Some of the outstanding features of Secretary Baker’s policy with reference to Negro soldiers may be summarized as follows, and the statements given below embody his plans as stated before justice was sometimes thwarted:
1. That Negro soldiers should be organized and trained on the same basis as all other soldiers.
2. That Negro men should be given the opportunity to train as officers, and that those who met the qualifications should be appointed for service just as others who qualified.
3. That a Negro man should be appointed as one of the assistants to the Secretary.
4. That Negro men should receive every possible aid in making a thoroughgoing study of conditions in both American and French camps.
5. That wherever injustice came to the attention of the Secretary immediate attention should be given to the matter and effort made to correct it.
General Pershing’s service with the Negro units in the regular army and his recommendation of Major Charles Young of the Tenth Cavalry to the Adjutant General of the Army from Headquarters Punitive Expedition U. S. Army, Colonia Dublan, Mexico, August 21, 1916, along with other officers “who had shown very high efficiency throughout the campaign,” and his tributes to the soldierly qualities of Negroes on several occasions, gave Negroes in America the idea that he stood for a square deal and would give honor to whom honor was due. When agitation arose over the use of Negro soldiers in the war, General Pershing let it be known that he desired Negro troops in France. When one of the Allies made strong objections to the attachment of any battalions of Negro infantry for training with their forces, and General Pershing was asked for his views by the War Department, he said: “In event Department still desires early to despatch 92nd Division, I adhere to former recommendations that Division be included among those to be employed temporarily with ——. I have informed —— —— that these soldiers are American citizens and that I can not discriminate against them in event War Department desires to send them to France.”
When stories were circulated among Negro people to the effect that Negroes were being wrongly treated, and subjected to most dangerous positions to save white troops, and shot by Germans when captured or left to die if wounded, General Pershing saw that these were repudiated; and he further said that “the only regret expressed by colored troops is that they are not given more dangerous work to do. I can not commend too highly the spirit shown among the colored combat troops who exhibit fine capacity for quick training and eagerness for the most dangerous work.” When he visited any section of territory occupied by Americans, he always showed an interest in the Negro soldiers; they were impressed and encouraged by his inquiry into the conditions under which they labored; and his understanding of the hard life of the stevedores, and his appreciation of their efforts, did much to make their work less burdensome. The men also felt that in the case of court martials, if verdicts were reviewed by General Pershing, as was done in some important cases, absolute justice would be meted out.
When in the midst of the charges and counter-charges relative to the fitness of Negro officers to lead men General Pershing was questioned about a few Negro officers who were declared inefficient by a board, he assured his hearers that because a few officers had been declared unfit, this was by no means to be construed as an indication of lack of capacity on the part of the race, because at that time more than 6000 white officers had been returned to the states for unfitness to lead men and certainly no one considered the white race a failure because of that fact. Finally we have seen how the General reviewed the 92nd Division just before it departed for America, commending the officers and men for their splendid record overseas. He assured them of his confidence by saying that he had planned to place them before the great fortress of Metz; and his words did much to soften the bitterness of feeling and let both officers and men return to their homeland feeling that after all the commander and chief of the American Expeditionary Forces had appreciated their part in the great struggle. No one can tell what greater things might not have been accomplished by Negro soldiers during the war if the spirit of Secretary Baker and General Pershing had followed them throughout the service.