The Impact of The Negative Campaign Against the 92nd Division

Sometimes people want other people to fail. It is a simple as that. Negative campaigns are created to disseminate misinformation, ill-will, and can create major damage. Lies are told repeatedly and so often that the slanderers spewing the misinformation actually start believing the lies. The lies can damage an individual's or a group's reputation, and can place them in a dangerous situation.

The reason some individuals begin their negative campaign are many:  Financial gain, hatred, jealousy, retribution, power-- the list can be endless. Moreover, propaganda and rumor-mills are launched in order to cause confusion and division of loyalty. In modern society, people yearn for power and go to great lengths to achieve it because of its intoxicating effects. The group that is ostracized is tragically rendered powerless and treated as pariahs. However, negative campaigns can be terminated, reversed and eventually, the ultimate truth is revealed.

The culture of calumny does not end overnight. It starts with the courage of one to protest and to challenge. In a previous post I discussed how in World War I the French government awarded African American Soldiers Medal of Honor Awards ( Croix de Guerre) and not the American government.  I described at length the "Harlem Hellfighters", the relentlessly fierce American Army division (93rd) that fought in Europe. Sadly, one regiment was the scapegoat for Negros being viewed as not suitable in combat.

Source: www.goodreads.com

The 92nd division had a horrendous experience in World War I. The 92nd consisted of draftees and included four infantry regiments, three field artillery regiments, a trench mortar battery and three machine gun battalions, a general battalion, an engineer regiment. They received their training at Camp Funston at Fort Riley, Kansas at a segregated facility. The soldiers had a racial incident in their town and were unfairly admonished by their leader, General Robert Bullard, who dispatched  a scathing memo. The memo stated that, "White men made the division, and white men can break it easily if it became a troublemaker".* The 92nd were then sent overseas to France, where they were thrown into battle without an opportunity to develop camaraderie and little training with the French. The 92nd was unfamiliar with the terrain and under- equipped.

Consequently, the 92nd's 368th Infantry regiment did not do well during the Allied Meuse Argonne Offensive in September 1918. The 92rd suffered heavy casualties as a result of a deliberate lack of support. Scoffed their commander General Robert L. Bullard," If you need combat soldiers, and especially if you need them in a hurry, don't put your time upon Negroes." (Quoted by Ulysses Lee, United States Army in World War II: Special Studies: The Employment of Negro Troops. Washington: United States Government Printing Office 1966, p. 20.)

The 92nd Division dubbed themselves "The Buffalo Soldiers" in tribute to the famed Cavalries of the same name. The Buffalo Soldiers were brave African Americans Army soldiers that fought during the Spanish American War, patrolled National Parks, and secured the western frontier. German soldiers, on the other hand, referred to them as "Black Devils" (Schwartzer Teufel) and instituted their own negative campaign against the men. In battle, fliers in perfect English were launched airborne decrying that Negro soldiers should not fight for the English, French and especially America. It lambasted the African Americans in assisting a country that was allegedly "fighting for profit" and discriminated against Blacks. The 92nd were the subject of adverse campaigns from the Germans as well!

The 92nd Division had arrived in France during the latter stages of the war. It was their lot to be assigned the most active and well defended sectors of the front. As a result, the causalities were relatively high for the short period of combat. (www.portraitsinblack.com/buffalosoldiersfirstwar.html)

Members of the 92nd Division were also discredited by claims that they were rapists. Some were removed from their Division on trumped up charges and even court martialed. It took years for the charges to be cleared and the men exonerated.. (exhibitions.nypl.org/africanage/essay-world-war-i-html)



So a formal military policy for the next thirty years undermined Negro soldiers in combat as a result of a mere five days of fighting. Accounts were taken from biased Army officials, ignoring any victories,decorations, and barring testimony from Negro soldiers. The information was submitted to The War Department and the Army War College. (https:armyhistoryorg/09/fighting-for-respect-african-american-soldiers-in-world-war-1/)

Source: www.wolfsonian.org
Early positive WWI Recruitment Poster

The idea of Black soldiers and officers as failures festered postwar and until courageous Black leaders approached the United States Government. Journalists of course, were also instrumental in changing the status quo. When the United States entered World War War in 1941, men of all races and both genders were needed to help defeat the Axis Powers. I bring up the 92nd Division, and negative campaigns for a reason--  my father, a member of a the first World War II combat division, the 51st Battalion, was in a holding pattern. Dad had completed grueling boot camp at Montford Point, Camp LeJeune, NC, yet the 51st Battalion were not sent overseas initially. In fact, when I asked my father about this time period, he tells an interesting story...





Notes: *www.militaryheadgear.com/articles/10-American-WWI. "Segregation Policy and the Birth of the Blue Helmet."

The French decorated the 92nd's entire 1st Battalion of the 367th Infantry and awarded the Croix de Guerre. Other Black officers and enlisted men received the Distinguished Service Cross.

Glossary:
Cavalry-army component mounted on horseback
Infantry-is the branch of an army who fight on foot

Uncle Sam, Blacks and the Great War

 My grandfathers did not serve in World War I. They did not make the age requirement. On May 18, 1917, the United States Congress passed the Selective Service Act. The act required males from the ages of 21 through 30 to register for the draft. When the United States declared war on Germany, the War Department knew that the paltry number of 126,000 Army men would not be enough to defeat the Central Powers.*

Meanwhile, Negroes wanted to prove that they were loyal and patriotic.  They felt that this would improve their status as second class citizens. So they signed up in droves, eager to serve their country. The eagerness to sign up was very similar to the positive sentiment demonstrated during World War II.

Uncle Sam represents the US Government.

Some Black men showed apathy and outright refusal to fight in World War I. " The Germans ain't done nothin' to me and if they have, I forgive 'em." (Source: exhibitions.nypl.org). This comment by a Harlem resident, eerily reminds me of former heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali's remark about the Vietcong, some five decades later when he refused to fight in the Vietnam War. (See earlier post, "Dad Decides To Become A Marine").  A small fraction of Black men thought it was wrong to sign up for the war overseas. The US Government passed the June 1917 Espionage Act and the May 1918 Sedition Act "to crack down on dissent".  Negro leaders were under surveillance because of their anti-war rhetoric.

A. Phillip Randolph
photo courtesy of 2bpblogspot.com

A magazine called The Messenger was founded by A.Phillip Randall (1889-1979) and Chandler Owen in 1912. It called for "more positions in the war industry and the armed forces for Blacks". A Phillip Randall worked tirelesslesly to organize Black workers and fight discrimination throughout his lifetime. He established the first Black labor union and challenged both President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and President Harry S. Truman to end discrimination in the federal government and the armed forces. Randolph would ultimately be responsible for President Truman signing Executive Order 9981, which prohibited segregation in the armed forces. But this historical feat was accomplished much later, in the year 1948. (Source: www.britannica.com)

I learned today that Black men were required to tear one corner of their registration cards so they could easily be identified and inducted separately. In the South, draft boards were doing all they could to bring Negros into service. They were less likely to be exempt from service. Of course, by serving I am referring to positions such as stevedores, cooks, drivers, and support positions. It was decided that "they were better suited in manual positions". (info derived from militaryhistoryonline.com)

Source:  theotheralexandria.com
 The torn right corner  immediately identified Blacks.

 In addition to the intense enlistment of Black soldiers, I discovered that Southern postal workers deliberately withheld the registration cards of eligible Negros men. Why? This practice was done to have them arrested and jailed as draft dodgers. These men owned their own farms and had families. Sadly, it was a deplorable way for those in power to break up the family unit, weaken the Negro man, and financially profit from taking their farms. The farms were a source of pride in the South, particularly since Negroes were descendants of sharecroppers and enslaved Africans.

This deliberate scheme reminds me of how people who wish to harm others convene and plot for the demise of another group for financial gain. One example is the often touted "School to Prison Pipeline for Black Boys". It is also refered to as the Prison Industrial Complex. Social rights activist icon Angela Davis eloquently describes mass incarceration in the video below:

                                                The image of Uncle Sam is shown in this video.




 Human trafficking is another example of how a group of people will exploit another set of individuals. Young woman are lured to this country with the promise of a job, and a better standard of life. These women use their life savings to go to America, the land of opportunity. But unbeknownst to the women, once they arrive their passports are taken from them along with their money and the women are forced to work as slaves. Another scenario is when females are given housing or a meal, and then coerced to participate in a lurid, unsafe lifestyle.


                                                                          ***
 I would be remiss to not discuss the role of Black Women in the Great War effort and several exceptional African American World War I combat divisions. These contributions will be the subject of my next post. Again, all branches EXCEPT the Marines Corps accepted African Americans. The Marines did not accept African Americans until World War II.

Source: Angelfire.com
WWI Soldiers

                                                                                         

* Notes: military historyonline.com/wwi
stevedore: one who is employed in the unloading of ships.

Uncle Sam:  nickname for the US Government. His origins were based on an actual person by the name of Samuel Wilson, whose firm had a contract to provide meat for soldiers during the War of 1812. The artist who created the portrait was named James Montgomery Flagg.(xroads.virginia.edu.)

Angela Davis: Social rights advocate, professor, civil rights activist, former member of the Communist Party and Black Panthers. Davis was born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1944. She has authored many books, and
lectures throughout the world.