November 11 marks the 100th anniversary of when the guns fell silent and World War I, the war to end all wars, ended. There are many stories to come out of this war. One that receives less attention than it should is the role of African Americans in the Army, and their contribution to the civil-rights movement.
When war was declared in April 1917, volunteers rushed to fill the United State’s eight all-black National Guard infantry regiments. 89% of these men were assigned to noncombatant units, serving in quartermaster and engineering positions and under the leadership of white officers.
But the Black contribution to the war effort was too crucial to allow these troops to be marginalized. According to True Sons of Freedom, an article in the February 2018 edition of The American Legion, the 367,710 men who answered the call added up to 13% of the wartime Army in a time when African Americans comprised only 10% of the country’s population. The NAACP and other civil-rights organizations pressured the War Department to create two combat units: the 92nd Division, which served as part of the American Expeditionary Force, and 93rd Division, which was comprised of four infantry regiments created from the former National Guard regiments and was “loaned” to the French. The NAACP also pressured the Secretary of War, Newton E. Baker, to create a black officer training camp at Fort Des Moines, Iowa. The 106 captains, 329 first lieutenants and 204 second lieutenants who came out of this program and who served in the 92nd knew that white officers scrutinized their performance, hoping for proof that Blacks couldn’t lead.
When war was declared in April 1917, volunteers rushed to fill the United State’s eight all-black National Guard infantry regiments. 89% of these men were assigned to noncombatant units, serving in quartermaster and engineering positions and under the leadership of white officers.
But the Black contribution to the war effort was too crucial to allow these troops to be marginalized. According to True Sons of Freedom, an article in the February 2018 edition of The American Legion, the 367,710 men who answered the call added up to 13% of the wartime Army in a time when African Americans comprised only 10% of the country’s population. The NAACP and other civil-rights organizations pressured the War Department to create two combat units: the 92nd Division, which served as part of the American Expeditionary Force, and 93rd Division, which was comprised of four infantry regiments created from the former National Guard regiments and was “loaned” to the French. The NAACP also pressured the Secretary of War, Newton E. Baker, to create a black officer training camp at Fort Des Moines, Iowa. The 106 captains, 329 first lieutenants and 204 second lieutenants who came out of this program and who served in the 92nd knew that white officers scrutinized their performance, hoping for proof that Blacks couldn’t lead.
The 92nd saw little engagement during the war. When it was first put in action in the Meuse-Argonne offensive, the inexperienced 368th Infantry Regiment, like many of the inexperienced AEF units, stumbled badly causing the division’s white officers to remove them from the line. They didn’t see action again until the final days of the war.
The 93rd, however, saw a lot of action in France. They fought in the battles of Meuse-Argonne, Champagne-Marne and Aisne-Marne. One regiment, the 369th Infantry, nicknamed the Harlem Hellfighters, saw front-line duty for 191 days, the record for U.S. regiments. Their service earned these men the Croix de Guerre.
The amount of battle time was not the only difference these two Divisions experienced. Men from the 93rd frequently expressed pleasure at how the French treated them. Many wrote home about the French civilians’ kindness and respect toward them. Soldiers in the 92nd, however, suffered from daily harassment and humiliation from their white superiors. Jim Crow policy was alive and well in the United States Army.
The shameful treatment of African American soldiers continued after the war. “Red Summer,” the name Civil-rights leader James Weldon gave to the summer of 1919 was race rioting in 25 American cities. Ten black veterans were lynched that summer. American Legion Posts were segregated, and some states, Louisiana among them, refused to sanction black posts. But African American Veterans continued to press for equal rights and equal opportunity, and in 1948 the armed forces were desegregated.
World War I ended a hundred years ago, but the battle for civil rights continues, fought by descendants of the brave men who fought with courage and determination for a country that wasn’t sure it should even allow them to fight.
World War I ended a hundred years ago, but the battle for civil rights continues, fought by descendants of the brave men who fought with courage and determination for a country that wasn’t sure it should even allow them to fight.
| Jennifer Bohnhoff teaches middle school language arts in a rural school in central New Mexico. She is the author of several works of historical fiction for middle grade readers. You can read more about her books at her website. |  |
