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First Days in France
————
There are many American boys now who are quite familiar with the
Louvre, Boulevards, Notre Dame and Napoleon’s Tomb at Paris but who
know absolutely nothing of the Metropolitan Museum, Fifth Avenue
and its Cathedral, or Grant’s Tomb. The many ports of France were
particularly the home of the colored soldiers, so that landing at
Bordeaux it did not seem strange to be greeted first of all by our own
men. But it did seem passing strange that we should see them guarding
German prisoners! Somehow we felt that colored soldiers found it rather
refreshing—even enjoyable for a change—having come from a country where
it seemed everybody’s business to guard them.
Bordeaux was singularly the home of colored soldiers. They were in the
camps there by the thousands. In fact, as we landed at Bordeaux, it
seemed every man’s home. So crowded and varied was its population, one
could almost believe that during the nine days of silence on the ocean,
Paris had been passed by the enemy. There were many Colonial troops,
Chinese laborers and, more or less maimed French soldiers. The French
government had been removed to that city in which the blending of the
finest in old and new architecture made it a charming substitute for
Paris. Sitting in the park that evening, looking out upon the teeming
life about us, with crowds of black-robed women and helpless soldiers
filling in the picture, there came to us our first definite realization
of the cost of war.
Our first dinner in France, with butter and real ice cream, was an
unfortunate delusion, for it in no way prepared us for all the lean
days to follow. Especially not for the war-breakfast the next morning—a
thick piece of dark bread, a hard-boiled egg and a cup of black
coffee—all thrown at us in unsweetened confusion; for while we waited
for sugar, we were informed that for the future we must use a liquid
substitute supplied us in bottles.
But Paris was our destination, and we rode all day over that part of
France so full of historical memories—past Tours with its Cathedral of
Royal Staircase and Towers; past Blois with its chateau of historical
pre-eminence; past Orleans, over which the spirit of Jeanne d’Arc
eternally hovers—on to Paris.
[Illustration: 1. The Park at Bordeaux. 2. The Foyer at the Y. M. C.
A. Headquarters, Paris.]
Rue d’Aguesseau! Who does not know it now! That short, narrow street
made famous by the Young Men’s Christian Association. For there were
the Headquarters of that organization for all its vast service to the
American Expeditionary Forces. It was to 12 Rue d’Aguesseau that the
precious letters from home were sent. There, in the crowded foyer, they
were read and often answered. There friends were met and conferences
held. How can any Y secretary who went through it all ever forget the
intricate processes of “Movement Orders” and “Transportation” that
somehow carried one all over the building and included several
excursions from the first to the fifth floor, with the perverse little
elevator generally out of order! Really it was far better named
_ascenseur_, for when on rare occasions it did respond to the push of
the button and take one up, there was always the warning sign not to
descend in it.
It was always necessary to report to the Paris Headquarters in changing
one’s base of service. Hence, we have several distinct pictures of the
city as we saw it at different intervals during our fifteen months
in France. We remember Paris at Christmas time, 1918, when President
Wilson had but recently arrived there; when the forces that had for so
long fought against cold and darkness were triumphant at last. Warmth
and light flooded the very soul of the city. The American was the
dominating figure, but the French were riotously happy, for peace had
come—a Victorious Peace! We remember, too, the Paris of the late summer
of 1919, when after her great victory parade—in which all the victors
participated except our own colored soldiers—she began to realize her
real condition. The foreigners had mostly gone, the lights were less
brilliant than in winter. It was a quiet but wise Paris, bravely facing
her tremendous work of reconstruction. But the saddest picture was our
first. It was the summer of 1918, Paris was again in the war zone. We
entered a city of darkness and our taxicab literally felt its way to
the hotel. Here and there dim green lights, heavily hooded, peeped out
at us, and we learned that they were simply guides to caves for those
unhappy wayfarers caught beneath the enemy’s shell. On that June night,
the great Gare d’Orsay was a seething mass of aristocracy, peasantry
and soldiers. The same was true of all other railroad stations, for
soldiers were forcing their way to the front and refugees their way to
the rear. But all life seemed concentrated in those terminals; over
the city itself there was deep silence. Even the days were heavy with
dark forebodings. The French went quietly to their business by day and
to their cellars by night, as the Germans menaced and shattered with
shell and bomb. The day of the British and Belgian soldiers in Paris
had almost passed—that of the American scarce begun. The many French
soldiers one saw there were, for the most part, heartbreaking in their
poor torn bodies. We had just seen the children at Bordeaux who used
to play among the flowers and marble statues of the parks and look
from the windows now close-shuttered. We looked in vain in the Louvre,
Notre Dame and other repositories for their priceless treasures, but
they were hidden, and ugly sandbags hugged the architecture against the
ruthless attacks of the foe. True, the shop-keeper tried to extol and
press her wares upon us as of old, but, with the above picture before
us, bread tickets in our hands and meatless days, we felt most keenly
that it was not the Paris in which, just ten years before, we had lived
so joyously for many weeks. It was a bleeding, war-harassed city with
its deadly foe pressing upon it. But faith at Paris was not wholly
dead; the spirit of Jeanne d’Arc still lived and Saint Genevieve still
kept faithful vigil through the long dark hours of waiting. To such
a Paris we went, and somehow seemed a part of it. The warning of the
siren, air-battles by night and “Big Bertha” bombs by day were accepted
as a part of grim war. Meanwhile we prepared for work in the camp.
Those last days in America and first days in France brought us into
close touch with the fine spirits who guided the women’s work for the
War Council of the Young Men’s Christian Association. In the United
States, we had gathered inspiration and vision for our service from
the highly efficient and spiritual chairman—Mrs. F. Louis Slade.
Closely associated with Mrs. Slade was Mrs. Elsie Meade, whose warm
sympathy and steady hand was such a comfort, first, to the out-going
women in America, and later in France with its ever-changing camp
life. There was Miss Crawford, whose alert service and cheerful word
in the office at home and in France meant so much to the Y woman who
sought information. Our first assignment in France was made by Mrs.
Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., and the second by Miss Ella Sachs, both of
whom gave to the Young Men’s Christian Association a wealth of devoted
service—purely for the love of their country. There was Miss Martha
McCook, who for so long stood so faithfully at the head of the women’s
personnel abroad. Who of the secretaries will ever forget Dr. Cockett?
Giving herself first to pioneer work in the camp, she afterwards stood
as a tower of strength and knowledge to the newly-arrived secretary.
The colored women who served overseas had a tremendous strain placed
upon their Christian ideals—but the officials whom we have mentioned,
one and all, as did now and then a regional secretary like Miss Susanne
Ridgeway at St. Nazaire, Miss Harris at Aix-les-Bains or the Misses
Watson and Shaw at Brest, helped them to keep their faith in the
democracy of real Christian service.
A whole volume of interest centers about those two weeks in Paris. The
conferences from which we gathered facts and details that would find
practical expression on the field; the meeting of old friends and the
making of new; the full realization of the restrictions of the army
and its penalties for disobedience; the fortitude and fineness of the
French—all this and more crowded upon us in those days and wonderfully
strengthened us for our task. And then, one day, one of us faced toward
Brest and the other toward St. Nazaire to love and serve our men at
those ports.
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All honor is due the faithful men and women of both races at home,
who by a great expenditure of time, money and energy, made possible
the operation of the great plan of bringing comfort and relief to
the soldiers through the Welfare Organizations overseas. And while
there was disappointment in the hopes of many an honest heart, in
that there were prejudices and discriminations often shown to the
colored race, and sometimes injustices to the soldiers of both races,
still, the army would have been a barren place had these institutions
not existed. The great good that was done gives much hope for the
possibilities of organized welfare effort in the future.
——————————————————
The Y. M. C. A. and Other Welfare Organizations
————
It was our privilege to go overseas as welfare worker under the
auspices of the Y. M. C. A., and from the time we entered active duty
until we finished our work at Camp Pontanezen, we can conscientiously
say that we had the greatest opportunity for service that we have ever
known; service that was constructive, and prolific with wonderful and
satisfying results.
The contact with a hundred thousand men, many of whom it was our
privilege to help in a hundred different ways; men who were groping and
discouraged; others who were crying loudly for help, that they might
acquire just the rudiments of an education, and so establish connection
with the anxious hearts whom they had left behind; and still others who
had a depth of understanding and a breadth of vision that was at once a
help and an inspiration.
It was a wonderful spirit that prompted the Y. M. C. A. to offer its
vast facilities to this service; to cheer and encourage; to administer
to the spiritual and physical needs; and to establish a connecting link
between the soldier and the home; that home which ever kept for him a
beckoning candle in the window, and a fire that was ever aglow.
And no less wonderful was the spirit of the Red Cross, the Salvation
Army, the Knights of Columbus, the Jewish Welfare Board, and the Y. W.
C. A.
For the privilege of serving in this capacity we shall ever be
grateful, and not only for the privilege of service, but for the
privilege of contact with a wonderful and soulful people; for the
privilege of seeing their beautiful gardens, their fertile fields,
their snowcapped mountains and winding rivers; for the privilege of
gathering inspiration from their wealth of architectural beauty, their
wonderful art galleries and cultural centers; and for the privilege of
serving in even the smallest way to help in the preservation of the
treasures of this wonderful civilization, for the generations of the
future.
But to help to mar the beauty and joy of this service was ever-present
war, with its awful toll of death and suffering; and then the service
of the colored welfare workers was more or less clouded at all times
with that biting and stinging thing which is ever shadowing us in
our own country, and which marked our pathway through all our joyous
privilege of giving the best that was within us of labor and devotion.
Upon our arrival in Paris we met Mr. Matthew Bullock and his staff
of four secretaries, including the first colored woman, who had been
ordered home as _persona non grata_ to the army; this was done on
recommendation of army officials in Bordeaux, who had brought from our
southland their full measure of sectional prejudice.
This incident resulted in the detention of many secretaries, both men
and women, from sailing for quite a period of time, and no more women
came for nearly ten months, thus leaving three colored women to spread
their influence as best they could among 150,000 men.
An incident, in some respects similar, occurred in connection with the
work in the city of Brest. During the days when it became the greatest
embarkation port in France, at times there were as many as forty
thousand men of color, at Camp Pontanezen, waiting for transportation
home, and up until about the 18th of June, 1919, there was only one
colored Y man there and no women. This, too, at a time when Paris
had as many as forty colored men and women, who had returned from
their posts of duty, and were willing and anxious for reassignment.
This spectacle would no doubt have continued until the close of the
work, had not the writers remained in Paris for a period of ten days,
requesting continuously that they be permitted to go to Brest. They
were finally admitted through the intercession of Mr. W. S. Wallace,
who had become the head of the personnel department. When they arrived
they were told by the secretary at the head of the woman’s work for
that region, that she had tried repeatedly to get colored women, but
for some reason the Paris office had refused to send them. But the
Paris office had said each time, upon being questioned with regard
to the matter, that the office at Brest did not desire colored women
secretaries. This misunderstanding came about, no doubt, when, one
year previous, the first colored woman sent there had been returned
to Paris. With the necessary tact and investigation on the part of the
proper authorities, the matter could no doubt have been very easily
adjusted, when the original men in authority at Brest had been replaced
by others who were more reasonable, and who had more sympathy for the
colored men; in that case we would not have been confronted with the
spectacle of numbers of colored workers idle in Paris for a period of
from four to six weeks, just one night’s ride from thousands of colored
soldiers, who were necessarily centered at the great home-going port.
Had they been there they could have been of wonderful service, at a
time when waiting was a task that tried men’s souls.
Commendable things were accomplished, however, through the limited
number of colored secretaries, the sum total of whom finally became
seventy-eight men and nineteen women, the rank and file of whom were
splendid, giving excellent service in whatever portion of the A. E. F.
to which they happened to be assigned.
Among those who gave especially valiant service were Mr. Matthew
Bullock, of Boston, Mass., who served with the 369th Infantry; Mr. H.
O. Cook, of Kansas City, Mo., who served with the 371st; and Mr. E.
T. Banks, of Dayton, Ohio, who served with the 368th. All of these
men were cited for bravery as a result of their services with the
combatant troops. Mr. Banks went over the top with his men in the
Vienne, La Chateau sector, of the Argonne Forest. Mr. Cook gave gallant
service in the Champagne offensive, working tirelessly until he was
gassed; while Mr. Bullock could be seen at all times making his way
under tremendous shell fire that he might reach his men with necessary
supplies; all of these men won high praise for their services in giving
first aid to the wounded.
While there is very little exception to the rule that the colored
soldiers were generally and wonderfully helped by the colored
secretaries, and while the official heads of the Y. M. C. A. at
Paris were in every way considerate and courteous to its colored
constituency, still there is no doubt that the attitude of many of the
white secretaries in the field was to be deplored. They came from all
parts of the United States, North, South, East and West, and brought
their native prejudices with them. Our soldiers often told us of signs
on Y. M. C. A. huts which read, “No Negroes Allowed”; and sometimes
other signs would designate the hours when colored men could be served;
we remember seeing such instructions written in crayon on a bulletin
board at one of the huts at Camp I, St. Nazaire; signs prohibiting the
entrance of colored men were frequently seen during the beginning of
the work in that section; but always, when the matter was brought to
the attention of Mr. W. S. Wallace, the regional secretary, he would
immediately see that they were removed.
[Illustration: GROUP OF Y. M. C. A, WORKERS, INCLUDING THE THREE
SECRETARIES WHO WERE CITED FOR BRAVERY
1. Miss Turner. 2. Mr. Matthew Bullock. 3. Mrs. Craigwell. 4. Misses
Edwards and Rochon, and Mr. Owens. 5. Misses Phelps and Suarez. 6.
Mr. H. O. Cook. 7. Miss Hagan. 8. Mr. E. T. Banks.]
Sometimes, even, when there were no such signs, services to colored
soldiers would be refused. One such soldier came to the Leave Area,
and one day, while on a hike to Hannibal’s Pass, he confided to the
writer that he was beginning to see the Y. M. C. A. from a different
view-point, since he had been where there were colored secretaries.
That at one time, up at the front, he had been marching for two days,
was muddy to the waist, cold and starving, because he had had nothing
to eat during the entire journey. He came across a Y. M. C. A. hut,
went in, and asked them to sell him a package of cakes. They refused to
sell it to him under the plea that they did not serve Negroes.
The writer remembers an appeal that came to her one Sunday morning
while at St. Nazaire. A Sergeant in the Medical Corps desired her
to use her influence to help to get him out of the guard house. On
investigation she learned that he had been placed there for doing
violence to a Y. M. C. A. secretary. This secretary served in a hut
just two blocks from the one in which the writer served. It happened
to be immediately across the street from the dispensary, where the
sergeant was on duty. Instead of coming to the colored hut, he
went across the street to the one nearer. The secretary, with much
indignation, told him that he did not serve Negroes. The sergeant went
back to the dispensary, feeling outraged. The next day this same Y. M.
C. A. secretary went into the dispensary and asked for some medicine.
The sergeant told him he must wait until those ahead of him were
served; but the secretary persisted that he was in a hurry, and must
be served at once; whereupon the sergeant, still smarting under the
insult of the day before, unceremoniously ejected him from the building.
One secretary had a colored band come to his hut to entertain his
men. Several colored soldiers followed the band into the hut. The
secretary got up and announced that no colored men would be admitted.
The leader of the band, a white man, by the way, immediately informed
his men that they need not play; whereupon all departed and there was
no entertainment. Some huts would permit colored men to come in and
purchase supplies at the canteen, but would not let them sit down and
write, while others received them without any discrimination whatever.
Quite a deal of unpleasantness was experienced on the boats coming
home. One secretary in charge of a party sailing from Bordeaux,
attempted to put all the colored men in the steerage. They rebelled and
left the ship; whereupon arrangements were made to give them the same
accommodations as the others.
[Illustration: HUTS SHOWING SCARCITY OF COLORED SECRETARIES AND SOME
DISCRIMINATIONS PRACTICED
1. Hut 5, Camp Lusitania, St. Nazaire. The largest Y. M. C. A. hut in
France, with full staff of three secretaries. From left to right—J.
C. Croom, Kathryn M. Johnson, F. O. Nichols, traveling Lecturer on
Civics, and Walter Price.
2. Last Y. M. C. A. hut built in France, showing sign in upper right
corner, reading, “Colored Soldiers Only.”]
On another boat there were nineteen colored welfare workers; all the
women were placed on a floor below the white women, and the entire
colored party was placed in an obscure, poorly ventilated section
of the dining-room, entirely separated from the other workers by a
long table of Dutch civilians. The writer immediately protested; the
reply was made that southern white workers on board the ship would
be insulted if the colored workers ate in the same section of the
dining-room with them, and, at any rate, the colored people need not
expect any such treatment as had been given them by the French.
But Y. M. C. A. secretaries were not always responsible for
discriminations that occurred in the Y. M. C. A. huts. In some places,
commanding officers would order signs put up. On another page is a
picture of a hut located at Camp Guthrie, near St. Nazaire. The small
sign just on the right of the picture says, “Colored Soldiers Only.”
The hut secretary here was a colored man, the Rev. T. A. Griffith,
formerly of Des Moines, Iowa, and Topeka, Kan. To this hut came many
white soldiers to listen to his sermons, and to get into the ice cream
line at the canteen. At the same time many of the colored soldiers went
to the other hut, where there was a white secretary, to be served in
the ice cream line. In time these boys were told that they must get
out of the line and be served at their own hut. Simultaneously Rev.
Griffith was told to keep the white men out of his line, and let them
be served where there were white secretaries. Rev. Griffith did not do
this, but left the order to be enforced by the colonel who had made
it. When the colonel saw that his order was not being recognized at
the colored hut, he had the sign put up as shown in the picture. Rev.
Griffith made a number of efforts to get the sign removed, but to no
avail.
The following is a copy of an order issued in another section:
HEADQUARTERS CONCENTRATION CAMP
S. O. S. TROOPS—REMACOURT
_Memorandum_
Y. M. C. A.
There are two Y. M. C. A.’s, one near the camp, for white troops, and
one in town, for the colored troops. All men will be instructed to
patronize their own Y.
By order of COL. DOANE.
JOHN A. SCHWEITZER, 1st Lt. Inf.,
_Adjutant._
May, 1919.
But there were splendid men among both secretaries and army officials,
who honestly and actively opposed discrimination. Mention already
has been made of our personal knowledge of Mr. W. S. Wallace at St.
Nazaire, who was always on the alert to see that the colored soldiers
had a square deal; while at Brest we found an equally fine spirit in
the person of Major Roberts, the army welfare officer.
While welfare organizations other than the Y. M. C. A. did not employ
colored workers, still, we had the opportunity of observing the
attitude they assumed toward the colored troops. It was a part of the
multiplicity of the duties of colored Y women to visit the hospitals;
here they found colored soldiers placed indiscriminately in wards with
white soldiers, while officers were accorded the same treatment as were
their white comrades. However, we learned that in some places, colored
officers would be placed in wards with private soldiers, instead of
being given private rooms, as was their military right; and one
soldier tells how, after being twice wounded in the Argonne drive, he
was taken to Base Hospital No. 56; here he, and others, waited three
days before they could secure the attention of either a doctor or a
nurse; but when these attendants finally came, the colored soldiers
were taken from the hospital beds and placed on cots which were shoved
into one end of the room where there was no heat; they then received
medical attention, always after the others had been well attended, and
were given the food that remained after the others had been served.
There was one notable incident of discrimination on the part of the
Knights of Columbus. It occurred at Camp Romagne, where there were
about 9,000 colored soldiers engaged in the heartbreaking task of
re-burying the dead. The white soldiers here were acting as clerks,
and doing the less arduous tasks. The Knights of Columbus erected a
tent here and placed thereon a sign to keep colored soldiers away. The
colored soldiers, heartsore because they, of all the soldiers, German
prisoners, etc., that there were in France, should alone be forced
to do this terrible task of moving the dead from where they had been
temporarily buried to a permanent resting place, immediately resented
the outrage and razed the tent to the ground. The officers became
frightened lest there should be mutiny, mounted a machine gun to keep
order, and commanded the four colored women who were doing service
there to proceed at once to Paris.
As a rule, only words of praise were heard for the Salvation Army,
whose field of service was very small but very excellent.
The Y. W. C. A. was another welfare organization with overseas workers;
their field of service was among the women welfare workers of other
organizations, and the French war brides who were waiting to come to
America with their American soldier husbands. No colored representative
of this organization was sent over, as the number of colored women
was so small that she would have had no field in which to operate.
Few, if any, of the white Y. W. C. A. workers gave any attention to
this little colored group, notwithstanding the fact that they were
women, and Americans, just like the others. One, however, remembers
a greeting of much insulting superiority and snobbishness, by one of
its representatives whom she met on the street. After that she always
felt it necessary to keep in places where they were not to be seen.
Of course, all of them were not of this type, but there was no way of
being sure of those who were not. As an organization there is no doubt
that much good was accomplished by them, especially in furnishing
reasonable and comfortable hotel accommodations for women welfare
workers in Paris, and also in caring for the wives of soldiers who were
waiting to come home, in the crowded seaport cities.
The largest Y. M. C. A. hut in France was one built at Camp Lusitania,
St. Nazaire, for the use of colored soldiers. It was the first hut
built for our boys, and for its longest period of service was under
the supervision of Rev. D. Leroy Ferguson, of Louisville, Ky. It
reached its highest state of efficiency and cleanliness under Mr. J. C.
Croom, of Goldsboro, N. C. It did service for 9,000 men, and had, in
addition to the dry canteen, a library of 1,500 volumes, a money-order
department which sometimes sent out as much as $2,000 a day to the home
folks; a school room where 1,100 illiterates were taught to read and
write; a large lobby for writing letters and playing games; and towards
the close of the work, a wet canteen, which served hot chocolate,
lemonade and cakes to the soldiers.
To this hut one of us was assigned, and served there for nearly nine
months. The work was pleasant and profitable to all concerned, and no
woman could have received better treatment anywhere than was received
at the hands of these 9,000 who helped to fight the battle of St.
Nazaire by unloading the great ships that came into the harbor. Among
the duties found there were to assist in religious work; to equip a
library with books, chairs, tables, decorations, etc., and establish a
system of lending books; to write letters for the soldiers; to report
allotments that had not been paid; to establish a money order system;
to search for lost relatives at home; to do shopping for the boys whose
time was too limited to do it themselves; to teach illiterates to read
and write; to spend a social hour with those who wanted to tell her
their stories of joy or sorrow.
All of this kept one woman so busy that she found no time to think
of anything else, not even to take the ten days’ vacation which was
allowed her every four months. In a hut of similar size among white
soldiers, there would have been at least six women, and perhaps eight
men. Here the only woman had from two to five male associates. Colored
workers everywhere were so limited that one person found it necessary
to do the work of three or four.
Just on the suburbs of St. Nazaire, about two miles from Camp
Lusitania, was another hut, the second oldest for colored men in
France. Here the other one of the writers spent six months of
thrilling, all-absorbing service; while about six miles out, in the
little town of Montoir, where thousands of labor troops and engineers
had permanent headquarters, the third of the colored women to come to
this section ran a large canteen, supplying chocolate, doughnuts, pie
and sometimes ice cream to the grateful soldiers. This hut was far too
small for the number of soldiers it had to entertain, but it was made
large in its hospitality by the genial, good-natured, energetic Mr.
William Stevenson, its first hut secretary, now Y. M. C. A. secretary,
Washington, D. C. He started the work in a tent, and built it up to a
veritable thriving beehive of activity.
There were several other localities in the neighborhood of St. Nazaire,
where one colored secretary would be utilized to reach an isolated set.
They usually worked in tents. Other places where Y. M. C. A. buildings,
huts or tents for colored soldiers were located, were Bordeaux, Brest,
Le Mans, Challes-les-Eaux, Chambery, Marseilles, Joinville, Belleau
Wood, Fere-en-Tardenois, Orly, Is-sur-Tille, Remacourt, Chaumont, and
Camp Romagne near Verdun.
Rolling canteens ran out from some places, reaching points where the
soldiers had no Y. M. C. A. conveniences. This was a small automobile
truck, equipped with material for serving chocolate and doughnuts,
and operated by a chauffeur, and a Y woman who dispensed smiles and
sunshine to the ofttimes homesick boys, along with whatever she had to
tempt their appetites.
The last, and perhaps the most difficult piece of constructive work
done by the colored workers, was at Camp Pontanezen, Brest. It has
been told in another chapter how one of the writers received Brest as
her first appointment, and how she was immediately informed upon her
arrival that because of the roughness of the colored men, she would not
be allowed to serve them. That woman went away with the determination
to return to Brest, and serve the colored men there, if there was any
way to make an opening; so after finishing her work in the Leave Area,
she and her co-worker, who had been relieved from duty at Camp Romagne,
were finally permitted to go there, as has been previously explained.
Upon their arrival, they were told that they would be assigned to Camp
President Lincoln, where there were about 12,000 S. O. S. troops. Here
there were several secretaries and chaplains, and the need was greater
at Camp Pontanezen, where there were 40,000 men, and only one colored
secretary. The writers requested that they be located there. The
appointment was held up for one day, and finally they became located at
Soldiers’ Rest Hut, in the desired camp.
They were told that they must retain a room in the city, as the
woman’s dormitory at Camp Pontanezen was filled to its capacity. But
they contended that to do so would take them away from the soldiers
at a time in the evening when they could be of the greatest service.
Finally, it was arranged for them to stay in the hut, much to the
dissatisfaction of the white secretary in charge.
The next morning before they left their room, a message was received,
telling them that transportation would be at the door at any moment
they desired, to take them back to Brest; that Major Roberts, the Camp
Welfare Officer, had said that they must not stay in the hut. Upon
investigation by Mr. B. F. Lee, Jr., the lone colored secretary at this
tremendous camp, it was learned that Major Roberts had been told that
the women were uncomfortable, and did not wish to stay.
Mr. Lee explained that such was not true. The Welfare Officer then
visited the hut, talked with the women, recognized the situation, gave
his consent to their staying, and assured them that he was willing and
ready to do anything in his power to make them comfortable, and assist
in equipping the hut. The white secretary, seeing that the women were
going to stay, acquiesced in the situation, instead of moving out, and
did everything he could to assist.
After this there was no difficulty experienced at Camp Pontanezen. The
camp secretary and his staff put every means at our disposal to assist
us in the work, while the head of the women’s work was at all times
helpful and sympathetic. From the time she received us at Brest, until
our departure, she showed us every consideration and courtesy due Y. M.
C. A. secretaries.
During the nearly seven weeks there, the chief of the women’s work for
France paid the city a visit, in order that she might, among other
things, visit the colored work.
The two women remained in the same hut about two weeks, when Major
Roberts gave one of the most beautiful huts in the camp to the colored
soldiers. It had been occupied by the 106th Engineers, and had been
built for their own private use. It contained a beautiful stage; a
large auditorium, seating 1,100 people, with a balcony and boxes for
officers. It also had a beautiful library and reading room, as well
as a wet canteen. To this hut came Mr. B. F. Lee, Jr., and one of the
women, while the other remained at Soldiers’ Rest Hut, and became
its hut secretary. To join them came two other women from Paris, one
of whom was placed in each hut, making the total number of women
secretaries, four.
The new hut was quickly gotten in order, sleeping quarters being
arranged, a new library built, and a game room made by removing
partitions from under the balcony.
There were several other large huts at Camp Pontanezen, that were used
for long periods exclusively by colored soldiers; but in the absence of
colored women, white women, sometimes as many as five in a hut, gave
a service that was necessarily perfunctory, because their prejudices
would not permit them to spend a social hour with a homesick colored
boy, or even to sew on a service stripe, were they asked to do so. But
the very fact that they were there showed a change in the policy from
a year previous, when a colored woman even was not permitted to serve
them.
In nearly all the Y. M. C. A. huts, in every section of France, moving
pictures would be operated every afternoon and evening. Many times
before the movies, some kind of an entertainment would be furnished
by the entertainment department of the Y. M. C. A. There were shows
furnished by French or American dramatists; concert parties by singers
and musicians of all nationalities, and frequently a lecture on health
and morals. The movies and shows were the most popular forms of
entertainment, and on these occasions the huts would always be crowded,
as all entertainments given by the Y. M. C. A. were free.
The organization also did much to promote clean morals among the men,
by the free distribution of booklets, tracts, and wholesome pictures.
This literature would be placed in literature cases, and the men would
select their own material, while the pictures would be placed in parts
of the hut where they would be easily visible. Some of the booklets
which were unusually popular among the men were “Nurse and Knight,”
“Out of the Fog,” “When a Man’s Alone,” “The Spirit of a Soldier,” and
“A Square Deal”; while quantities of other stories with sharply drawn
morals were distributed by the thousands and thousands of copies.
All told, the Y. M. C. A., with a tremendous army of workers, many of
whom were untrained, did a colossal piece of welfare work overseas.
The last hut for the colored Americans in France was closed at Camp
Pontanezen, Brest, on August 3, 1919, by one of the writers; the two of
them having given the longest period of active service of any of the
colored women who went overseas.
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“These men are high of soul, as they face their fate on the
shell-shattered earth, or in the skies above, or in the waters
beneath; and no less high of soul are the women with torn hearts and
shining eyes; the girls whose boy lovers have been struck down in
their golden morning, and the mothers and wives to whom word has been
brought that henceforth they must walk in the shadow.”