A post-Armistice Day feature article that reported on the war-time activities of the four infantry regiments that made up the U.S. Ninety-Third Division (the 369th, 370th, 371st and the 372nd).
Two of these regiments were awarded the coveted Croix de Guerre. Accompanying this history is a black and white illustration of the Division's insignia.
Click here to read about the first Black Marines.
A spirited commentary concerning how the African-American Doughboys came to see France, rather than their own homeland, as the land of equality and liberty. It was written by Oscelo E. McKaine, who was serving as a second lieutenant in the all-black 92nd Division. In later life he would play an important roll in the South Carolina civil rights movement.
Click here to read about the first Black Marines.
Read an article about racial integration in the U.S. military.
This historic article first appeared in a 1919 issue of The Crisis and served to document the official discrimination against African-Americans who served both in the ranks and as officers in the American Army during the First World War. The article includes the communications from high-ranking American officers to the French military authorities, conveying their suggestions as to how America's black Doughboys were to be treated.
The courageous acts of white soldiers were not so easily demeaned in other STARS & STRIPES features as were the heroics performed by Henry Johnson and Needham Roberts in this piece from the Spring of 1918. For those who have, through the years, read the history of the New York 369th Regiment of Infantry this article will leave you a little sadder for the racial stereotyping and cheekiness so clearly enjoyed by the journalist and his editors.
On June 2, 2015 Henry Johnson was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor in a White House ceremony.
Click here to read about the American invalids of W.W. I.
An account of the war-time activities of the four infantry regiments that made up the U.S.
Ninety-Third Division
(the 369th, 370th, 371st and the 372nd). Two of these regiments were awarded the coveted Croix de Guerre.
Read an article about racial integration in the U.S. Military
An interesting editorial from World War I in which the writer (possibly W.E.B. Duboise) expressed that an African-American's sense of patriotism in that era was based on the nation's potential to be judicious and fair.
The article is a fine example illustrating the influence that George Creel and his Committee on Public Information had strong-arming the American magazine editors during the period of World War One.
Much has been written on the unique relationship that has existed between
African-Americans and the city of Paris
. The following is one of those anecdotes that illustrates that cultural fellowship, a fellowship that began with the First World War. Quite predictability, it is written in the disrespectful manner that was all-too common of that era.
Attached is a collection of news items that were of interest to the African-American community during World War One. This one-page article illustrates how united and strong the African-American war effort was during the Great War.
An illustration of the insignia patch and a brief account of the origins, deployments and war-time activities of the U.S. Army's Ninety-Second Infantry Division during World War One. It is highly likely that the attached description of the 92nd's service record had been rewritten to suit the personal taste's of the paper's Jim Crow editors. Sadly, there are other examples of such biased editing at THE STARS and STRIPES.
This is a lovely piece, originally written in French for a village paper, in which a journalist describes the collective excitement of the townsfolk in welcoming the Americans to their sleepy hamlet during the First World War, and how astonished they were to find that the arriving Doughboys were all of African descent!
Read an Article About American intervention in W.W. I and the Gratitude of France.
An article written by David Le Roy Ferguson (dates unknown), an African-American pastor assigned to minister to the black Doughboys posted to the depot at St. Nazaire, France. The men of his flock were stevedores who were ordered to perform the thankless task of off-loading cargo from the various supply ships arriving daily to support the A.E.F.. Aside from working as cooks or in other service positions, this was a customary assignment given to the African-Americans during the war; only a small percentage were posted to the 92nd and 93rd combat divisions.
Pastor Ferguson's magazine article salutes the necessary labor of these men while at the same time adhering to the usual simple descriptions of the African-American as cheerful, musical and rather crude.
This disturbing article from 1921 reported on a series of lynchings that took place between the years 1917 through 1919 by U.S. Army personnel serving in France during the First World War. The journalist quoted witness after witness who appeared before the Senate Committee regarding the lynchings they had seen:
"Altogether...I saw ten Negroes and two white men hanged at Is-Sur-Tille. Twenty-eight other members of my command also witnessed these hangings and if necessary, I can produce them."
Read about racism in the U.S. Army of W.W. I
This article is essentially a collection of lyrics from an assortment of songs sung by the Black Doughboys who were charged with the task of loading and unloading trucks far behind the front line trenches during the First World War. It was written in 1927 to serve as a review for
Singing Soldiers
by John J. Niles, who compiled the labor songs while stationed in France as a fighter pilot:
"All dese colored soldiers comin' over to France
All dese soldiers an' me
Goin' to help de Whites make de Kaiser dance
All dese soldiers an' me..."
This is a World War I article listing many of the patriotic commitments that the African-American community devoted to the 1917 - 1918 war efforts:
"The war has transformed the American Negro into the Negro American. Because he has been doing big things for his country his sense of national unity grown; his citizenship became a living reality."
"They have contributed 300,000 of their young men to the American Army. Of these 1,000 are commissioned officers of the line...One entire regiment was decorated for bravery and several individual soldiers have been cited for deeds of great valor."
This article in a 1919 issue of THE NEW YORK TIMES that told the history of Negro infantry units during the First World War. It concerns the combat record of the American 92nd and 93rd Divisions - units that were dubbed 'Schwartz Teufel' (black devils) by the luckless Germans who stood in the opposite trenches.
"The negro soldiers of the United States arrived late on the field of battle, but in more than sufficient time to make Germany feel the strength of their arm. In all 83,000 Negroes were drafted for service in the National Army sent overseas. More than 626 of the 1,250 colored men who completed their course of training were commissioned as officers in the United States Army; nearly 100 negro physicians and surgeons received commissions as officers in the Medical Reserve Corps and a full 30,000 men constituted the 92nd Division detailed for duty in France under General Pershing. The total number of Negro combat troops was 42,000".
Click here to read an article about the African soldiers of the French Colonial Army.
Senegalese, Moroccans, Algerians, Americans - this six page article summarizes the participation of the various Allied units that were composed entirely of Black men throughout the four year course of W.W. I.
"'Black devils' the German soldiers called them, when, fighting like demons, they had forced the Kaiser's shock troops to retreat before them."
