The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1922-09-23
APPEAL OPPOSES ARMY COLOR
LINE

THE APPEAL wrote the Secretary
of War for information relative to
the segregation of colored Americans
in the United States army. The fol-
lowing is the reply: ,,.
WAR DEPARTMENT
WASHINGTON.
Mr. ]. @. Adams,
,.-'-, Editor "TFfE APPEAL" go ~'~
St. Paul, Minnesota.
Dear Sir: :..~ t.. ~r
II l am in receipt of your letter of
May 18th, in which you take excep-
ton to the idea of organizing colored
troops into a separate division for
National Guard service. In reply
may say that although the separate
organization of colored division has
not been ordered by the War De-
partment for peace time National
Guard service, it is strictly in &C.
cordance with the policy of this De-
partment that colored units shall be
organized into complete and separate
divisions whenever the necessity arises
for the formation of such units in
time of war. This policy is based
upon the experience gained by the
War Department throughout our
country's military history. 1t was
carried out during the World War in
the organization of the 92d and 93d
Divisions which saw overseas service,
and l am surprised that this plan
which met with such thorough ap-
proval at the time should now be
objected
think that you must have been
incorrectly informed as to the War
Departments attitude on this ques
ton for years is the first criticism of
this policy which we have received.
On the other hand this office has re-
ceived numerous letters from colored
citizens endorsing the organization of
combat divisional units of colored
membership and objecting to the fact
that the War Department. has found
it necessary Tin view of limited ap-
preparations and the difficulty of
training units scattered over wide
areas) to restrict for the present the
organization of colored troops in tho
National Guard to those units that
operate directly under orders of the
Corps or Army Commanders and
which do not enter into the compost
ton of a division.
very truly yours,
(Signed) JOHN W.. WEEKS,
Secretary of War.
This is the reply Of THE APPEAL
St. Paul, Mimi, June %. 1921.
to Secretary Weeks:
Hon. John w. Weeks,
Secretary of War,
Washington, D. C.
have received your letter without
date written in reply to my letter of
May IA, asking information relative
to the formation of a separate color
ed division of the National Guard.
While am pleased to learn that no
such organization has been ordered
for peace time, I regret to hear that
it is the policy Of the War Depart
ment to organize separate divisions at
any time, either in peace or war.
The matter of organizing colored
soldiers into separate units is funda-
mentally wrong, and / believe uncon-
stitutional. 1t is wrong which has
continued since the organization of
colored troops, but the continuation
of wrong does not make it right.
1t is a wrong which the World War,
fought as it was claimed Ito make
the world safe for democracy" should
have righted. It is wrong because it
is undemocratic.
1t is wrong because it takes tho
colored soldiers out of their proper
places in the states in which they
live and makes them a segregated
part Of the Federalized National
Guard. 1t denies them their rights
as citizens of their respective states
and forces them into special segre-
gated status which is not applied to
other groups of Americans, such as
: Germans, Irish, Russians, French,
Poles, Spanish, Portuguese, Danes,
Swedes, British, Austrians, Hungari-
ans, Serbians, Bulgarians, Belgians,
etc.; and it is not applied to Indians,
Jews, Japanese, Chinese, Koreans,
Javanese, East Indians, Burmese, and
other colored races.
If the colored man is a citizen, he
is entitled to ALL the rights of citi-
zenship and this includes the right
to be on an absolute equality with
all other citizens. It is unjust for
the government to single him out
from the various elements which
compose American citizenship and
place upon him the badge of a pariah
CASTE
am sorry to learn that am the
first to protest against this wrong,
but trust that from now on protests
may come in by the thousands, to tho
end that you may be induced to
change this policy of your predeces-
SOrS. .sN.