Chad Louis Williams - Torchbearers of Democracy: African American Soldiers in the World War I Era

2010 THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA PRESS
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Set in Minion Pro and Onyx by Tseng Information Systems, Inc. Manufactured in the United States of America. The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources. The University of North Carolina Press has been a member of the Green Press Initiative since 2003.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Williams, Chad Louis, 1976
Torchbearers of democracy : African American soldiers and the era of the First World War /
Chad L. Williams.
p. cm. (The John Hope Franklin series in African American history and culture)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8078-3394-0 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-1-4696-0985-0 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. World War, 19141918Participation, African American. 2. World War, 19141918African
Americans. 3. African American soldiersHistory20th century. 4. African AmericansSocial
conditions20th century. 5. African AmericansCivil rightsHistory20th century. 6. Racism
Political aspectsUnited StatesHistory20th century. 7. CitizenshipUnited StatesHistory
20th century. I. Title.
D639.N4W497 2010
940.403dc22

2010006647

A version of was previously published as Vanguards of the New Negro: African American Veterans and PostWorld War I Racial Militancy, Journal of African American History 92, no. 3 (Summer 2007): 34770. Used by permission of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History.

cloth 14 13 12 11 10 5 4 3 2 1
paper 17 16 15 14 13 5 4 3 2 1

1 DEMOCRACY AT WAR
African Americans, Citizenship, and the Meanings of Military Service

2 THE RACE QUESTION
The U.S. Government and the Training Experiences of African American Soldiers

3 THE HELL OF WAR
African American Soldiers in Labor and Combat

4 LES SOLDATS NOIRS
France, Black Military Service, and the Challenges of Internationalism and Diaspora

5 WAGING PEACE
The End of the War and the Hope of Democracy

6 THE WAR AT HOME
African American Veterans and Violence in the Long Red Summer

7 SOLDIERS TO NEW NEGROES
African American Veterans and Postwar Racial Militancy

8 LEST WE FORGET
The War and African American Soldiers in History and Memory

Corporal Charles W. Baltimore

Candidates enroll for Officers' Training Camp

Lieutenant George Schuyler

Class of illiterates

African American labor troops

Kathryn Johnson

Addie Hunton

Two First Class Americans!

Tirailleurs Sngalais

Picking Off Germans

Wounded French Troops

African American grave diggers

James Reese Europe and 369th homecoming parade

Will Uncle Sam Stand for This Cross?

Lieutenant McKaine of the Buffaloes

Portrait of Victor Daly

This book began some twenty-five thousand feet in the air, on a red-eye flight from San Francisco to Newark, New Jersey. With a good five hours to spare and unable to fall asleep, I figured I would try to get some work done, or, at the very least, organize my thoughts for the upcoming week. In doing so, I kept returning to a book I had recently readThe Unknown Soldiers: African-American Troops in World War I by Arthur Barbeau and Florette Henriand a question that continued to swirl in my mind: Why are there so few studies of African Americans and the First World War? I pulled out the cheap blue-lined notebook tucked away in my carry-on bag. I began to write. I attempted to answer this question and, with my curiosity now fully sparked, scribbled others onto the paper. Before I knew it, I had filled several pages with ideas that still remain at the core of this book. Occasionally I will look at these notes, now somewhat tattered but still in decent enough condition, and smile at my good fortune in gravitating toward a subject and historical era that continues to captivate my interests.

I may not have become a historian if it were not for Brenda Stevenson, who exposed me to the joys of research and the craft of scholarship as an undergraduate at UCLA. Colin Palmer, Elizabeth Lunbeck, James McPherson, and Daniel Rodgers have also been wonderful teachers, asking all the right questions and inspiring me to push my intellectual boundaries. I could not ask for a better mentor than Nell Irvin Painter. From day one, she has been a rock of both personal and professional reinforcement, instilling in me the confidence to vigorously pursue my historical visions.

Initial funding for this project was provided by the History Department, the Center for African American Studies, and the Graduate School at Princeton University. A research grant from the George C. Marshall Foundation was greatly appreciated. Several fellowships made the final completion of this book possible. A Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship gave me valuable time away from the classroom, as well as the opportunity to join a wonderful family of young scholars. I am thankful to Sylvia Sheridan, Richard Hope, and Bill Mitchell for their leadership with the Woodrow Wilson Career Enhancement Fellowship. I owe a special debt to Craig Wilder, a brilliant historian and dedicated mentor, who not only read the entire manuscript but gallantly endured a cross-Atlantic flight from England to attend the fellowship retreat. My time at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture Scholars-in-Residence Program made much of the revision process a wholly enjoyable experience. I am grateful to Howard Dodson, Diana Lachatenere, and Colin Palmer for giving me the opportunity to complete my book at one of the world's finest research facilities and, at the same time, mature as a scholar. I benefited from the feedback, intellectual exchange, and camaraderie of Valerie Babb, Lisa Gail Collins, Sylviane Diouf, Johanna Fernandez, Nicole Fleetwood, Venus Green, Kali Gross, Shannon King, Barbara Krauthamer, Malinda Lindquist, Ivor Miller, Raphael Njoku, Kezia Page, Carla Peterson, Evie Shockley, and Jon-Christian Suggs. Hillina Seife never ceased to amaze me with her skills as a research assistant.

The true heroes of this book are the librarians and archivists who provided invaluable assistance. I extend my gratitude to Emily Belcher at Princeton University's Firestone Library and George Deyo of the Calhoun County Historical Society in Anniston, Alabama, and the staffs of the United States Army Military History Institute, the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the Library of Congress, the Kautz Family YMCA Archives at the University of Minnesota, the Smithsonian Archives of American Art, Burke Library at Hamilton College, and the special collection departments at Cornell University and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. A huge merci beaucoup goes to the archivists at the Service Historique de lArme de Terre at the Chteau de Vincennes, France, who understood enough of my painfully limited French to steer me toward essential military documents. I am also thankful for the generosity of the staff and guards at the Service des Archives de lAssemble Nationale in Paris (especially for recognizing my embarrassment upon realizing I had mistakenly taken a fellow foreigner's passport from the Archives de France!). Navigating the labyrinth of records at the United States National Archives at College Park, Maryland, is no easy task. This would not have been possible without the skill of Mitch Yockelson, Richard Boylan, and, most important, the late Walter Hill Jr., whose legacy will be long remembered.