Colored Members of Army Educational Corps and Some University Students
1. Captain D. K. Cherry. 2. Secretary William N. Nelson. 3. Secretary William H. Crutcher. 4. Secretary Benjamin F. Hubert and group of students in attendance at Universities in Paris. 5. Secretary Joseph L. Whiting. 6. Secretary George W. Jackson. 7. Secretary John C. Wright.
About the first of April, 1919, the Army decided to take over the entire educational work of the Y. M. C. A., and invited the educational secretaries, the writer included, to leave the organization and come over to the army. It promised to carry out the original contract made by the Y. M. C. A., and give them the rank and uniform of an officer. Eight colored men accepted this offer and went into the army. They were Mr. J. C. Wright, formerly of Tuskegee Institute, Mr. F. O. Nichols, of Philadelphia, Mr. Benjamin F. Hubert, State College, Orangeburg, S. C., Mr. William Nelson, A. & T. College, Greensboro, N. C., Mr. Joseph L. Whiting, Tuskegee Institute, Mr. Thomas Clayton, Piqua, Ohio, Mr. W. H. Crutcher, A. & M. College, Tallahassee, and Mr. George W. Jackson, Louisville, Ky. Of this number Mr. J. C. Wright was appointed Supervisor of Instruction for colored troops and Lecturer in Civics; Mr. F. O. Nichols, Lecturer in Civics, and Mr. Benjamin F. Hubert, Supervisor of Agricultural Instruction among the colored troops.
These men were attached to the staff of the University of Beaune. As Supervisor of Instruction, Mr. Wright was well qualified, being a graduate of Oberlin College, Dean of Tallahassee Normal School, and having done splendid work as a Y. M. C. A. secretary at Camp One, Hut 5, St. Nazaire. Here he found a large number of men from the 301st Stevedore Regiment, one of the largest military organizations in France, and among them the first colored American soldiers to land on French soil. About 30 per cent. of these men were illiterate. On the contrary, a number of them were college trained men, having been engaged in professional and business pursuits.
Mr. Wright undertook the task of preparing these men to go back to civilian life with at least the rudiments of an English education. His first method was to get men who could not read and write to voluntarily attend classes scheduled at the Y. M. C. A. hut; but this was quite a difficult matter, for after ten or twelve hours’ work on the dock, the men were usually too tired to do anything that was not compulsory. Then he succeeded in getting it made a military duty for all men who could not sign the payroll to attend class three nights in a week for a certain period. This plan was successful only to a limited degree, as compulsion was left largely with company commanders, who were not entirely in sympathy with the idea. They contended that the army was no place for a man to make up for his lost school advantages, and some said it was too much to require such a duty of tired, hard-working troops; but too anxious and determined to be discouraged, the effort was continued, and after much advertising and several large public meetings held in the interest of the work, there were over five hundred men who enrolled for class work. Of this number 328 were actually taught by volunteer teacher-soldiers. One sergeant compelled the thirty illiterates of his company to attend school every night there were classes being taught; and after eight weeks all but nine could sign the payroll, and many of them, men still in the morning of their manhood, received such an inspiration as to give them a desire to enter school after their return to the States, and it is known to be true that some of them are at this moment enrolled in different schools and receiving instruction.
Mr. Wright, together with his colleagues, Mr. Nichols and Mr. Hubert, as members of the staff of the University of Beaune, were sent out singly and as a team to lecture and hold institutes in the different sections of France where colored troops were located. It is estimated by them that they reached as many as twenty thousand men, and impressed them with the importance of community co-operation and collective effort in bettering the conditions in the neighborhoods where their civic lots would be cast; also with the importance of buying land and taking advantage of the industrial opportunities which the war had brought about.
The other five members of the colored army educational corps did local work. Mr. J. L. Whiting, who had formerly been educational secretary at Camp Montoir, near St. Nazaire, and who had already done splendid work, went back to his original field of labor. Here in September, 1918, he began with an enrollment of forty, in classes in reading, writing, arithmetic, and civics. By April, 1919, the enrollment, with the assistance of the new compulsory rule of the army, had increased to 868, with 19 soldiers detailed to assist in the work. He found that there were more than 1,000 troops below the fourth grade, who would be glad of an opportunity to attend school, and that there were in every company of colored troops as many as 30 men who were unable to sign the payroll. Mr. Whiting accomplished wonderful results in spite of the handicap of no books, no suitable accommodations, and for a considerable time no regularly detailed teachers.
He set writing copies for all of these men with his own hand, taking their work home each day and reviewing and criticising it. He held classes in the mess halls, many times cold and damp and with no lights except that which could be gotten by the use of candles; and by the close of the work he had not only done much towards wiping out the X (his mark) sign from the payroll, but had given them sufficient foundation for the acquiring of a fair education.
Mr. George W. Jackson had been assigned by the Y. M. C. A. to be Educational Director at Is-sur-Tille. Here he found about 15,000 colored soldiers hailing from Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas. They were S. O. S. troops, working just back of the combat area. Mr. Jackson was returned here by the army to complete the work started by the Y. M. C. A. During his period of service here he learned that about 2,500 of the colored soldiers had very limited education or none at all. With the assistance of detailed tutors he was able to eliminate 90 per cent. of this illiteracy in about three months. Most of them learned to sign the payroll after about three weeks’ instruction, and by the time they were demobilized fully one-third had written letters to their relatives at home. Classes in secondary and college subjects were also held, in addition to instruction in French, bookkeeping, current topics, and the Bible.