Racism in
the U.S. Army
During W.W. I

These historic pages from The Crisis document official discrimination against African-Americans who served both in the ranks and as officers in the American Army during World War I. They include the communications from high-ranking American officers to the French military authorities, conveying their suggestions as to how America’s black Doughboys were to be treated. Other letters from American Army officers (and one U.S. Senator) are also included:

“We must prevent the rise of any pronounced degree of intimacy between French Officers…(they) must not eat with them, must not shake hands or seek to talk or meet with them outside of the requirements of military service.”

To their credit, these dictates were entirely ignored by the French officer corps.