Sunday Favorites: The Forgotten 55

Despite the complexities of public opinion, black Americans swung into action and over 700,000 blacks men lined up to register for the draft on July 5, 1917 -- 90 percent of these volunteers were from the rural Deep South

PALMETTO—Upon entering Palmetto from the south, visitors are greeted with two war monuments honoring the veterans of both World Wars. On the brick monument representing the Great War, a brass plaque lists those Palmetto residents whom either risked or gave their lives. All of their names are etched into the tarnished metal – all but 55. Over a third of the enlistees in Palmetto were African-American, but due to the racial injustices of the time, their names were excluded. 

While WWI raged in Europe for three long years, America steadfastly clung to neutrality. After campaigning to keep the U.S. out of the war, that President Wilson’s position was overtaken by several events threatening sovereignty. He finally commanded Congress to declare war on Germany on April 2, 1917. 

Participation in the war effort was problematic for African Americans. While America’s mission was to spread democracy abroad, it was neglecting the fight for equality at home. Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) established separate but equal treatment under the law. In 1913 President Wilson ordered the segregation of federal office workers. The U.S. Army at this time drafted both black and white men, but they served in segregated units. After the black community organized protests, the Army finally agreed to train African American officers, but never allowed them to command white troops.

Leaders of the African American community offered dissenting responses to this crisis. While W.E.B Dubois urged blacks to fight “shoulder to shoulder with white citizens,” others questioned risking their lives for a county that viewed theirs as inferior. Dubois believed that the sacrifices would result in the right to vote and “live without insult.” However, Chandler Owen, a law student at Columbia University, was pessimistic about what the war would mean for black Americans. He argued that blacks had taken part in almost every war effort with and not only been deprived of gratitude, but racism had actually grown worse.

Despite the complexities of public opinion, black Americans swung into action and over 700,000 blacks men lined up to register for the draft on July 5, 1917 -- 90 percent of these volunteers were from the rural Deep South. The show of black patriotism was overwhelming, especially since much of the black population at that time was not only illiterate, but had never heard of the war, or Germany for that matter. Military recruits hadn’t anticipated the number of volunteers. The Selective Service set up a quota system controlled by counties to limit registration– the military was only willing to accept one black soldier for every seven white enlistees. 

In Manatee County, nearly 2,000 men registered for the draft. Often when a connected employer felt a field hand would be missed on the farm, the enlistment was denied. IQ tests were set up to confirm unsuitability for complex military assignment, but counties were inducting more people than the army could equip or train. Military camps were set up across southern states and while the food was plentiful, uniforms and housing were inadequate. Some recruits were forced to wear the tattered overalls they had arrived in for several months. 13 percent of draftees in WWI were black, even though blacks constituted only about ten percent of the entire population. 

Approximately 380,000 African Americans served in the wartime Army. 200,000 of these were sent to fight with the French Army and required to wear French uniforms. More than half of those sent abroad were assigned to labor and stevedore battalions, but they performed essential duties nonetheless, building roads, bridges, and trenches in support of the front-line battles. Roughly 42,000 saw combat. 

Although the French solders were congenial toward their new partners in battle, American military commanders insisted on enforcing segregation in lodging and cafeterias. 

Despite the sacrifice, blacks were forced to load coal on the ships that would bring home the white soldiers – and obliged to wait for separate transportation home.

Over ten thousand women from the U.S. were shipped to France with the Nursing Corps and American Red Cross, but both organizations prohibited blacks from joining. Less than a dozen black women were recruited through the Salvation Army and other networks. Some of these women organized separated canteens just for black soldiers.

By the end of the war, 750 African American troops were dead, and 5,000 were wounded. Despite the sacrifice, blacks were forced to load coal on the ships that would bring home the white soldiers – and obliged to wait for separate transportation home.

It was a bitter homecoming for most African Americans. Members of a military command unit discredited black soldiers. Major General W.H. Hays said WWI had proved the “inherent weakness of the negro character, especially lack of intelligence and initiative.” Disappointed and disgruntled from lack of gratitude, the black military population saw an immediate decline. Although their uniforms were decorated with medals from foreign countries, no black soldier was awarded the Medal of Honor.

In 1919, the U.S. government banned blacks from the ranks unless they had already served. New enlistees were confined to infantry positions with no opportunity for advancement. These tensions prompted race riots across the nation and 77 blacks were murdered by white mobs. The slayings included 10 veterans, some still in uniform when they were hanged.

In Palmetto, the names of 55 veterans were purposely excluded from a war monument that still stands today. The same memorial symbolizes a great indebtedness to those white soldiers who fought bravely for their country, but seems contemptuous the many black veterans who also volunteered for the Great War. Isn’t it time we recognized a darker shade of bravery?