Minneapolis spokesman. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1943-10-29
Negroes i'm the Armed Forces
(From The New Republic)

Compared with his expert
ence in the last war, the Ne
gro soldier has a better time
of it in this one. But one
thing must be borne in mind
in such comparisons: the Ne
gro's maturing need for justice has
outstripped his gains in all fields.
This was an act of human nature;
Of intellects that learned, of eyes
that observed, of native intelligence
and manhood, and human hunger
ing rising over caution. There are
a number of white men who try
by tortuous, deceiving argument
to attach some sort of blame to the
Negro people for this development.
In doing so, they reveal their own
spiritual and intellectual inertia;
no onus can be placed on people
for being alive and human and hay
ing the capacity to learn and hun
ger.
In the First World War, less than
a thousand Negroes were trained
as officers, in a segregated camp at
Des Moines, Iowa. The training
given them seemed at times as
though it were designed to ensure
their failure as officers. After he
had received his commission, the
Negro officer found himself sub
jected to a disheartening variety of
humiliatiOns. When he reached
France he found that official
United States Army orders and adj
vices had been issued warning the
French people not to associate with
Negro officers or soldiers, and bar
ring Negroes from restaurants and
public places. Yet despite all this,
Negro troops exhibited an ironclad
resistance to German propaganda
which sought to capitalize on their
experiences in the army and at
home.
Many of the Negro regiments
distinguished themselves. One of
them, the 369th of New York,
served under fire longer than any
other regiment and achieved the
distinction of never having yielded
an inch of ground. Because it was
brigaded with French troops, who
treated its soldiers more decently,
the 369th was given opportunity to
show its mettle as was no other
Negro unit. --..
But the experience of Negro
troops on the whole was humiliat-
ing.
To the Service of Supply regi-
ments (writes Carter G. Woodson)
most Negro draftees were sent.
Not less than three-fourths of the
100000 of the Negroes sent to
France were reduced to labOrers.
It resulted that one-tenth of the
population of the nation was COM
PEELED, by a country fighting for
democracy abroad, to supply three
fourths of the labor of the expedi-
tionary force. They were COM
manded moreover largely by litter
ate, prejudiced white men, and
finally all but enslaved in the Serv-
ice of Supply divisions abroad by
unsympathetic whites, the majority
of whom were Southerners on the
order of slave drivers.
Abolition Of segregated officer
training has been the most liberal
advance in army race policy be-
tween the wars. During the pres
ent war, without difficulty or con-
fiict, Negroes in considerably larg-
er numbers have been trained with
white soldiers in officer-candidate
schools, the majority of which are
in the South. But after training,
the officers return to duty with
segregated troops-not all, it is
hoped, to forget the lessons of de-
mocracy and mutual respect learned
through association in the schools.
Large numbers of Negro troops
still go to labor battalions, but here
too, by comparison with his First
World War experience, he is get
ting a better break.
The Air Forces at first refused
to accept Negroes in any capacity,
but after the appeals and criticism
of Negro and white groups had
been focused on the War Depart
ment, the Air Forces established a
training school for limited num-
Der of pursuit pilots at Tuskegee
Institute, in Alabama. These pilots
have been in action since the
Sicilian campaign. The War De-
partment, apparently convinced
that Negroes make satisfactory
airmen, has announced that Ne
groes will be trained for bombers
also, as pilots, navigators and
bombardiers, in an unsegregated
school at Del Rio, Texas.
The navy, in which the Negro
had served almost exclusively as a
mess attendant, held out for a long
time against enlisting Negroes as
general seamen, but it announced
last year that Negroes would now
be used in this classification and
assigned to navy yards and shore
installations. The Coast Guard
and Marine Corps, also initially
prejudiced against Negroes, finally
let down the bars and manifested
an encouraging willingness to adj