Black soldiers’ experiences overseas were not that much different from their experiences at home. Pershing officially said “Yes, of course I want colored men. Aren’t they American citizens? Can’t they do as much in the line of fighting and as much work as any other American citizen?” But the reality in France was different; as one black officer said: “The spirit of St Nazaire France was the spirit of the South.”1
Approximately 200,000 black troops came to France, but only 40,000 officially fought in the Ninety second and Ninety-third combat divisions.2 Many of the other 160,000 black troops staffed the Service of Supply (SOS)3 to become “laborers in uniform.”4 They made up one-third of the SOS contingent, organized into Engineer Service Battalions, Labor Battalions, Pioneer Infantry Regiments and Stevedore Regiments and Battalions.5
The Stevedores were the first to arrive in France in June 1917 and labored on docks, in French ports loading and unloading ships and carts.6 The SOS used African American stevedore and labor units to build railroads, roads, docks, camps, to cut wood, to take care of livestock and animals, sometimes working for over sixteen hours a day, in exhausting conditions. African American troops had poor living quarters and little opportunity for recreation. Many African Americans wondered if they were slaves or soldiers.7
The Pioneer Infantry units benefited from a their association with combat and the infantry compared to the Stevedores and Labor units but faced worst working conditions. Those units located directly behind or on the front lines, with minimum, if no, infantry training, repaired roads, bridges, constructed ammunition dumps and salvaged the battlefields.8 These units faced the danger of German attacks and gas, and they had to cope with the mistreatment and the racism in their own army.
Because African American soldiers lived in particularly unhealthy environments and lacked proper medical treatment in hospitals their higher rates of fatal diseases. In 1917, the rate for death by disease for black troops was 11.13 per thousand, while the rate for white troops was 4.92 per thousand.
Furthermore, white American soldiers tried to influence the French population to distrust and to avoid African American troops. Not used to racial hatred so openly displayed, this American style of racism often angered French civilians. In general, the French, happy to see American troops helping to save their country, reserved a warm welcome to the African American troops.9
For several months after the Armistice, while white troops sailed back home, black troops stayed in France. These men worked on the re-embarkation process and performed the gruesome task of reburying dead American soldiers in American cemeteries scattered across the battlefields of France.10
Though most African Americans were deprived of their right to fight and relegated to supply units, African American troops nevertheless played a major role in victory over the Germans.
Barbeau, Arthur E. and Florette Henri. The Unknown Soldiers : African-American Troops in World War I. Philadelphia, PA : Temple University Press, 1974.
Keene, Jennifer D. World War I: The American Soldier Experience. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2011.
Williams, Chad. Torchbearers of Democracy: African American Soldiers in the World War I Era. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 2010.
Williams, Charles H. Sidelights on Negro Soldiers. Boston, MA : B.J. Brimmer Company, 1923.
1 Arthur E. Barbeau and Florette Henri, The Unknown Soldier: African-American Troops in World War I (Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 1974), 106.
2 Jennifer D. Keene, World War I: The American Soldier Experience (Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood Press, 2006), 104.
3 The Service of Supply was the logistic branch of the American Expeditionary Forces in charge of supplying material, food and people to cover the needs of the American Army.
4 Barbeau and Henry, The Unknown Soldiers, 93; Chad L. Williams, Torchbearers of Democracy: African American Soldiers in the World War I Era (Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 2010), 111.
5 Barbeau and Henry, The Unknown Soldiers, 93-102.
6 Williams, Torchbearers of Democracy, 111.
7 Jennifer D. Keene, World War I, 99.
8 Barbeau and Henry, The Unknown Soldiers, 99; Chad L. Williams, Torchbearers of Democracy, 113.
9 Jennifer D. Keene, World War I, 101, 104-105
10 Charles H. Williams, Sidelights on Negro Soldiers (Boston, Massachusetts: B.J. Brimmer Company, 1923), 146; Chad L. Williams, Torchbearers of democracy, 201.
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