine
gun battalions in the 92nd division.
With the exception of the training camp for officers at Des Moines,
Iowa, no important attempt was made to establish separate Negro training
camps. In the draft quotas from each state were whites and blacks and
all with few exceptions, were sent to the most convenient camp.
Arrangements existed, however, at the different camps for the separate
housing and training of the Negro troops. This was in line with the
military policy of the Government, as well as in deference to the
judgment of both white and black officers. It undoubtedly was necessary
to separate the two races. Furthermore, as the military policy called
for regiments, battalions and, divisions made up entirely of Negroes, it
was proper to commence the organization at the training camps. Companies
formed in this manner thus became homogeneous, accustomed to one another
individually and to their officers.
The situation was different from the Spanish-American war, where Negro
units, at least in one case, served in white regiments. Racial strife
and rivalry were eliminated. The only rivalry that existed was the
good-natured and healthy one of emulation between members of the same
race. On the field of battle there was rivalry and emulation between the
whites and blacks, but it was the rivalry of organizations and not of
races. The whole was tempered by that splendid admiration and
fellow-feeling which comes to men of all races when engaged as partners
in danger or near death; in the defense and promotion of a great cause;
the eternal verities of Justice and Humanity.