CHAPTER XXXI

WHAT THE NEGRO GOT OUT OF THE WAR

A Keener Sense of His Rights and Privileges as a Citizen of the United States-The Attitude of the South-Returning Negro Soldiers and Conditions in the North-The Attitude of Organized Labor-Instances of Discrimination-The Black Man and His Claims to Equal Treatment.

What the Negro should get out of the war ought to be determined largely by what he put into it. Practically all colored leaders of consequence felt that in spite of the wrongs the race had from time immemorial suffered every member of the race should be loyal. To secure coöperation to this end special appeals were made to the colored people of the country for their unstinted support. A specially selected Committee of One Hundred colored speakers to whom reference has been made, acting with local groups everywhere, was appointed and materially assisted in the work of maintaining the morale of the Negro race throughout the war, the demobilization of the army and the reconstruction of the nation on a peace basis.

Briefly stated, the Negroes did their full share in the great struggle to make the world safe for democracy. Four hundred thousand Negro soldiers were drafted or enlisted and 200,000 served in France under white officers and 1,200 officers of color. Negroes served in all branches of the military establishment-the cavalry, infantry, artillery, signal corps, medical corps, aviation corps, hospital corps, ammunition trains, stevedore regiments, labor battalions, depot brigades, engineer regiments, as regimental clerks, surveyors and draftsmen. Negro soldiers acquitted themselves with honor in the battles of the Argonne Forest, at Chateau Thierry, Belleau Wood, at St. Mihiel, in Champagne, in the Vosges, and at Metz, and when the Armistice was signed Negro troops as has been pointed out were nearest the Rhine. Entire regiments of colored troops, including the 369th, 370th, 371st, and 372nd, were cited for exceptional valor and decorated with the French Croix de Guerre. Groups

of officers and men of the 92nd Division were likewise decorated. The first battalion of the 367th also received the Croix de Guerre. Many individuals like Harry Johnson, Needham Roberts, and William Butler were awarded the Croix de Guerre and scores of officers by devotion to duty earned, even if they did not receive, promotion in their military units.

What has the American Negro got out of the war? Time alone can bring the full answer to this sweeping question. To some of the manifold implications which the query itself involves, however, some answers can already be made. For one thing, the war has brought to the American Negro a keener and more sharply defined consciousness, not only of his duties as a citizen, but of his rights and privileges as a citizen of the United States. The colored people of America performed to the utmost of their ability the duties which the war imposed upon all citizens, black and white alike.

A summary of what the Negro wants may be stated: He wants justice in the courts substituted for lynching, the privilege of serving on juries, the right to vote, and the right to hold office like other citizens. He wants, moreover, universal suffrage, better educational facilities, the abolition of the "Jim Crow" car, discontinuance of unjust discriminatory regulations and segregation in the various departments of the Government, the same military training for Negro youths as for white, the removal of "dead lines" in the recognition of fitness for promotion in the army and navy, the destruction of the peonage system, an economic wage scale to be applied to whites and blacks alike, better housing conditions for Negro employees in industrial centers, better sanitary conditions in the Negro sections of cities, and reforms in the Southern penal institutions. If, after having fulfilled the obligations of citizenship Negroes do not get these things, then indeed, they feel, will the war have been fought in vain.

Racial Attitude of the South

Judging from the favorable comments in Southern newspapers as to the desire for more amicable relations between the races and the tendency of Southern whites to labor for a new day of brotherhood, many have thought that this enviable situation would result as a sequel of the World War. In fact there have been a few instances

of distinguished white men who have interfered in behalf of the Negro soldiers subjected to indignities on their return from the war. A number of white people on a train refused to permit a conductor to eject from the passenger car reserved for whites a Negro soldier who returned from France with his Croix de Guerre and Distinguished Service Medal. A Southern officer on one occasion boldly upbraided his people for their failure to accord to Negro soldiers the treatment due those who have offered their lives to defend the honor of this country.

Most of the professed friendship for the Negro in the South, however, is largely an economic one, peculiar to the whites who have materially suffered by the migration of the Negroes and who are now very much disturbed by social unrest among the thousands of returned Negro soldiers who find in the South conditions too intolerable to be longer endured. The South as a whole is much disturbed by the question as to whether these soldiers who got a glimpse of real democracy in France will patiently submit to the treatment they received in the South before the World War. A larger number of Southerners have tried to bring about a recrudescence of the Ku Klux Klan to instill fear into the hearts of these Negroes, that they may keep the social status assigned them. There are many signs of opposition and discontent. Segregation and much ostracism still face the Negro and lynching is about as rampant as ever. So far as the South is concerned, therefore, it is not yet known whether or not the Negro will benefit by the sacrifices he has made for democracy.

Conditions in the North

The North too has not been found a paradise for the returning Negro soldiers. One hundred thousand of them have on account of conditions obtaining in the South declared that they will not again live in that section. In the North they must crowd into cities already grappling with the problems of an increasing Negro population resulting from the migration during the World War. One finds in the North, therefore, some of the same conditions obtaining in the South. In Pittsburg the whites posted threatening signs on the doors of the colored people declaring that the war is over and Negroes must stay in their place. Recently Chicago became the scene of a race riot

between Negroes and whites who bore it grievously that their community is being invaded by an increasing number of blacks. The chances for employment, moreover, have not increased. Unusual efforts have been made to find employment for the demobilized white soldiers but the Negro soldiers experience much difficulty in finding a free opportunity to live in this country for which they so nobly fought.

In the North, however, there is a growing healthy sentiment in the interest of fair play. Many of the best citizens contend that the largest task of democracy is that of keeping her own house in order. The mere talking about ideals and theories is not so difficult as to practice them. These gentlemen deplore the fact that race prejudice seems inbred in the spirit of men and that the claims of aristocracy make a difference in one's feelings toward those who seem to be less fortunately situated. Democracy, they contend, must be made a reality. It must be considered an ideal toward which we struggle and we must not grow impatient and discouraged when we fail to realize it. Democracy must not find it difficult to provide a place for the Negro. He must be treated with justice, his interests must be protected, his life must be held precious, his children must be educated, his health must be preserved, and his rights as an American must be defended. These things they claim for the Negro because of his unusual loyalty, because he is not inoculated with any social theories, because he does not contribute to industrial discontent, because, above all, his patriotism is without alloy. Since he has made a good soldier, borne wounds, privations and death in the nation's battles to make the world safe for democracy, he deserves to find a place for himself beneath the flag for which he has fought and within the borders of the country for which he was willing to die.

In view of the fact that the Negro faithfully supported the government he expected to get a much larger portion of the benefits of democracy than was given him. The Negro expected above all that as a fundamental concession in the adjustment of affairs necessary for the reconstruction to herald a new day for the man farthest down, that colored men would at least be given full opportunity to earn a living. Much was expected from the Department of Labor when Dr. George E. Haynes was appointed as a Director of Negro

Economics to mobilize colored labor to help win the war and secure for it a higher position when industrial reconstruction should follow a victorious peace. When, however, the Department of Labor itself drew the color line, refusing to employ Negroes for certain purposes altogether on account of their color and regardless of their efficiency, this proposed good to come to the Negro caused many Negroes to call upon Dr. Haynes to emulate the example of the traditional Arab by folding his tent and quietly stealing away back to the schoolroom to teach the untutored of his race the real meaning of democracy, rather than permit himself to be a party to the camouflage of mobilizing Negro labor of the country.

Attitude of Organized Labor

The Negroes expected too that the hard and fast rules of labor organizations which have for years barred men of color from the higher pursuits of labor, would be abrogated. It was believed that there would be new avenues for the employment of Negroes and that the so-called friends of Negro labor would be able to effect more than to secure from trade unions mere expressions of interest in behalf of the Negro laborers. It is unfortunate, however, that the Negro still finds himself refused admission to labor unions and then told that he cannot work because he is not a union man. He is denied the chance to care for his family properly and then censured because of his failure to do so. In Northern States where these restrictions have been very rigid it has been difficult to maintain order. Almost any day we hear of reports that some "gang" is hunting Negroes with the intention to do them violence and disturbances and race riots growing out of these conditions are now becoming common.

The Negro, moreover, was disappointed in his expectation to get fair play in the Civil Service of the Government. In the midst of the war, when at an unusually heavy expense to the Government, thousands of agencies had to be quickly established to expedite military preparations as much as possible, the United States Government found itself seriously suffering from a dearth of civil employees in its offices. As the demand was so great that it was necessary to waive the regulations that each should pass the civil service examination, the colored people instead of having a larger opportunity seemed to be less considered than formerly. The Civil Service