Responding to the Call in World War I
"When the call to war was sounded by President Wilson, no response was more swift and unhalting..."
From: 1916 C.E. To: 1919 C.E.
Location: United States of America
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
“Negroes Respond to the Call” from History of the American Negro in the Great World War by William Sweeney
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.
Medical Detachment 365th Infantry. A representative group of Medical Officers and their Field Assistants. This Branch of the 92nd Division rendered most valorous service. Images from text.
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
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 grow up a spirit of which, side by side, they faced and smashed the savage Him, never wavered or changed. Besides the soldiers from Illinois, New York, Ohio, District of Coimnbia, 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.
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, hut 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.
Red Cross Workers. Prominent women of Atlanta GA. who organized canteen for relief of negro soldiers going to and returning from war.
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 Negjo 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 maimer 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 ease, 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.
Sweeney, William Allison. History of the American Negro in the Great World War. G. G. Sapp, 1919.
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