The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1932-05-28
BY JAMES w. FORD

L
forging plant at Ensley, Alabama,
near Birmingham. All steel mills
of this vicinity we're turning out
war materials for the Allied and
other armies. was a helper to
a German blacksmith; the foreman
was an Englishman. There were
many Bulgarian and other foreign
born workers working at these mills.
The company quarters were divided
foreign-born workers lived in one
section and Negro workers in an
other. We were making good"
wages. Everybody was happy.
Usually the topic of conversation
at the mill was the war. We thought
little of the fact that We were
making war materials to be sent to
Europe. nor little or nothing of the
nature, cause and significance of
the war to the working class. Each
national group boosted of the Prov
mes of ''his" native country in the
war. There was no Communist
Party at that time I for one
never dreamed that I would be
soldier in the war No one Of us.
remotely thought of America ever
entering the war Even at this
time, however, and under the cloak
of the renoteneSs of war to Amer
lea plans were being made by Am
erican capitalists to send American
soldiers into the war to protect the
interests of Wall Street. Later Woo
drOw Wilson was elected nreyidaa
because "he kept us out of war"
On December Is, 1917. I >joined
the army at Nashville, Tennessee,
and was sent to Fort Oglethrcpe,
an old army camp near Chatta-
nooga. to be sworn and assigned to
an outfit for training. I was about
"a years of age; there were six
other young Negroes who had come
together We had had some train
ing in electricity and mechanics
and were to be assigned to a Signal
corps battalion.
Hostility to Negroes
When we came to Fort Ogle-
thrope, which was a white army
post. we Immediately came in con-
tact with jim-c rowism and insults.
In the first place the army Off
GERS declared that Negroes were not
to be assigned to a technical branch
of the army service.
Although we had been signed UP
for this at Nashville. they refused
to consider it and told us we would
not be fed and quartered unless we
washed dishes for the white SOL
diers. This we refused to do, and
they refused to feed US or quarter
us. Here we were in the army no
place to eat, no place to sleep and
Chattanooga about ten miles
away.
We were then taken to the YIN
CA barracks chat noble branch of
army service) and threatened with
beating if we did not dance mig
ger" jigs or sing Niger" songs
for the amusement the new white
recruits. There were several thou
sands of white recruits newly ar
rived of tJ,o oa,1,N rTHhic rro oIco
refused to do and only escaped
beaten by slipping out of the back
stage door and making our way to
Chattanooga. Thus the first night
in the army we were AWOL- from
the army.
We remained several days in
Chattanooga with friends. Finally
an order came from the war de-
partment at Washington that the
seven Negroes would be sworn in
and assigned for signal corps train
ing. The War Department several
months before had laid out plans
in conjunctions with the Negro
leaders of the race that a jim
crow army Division was to be Or
ganized for service in France. But
this information has not been made
widely known even to Army officers,
Discrimination In Army.
After few days we returned to
camp and were informed that we