Having been for 18 years confidential secretary to Booker T. Washington, and being at the time of his appointment secretary of the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute for Negroes, Mr. Scott was peculiarly fitted to render necessary advice to the war department with respect to the Negroes of the various states, to look after all matters affecting the interests of Negro selectives and enlisted men, and to inquire into the treatment accorded them by the various officials connected with the war department. In the position occupied by him, he was thus enabled to obtain a proper perspective both of the attitude of selective service officials to the Negro, and of the Negro to the war, especially to the draft. In a memorandum on the subject addressed to the Provost Marshall General, December 12, 1918, he wrote:
"The attitude of the Negro was one of complete acceptance of the draft, in fact of an eagerness to accept its terms. There was a deep resentment in many quarters that he was not permitted to volunteer, as white men by the thousands were permitted to do in connection with National Guard units and other branches of military service which were closed to colored men. One of the brightest chapters in the whole history of the war is the Negro's eager acceptance of the draft and his splendid willingness to fight. His only resentment was due to the limited extent to which he was allowed to join and participate in combatant or 'fighting' units. The number of colored draftees accepted for military duty, and the comparatively small number of them claiming exemptions, as compared with the total number of white and colored men called and drafted, presents an interesting study and reflects much credit upon this racial group."
Over 1,200 Negro officers, many of them college graduates, were commissioned during the war. The only training camp exclusively for Negro officers was at Fort Des Moines, Iowa. This camp ran from June 15, 1917, to October 15, 1917. A total of 638 officers was graduated and commissioned from the camp. Negro Regulars and Negro National Army men who had passed the tests for admission to officers training camps were sent mainly to the training schools for machine gun officers at Camp Hancock, Augusta, Georgia; the infantry officers training school at Camp Pike, Little Rock, Arkansas, and the artillery officers training school at Camp Taylor, Louisville, Kentucky. They were trained along with the white officers. The graduates from these camps along with a few National Guardsmen who had taken the officers' examinations, and others trained in France, made up the balance of the 1,200 commissioned.
In connection with the artillery training an interesting fact developed. It had been charged that Negroes could not develop into artilleryman. A strong prejudice against inducting them into that branch of the service had always existed in the army. It was especially affirmed that the Negro did not possess the mathematical ability necessary to qualify as an expert artillery officer. Nevertheless, out of a number of Negro aspirants, very small in comparison with the white men in training for officers' commissions at the camp, five of the Negroes stood alongside their white brothers at the head of the class. The remainder were sprinkled down the line about in the same proportion and occupying the same relative positions as the whites. The prejudice against the Negro as an artilleryman was further and effectually dispelled in the record made by the 349th, 350th and 351st artillery regiments and their machine gun battalions in the 92nd division.
With the exception of the training camp for officers at Des Moines, Iowa, no important attempt was made to establish separate Negro training camps. In the draft quotas from each state were whites and blacks and all with few exceptions, were sent to the most convenient camp. Arrangements existed, however, at the different camps for the separate housing and training of the Negro troops. This was in line with the military policy of the Government, as well as in deference to the judgment of both white and black officers. It undoubtedly was necessary to separate the two races. Furthermore, as the military policy called for regiments, battalions and, divisions made up entirely of Negroes, it was proper to commence the organization at the training camps. Companies formed in this manner thus became homogeneous, accustomed to one another individually and to their officers.
The situation was different from the Spanish-American war, where Negro units, at least in one case, served in white regiments. Racial strife and rivalry were eliminated. The only rivalry that existed was the good-natured and healthy one of emulation between members of the same race. On the field of battle there was rivalry and emulation between the whites and blacks, but it was the rivalry of organizations and not of races. The whole was tempered by that splendid admiration and fellow-feeling which comes to men of all races when engaged as partners in danger or near death; in the defense and promotion of a great cause; the eternal verities of Justice and Humanity.
CHAPTER VIII.
RECRUDESCENCE OF SOUTH'S INTOLERANCE.
CONFRONTED BY RACIAL PREJUDICE—- SPLENDID ATTITUDE OF NEGRO SHAMED IT—KEPT OUT OF NAVY—ONLY ONE PER CENT OF NAVY PERSONNEL NEGROES—MODIFIED MARINES CONTEMPLATED—FEW HAVE PETTY OFFICERS' GRADES—SEPARATE SHIPS PROPOSED—NEGRO EFFICIENCY IN NAVY—MATERIAL FOR "BLACK SHIPS"—NAVY OPENS DOOR TO NEGRO MECHANICS.