626 Chapter 23 Woodrow Wilson and the Great War
earned good wages and were accorded at least some
human rights. They were not treated by the whites as
equals, or even in most cases entirely fairly, but they
could vote, send their children to decent schools, and
within reasonable limits do and say what they pleased
without fear of humiliation or physical attack.
There were two black regiments in the regular
army and a number of black national guard units
when the war began, and once these outfits were
brought up to combat strength, no more volunteers
were accepted. Indeed, at first no blacks were con-
scripted; Southerners in particular found the thought
of giving large numbers of guns to blacks and teach-
ing them how to use them most disturbing.
However, blacks were soon drafted, and once they
were, a larger proportion of them were taken than
whites. One Georgia draft board exempted more
than 500 of 815 white registrants and only 6 of the
202 blacks in its jurisdiction before its members were
relieved of their duties. After a riot in Texas in which
black soldiers killed seventeen white
civilians, black recruits were dispersed
among many camps for training to
lessen the possibility of trouble.
In the military service, all blacks were
placed in segregated units. Only a hand-
ful were commissioned as officers.
Despite the valor displayed by black sol-
diers in the Civil War and the large role
they played in the Spanish-American War,
where five blacks had won the
Congressional Medal of Honor, most
even those sent overseas, were assigned
to labor battalions working as stevedores
and common laborers. But many fought
and died for their country. Altogether
about 200,000 served overseas.
W. E. B. Du Bois supported the war
wholeheartedly. He praised Wilson for
making, at last, a strong statement
against lynching, which had increased to
a shocking extent during the previous
decade. He even went along with the fact
that the handful of black officer candi-
dates were trained in a segregated camp.
“Let us,” he wrote in theCrisis, “while
the war lasts, forget our special griev-
ances and close ranks shoulder to shoul-
der with our fellow citizens and the allied
nations that are fighting for democracy.”
Many blacks condemned Du Bois’s
accommodationism (which he promptly
abandoned when the war ended), but
most saw the war as an opportunity to
demonstrate their patriotism and prove
their worth. For the moment the prevail-
ing mood was one of optimism. “We may expect to see
the walls of prejudice gradually crumble”—this was the
common attitude of blacks in 1917 and 1918. If win-
ning the war would make the world safe for democracy,
surely blacks in the United States would be better off
when it was won. Whether or not this turned out to be
so was (and still is) a matter of opinion.The Great Migrationat
http://www.myhistorylab.comAmericans: To the Trenches and Over the Top
All activity on the home front had one ultimate
objective: defeating the Central Powers on the bat-
tlefield. This was accomplished. The navy performed
with special distinction. In April 1917, German sub-
marines sank more than 870,000 tons of Allied ship-
ping; after April 1918, monthly losses never reachedWatchtheVideoA recruiting poster for the “True Sons of Freedom” encouraged African Americans to
enlist. In fact, some 350,000 black Americans served in segregated units during the Great
War. Several such units fought alongside French units, and 171 African Americans were
awarded the French Legion of Honor, an award for courageous military service.