‘Black French troops and African American’s both

experienced a colour blind war’ discuss

Tom Hammond (MA History) Course: HIST6108

Tutor leader: Dr Joan Tumblety

The outgoing US president Obama commented that America is “a nation, a people, who remember

our heroes”1. The white house played host to a ceremony to illustrate such sentiments. The

President presented the congressional medal of honor for the individual in question. This ceremony

was unlike many witnessed before, the recipient hero had been deceased for just under a century. If

one was to head to the Washington park in Albany, you would find a Bronze bust atop of a granite

column settled amongst the gentle oaks of the green. The bust is of an African American soldier

adorned in an American First World War tunic on who’s chest is pinned the French Croix de Guerre,

France’s highest order of bravery (first American to do so). However, the chest is decorated

incorrectly and has been for decades until a ceremony on June 1st 2015. Sergeant Henry Johnson was

awarded America’s highest merit for bravery by Obama, for his heroic efforts in repelling “a surprise

attack by a dozen German raiders. With only a knife, he single-handedly held off the enemy,

preventing the capture of a wounded fellow soldier”2.

Henry Johnson was chauffeured during New York’s victory parade in 1919, receiving the jubilation of

a crowd mesmerized by his feats during war time. Only a decade later, he died alone in his early

thirties during the great depression from Myocarditis in slum like hospital in Washington DC. He had

only received a military pension far below the equivalent of today’s poverty line. He was

systematically forgotten and unjustly not recognized by the US military and government until the 21 st

century, owing to structural racism and prejudice in American military and government. Henry

Johnson had been a member of the Harlem hell-fighters, a German awarded name for the all black

369th Infantry from New York. During the war, they had been attached to the French 161st division on

the western front. These young black Americans donned the French Adrian helmet; fought along

side both white and colonial troops; received French citations and medals; as well as being buried

along side their French comrades. The extent of the French progressive treatment of black troops is

limited. Both government’s, societies and militaries’ treatment of black and colonial troops was

dubious throughout every stage of a soldier’s narrative of the ‘war to end all wars’. But to what

extent can we draw an absolute parallel between the two? The hope of the coming essay is to argue

that, even with some unforgiving aspects of policy and opinion, the French treated her black warrior

servants with more respect and decency than their American allies’ government, army and society.

In the first section, the intention is to discuss and evaluate whether the war time images of black

soldiers were ‘colour blind’ in the sense of their activities in war and peace generated their persona

or was it the racial preoccupations of Allied soldiers and citizens that manufactured it? It is easy to

1 Shear, Michael D., 'Two world war I soldiers Posthumously receive medal of honor', U.S., 3 June 20152 Ibid.

conclude that Colonial troop’s involvement in the war fighting ‘le boche’ helped generate a more

positive perception of West Africans by 1918. Initially, the image was typical of the time’s racial

prejudices against colonial subjects, mostly African ones, across Europe- not just France. The war, to

an extent, aided black American and Colonial troops from a French perspective, earning them a

column of respect from their imperial and white overlords. The war changed little for the American

theory on racial image, as returning troops faced the same legislature and social discrimination

preceding 1917.

There was preliminary excitement and intrigue for the West African troops coming to Metropolitan

France following the outbreak of war on the continent. Henri Barbusse, for instance, in his novel Le

Feu, described Moroccan soldiers as follows: “They are imposing and even frighten a bit. Of course

they are heading for the front line. This is their place, and their arrival means we are about to attack.

They are made for attacking.”3

This initial enthusiasm and fascination for colonial troops gave way to common racial prejudices

causing genuine fear and anxiety towards newly arrived troops in France, especially in Southern

French towns such as Midi where majority of new coming Africans were stationed. Africans were

“often portrayed as war like and ferocious in combat, said to have scant regard for their own lives

and to to be merciless towards defeat enemies”4. These preconceptions could be justified due to the

early combat exploits of colonial soldiers in the opening years of the war. For example, at the battle

of Flanders, French colonial troops served with ferocious

3 Barbusse, Henri: Le Feu. Journal d'une escouade, Paris 1916, pp. 48-49. 4 Lunn, Joe H., 'Changing french perceptions of west African soldiers during the First world war', French Colonial History, i, 1 (2002) 2

distinction during the clash, notorious for their ability to assault German trenches and close combat

capability.

Both the images above illustrate the common perception of the horror of African troops during the

early stages of the war. The one on the left comments about the black Adrian wearing Senegalese

soldier “With reason, the Boche found them worse than anything living”, cementing the image of

racial fear for both German troops and for the public that was exposed to these images in France.

From the German perspective, it was a common view to hold about African troops. In German

propaganda, colonial troops were labelled with all sorts of racist expressions that negated their

quality as regular military forces. Even the liberal sociologist Max Weber complained that “an army

of niggers, Ghurkhas and all the barbarians of the world were at Germany’s borders”5. The nature of

use by French commanders of Black colonial troops changed their image by war’s end. Throughout

the war, African soldiers were used as ‘shock troops’, with the perceived ability to win close quarter

hand to hand combat within the first line of enemy trenches. Even though being deployed in this

way earned the respect of many French military witnesses, these tactics were based on ethnic

discriminations and must not be ignored. “A senior officer responsible for West Africans’ training the

camp of Fréjus wrote in a letter in January 1918 that African soldiers were “cannon fodder, who

should, in order to save whites’ lives, be made use of much more intensively.”6 Though war time

explicit pictures along ethnic lines negatively portrayed Africans as savage, accounts of the time

show that this ‘savagery’ and ‘warrior instinct’ of colonial West Africans made them widely

respected in France. “When West African troops arrived in France, the public enthusiastically

welcomed the tirailleurs senegalais as exactly the kind of fighters France needed. ‘Cut off their

heads!’, shouted one from the crowd to an arriving contingent”7. The widespread colour blindness of

the French people was echoed by the military officials with Mangin praising the “fighting spirit of the

2,000 Somalian soldiers whom he called true Ghurkhas”8. These sentiments continued throughout

the war as French politicians sustained to sing the praises of colonial troop’s merits.

5 Weber, Max: Russlands Übergang zur Scheindemokratie, in: Hilfe 23 (1917), p. 279.6 Koller, Christian, Colonial military participation in Europe (Africa) (The International Encyclopedia of the First World War, ed. by Ute Daniel, Peter Gatrell, Oliver Janz, Heather Jones, Jennifer Keene, Alan Kramer, and Bill Nasson, issued by Freie Universität Berlin, 2016),7 Keene, Jennifer, French and American racial stereotypes during the first world war (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2001) 267 8 van Galen Last, Dick, Black shame: African soldiers in Europe, 1914-1922, ed. by Ralf Futselaar (London, United Kingdom: Bloomsbury Academic, 2015) 75

When the fortunes of African troops were based on their skin colour during the war, many leading

French generals felt repercussions and were often dismissed because of this. A prime example is one

of the ‘butcher’ Mangin. The cost of life by the German counter attack at Champagne, with up to half

of all deployed African soldiers killed, led to Mangin’s removal from his post. This is a stark contrast

from the common historiographical analysis of the subject helps us evaluate that French command

valued the lives of black soldiers as that of white. This is due to the fact that “By the summer and fall

of 1918, troops of color had nonetheless secured a reputation of being excellent soldiers. The proof

of the French high command’s respect can be seen in a proposal to create an Armée Noire after

war.A rapid reduction of European French troops was anticipated and West-African troops could fill

this gap. It was also argued that the use of black troops was economical

Besides practical economic considerations, French military authorities also

wanted to use West-African Tirailleurs because they believed these men were

shock troops par excellence”9. In his leading work Race and war in France, Richard Fogarty argues

that the legacy of France’s war and her colonial fighting subjects removed the colour lines of French

universalism and what was to be ‘French’. He states that “fighting and dying in the struggle against a

common enemy associated troupes indigenes intimately with the French nation- for many in France

there could be no greater sign of devotion to the nation than participating in its defence in those

years of critical need”10. The reality of this claim is true if one compares the situation to America. The

image below shows members of the 1st Senegalese Tirailleurs regiment receiving the Croix de

Guerre with four palms, the very essence of honour and respect in the French military. This was

awarded in a ceremony in 1919 at the court of honor, the heart of French recognition to the

devotion of its citizen and subjects. In stark contrast, this was a time of widespread lynching and race

riots in the United States. France not only ignored color as defining a man’s merits but awarded

honours to all troops that served her as French universalism would award equal rights to every

citizen.

9 Ibid. 7910 Fogarty, Richard S, Race and war in France: Colonial subjects in the french army, 1914-1918 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013) 2

11

America:

One is easily drawn to the conclusion that white Americans attempted to retard the racial image of

both African American troops and Colonial ones, strengthening further that the French were colour

blind throughout the war. Parallel to the initial welcome by French citizens to African troops, black

American troop’s held a positive image with their hosts. A local townswoman observed the coming

of black American troops to her town, commenting that “the inhabitants are not only convinced that

there is nothing of the savage about these men but on the contrary no soldier could be found who

was more correct”12. In comparison, white American officers and soldier’s racial prejudices

attempted to blur both the civilian and military reflections on black troops. Lt colonel Paul Clark, an

American liaison officer to the French army, stated to a French colleague that “the black man is more

animal than we white men and is less likely to observe some of the conventions of war”13. Further to

11 Memento - Colorized photos (2016), <https://www.facebook.com/mementocolores/> [accessed 7 December 2016] 12 Keene, Jennifer, French and American racial stereotypes during the first world war (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2001) 26913 Paul clark to Gen. Pershing, Paul H. Clark papers, library of congress. (June 5 1919) 329

their own perceptions of African American troops, members of the white American military and

political elite produced the ‘secret information concerning black troops’ phamphlet, warning French

officers (that had ignored the racial colour lines and absorbed black American troops in their army)

that is it important for officers who have been called upon to exercise command over black

American troops, or to live in close contact with them, to have an exact idea of the position occupied

by Negros in the United States”14, further commenting that “the French public has become

accustomed to treating the Negro with familiarity and indulgence. This familiarity and indulgence are

matters of grievous concern to the Americans”15 Woodrow Wilson sent the public servant Robert

Moton to inspect black American troops and to find whether these racial prejudices were justified. In

complete contrast of the ‘dangers’ warned by some in the American military to their French host,

Moton’s report “found that the rape charges [against black soldiers] were seriously exaggerated, as

well as the accusations of cowardice among black units.16. Secret information rattled on to say that

the French should not “commend too highly the Black American troops, particularly in the presence

of White Americans”17 as well as “in moderate terms sticking to the truth”18 Racial images that were

contested by Moton’s report also didn’t wash with the majority of the French high command. DuBois

in the Crisis, stated that once “the French ministry heard of the distribution (of Secret information)

of this document among the prefects and sous-prefects of France , they ordered such copies to be

collected and burned”19 Ignoring the advice of many of white American officers, The French

commander “Henri Gouraud continued to praise black units who served effectively and to award

them the Croix de Guerre.” By the end of the war, 171 black American soldiers were awarded the

French Legion of Honor”20. The decade following 1918 would generate another utter insult to the

image of heroics of individuals such as Henry Johnson and the exploits of the famous Harlem hell

fighters. The US military command’s obsession with the prejudiced image of black American troops

continued to dominate decisions after 1918. For example, “Six years after the war ended, the entire

Army War College student body and faculty produced a study at the request of the Army Chief of

Staff. Titled “The Use of Negro Manpower in War,” this report was signed by the College

Commandant, a Major General. The study asserted that blacks lacked initiative and resourcefulness

14 The crisis, de buoise 15 the crisis, de buoise 16 Onion, Rebecca, A WWI–Era Memo Asking French Officers to Practice Jim Crow With Black American Troops, <http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_vault/2016/04/27/_secret_information_concerning_black_troops_a_warning_memo_sent_to_the_french.html> [accessed 13 December 2016]17 the crisis deboiuse 18 the crisis, de boise 191919 IBID. 20 Richard Slotkin, Lost battalions: The great war and the crisis of American nationality (New York, NY: Henry Holt & Company, 2005). 199

and concluded that although black soldiers made “fair” laborers, they were “inferior” as technicians

and fighters”21

Through the comparative study of war time image, one can be easily drawn to the conclusion that

the war had taught only the French to ignore colour when judging the merits of a man. Yes, early

years of the conflict if anything had accelerated the prejudice levels due to the increased contact

with locals, but as the war progressed, respect replaced prejudice. The war did nothing for African

American image. The black fighting units of the US forces were highly decorated. But their fighting

qualities were ignored and discarded following the war due to racial perceptions of the time. In

testimony to the French, they were decades in front of their allies in terms of colour blind imagery.

Figure 1: Febuary 17th, 1919

This image shows a white Army officer (bottom right) saluting the passing parading troops, one can

easily argue that this wasn’t an illustration of respect to the black individuals but to the victorious

nation’s flag. Though the man himself may not have been an active member of the institutional

racism that occupied the racial policy of the US military, it is a mere indication of a hollow victory for

the African-American community returning home from the Western front. Even in their decorated

manner, this jubilation of victory would fog racial prejudices for a short while. Upon returning to

21 Gropman, Alan L., 'Book review: The American foreign legion: Black soldiers of the 93d in world war I', Armed Forces & Society, iv, 32 (2006), 671–673

Harlem, the sectary of state for New York John Lyons commented that “no American soldiers saw

harder or more constant fighting and none gave a better account of themselves (in France)”22 .Not all

returning soldiers received this sense of lasting gratitude. On the surface at least, returning to the

North was a stark improvement to the fate of many in the South.

What though the hero warrior was black?

His heart was white and loyal to the core;

And when to his loved Dixie he came back,

Maimed, in the duty done on foreign shore,

Where from the hell of war he never flinched,

Because he cried, “democracy,” was lynched.

Carrie Williams Clifford (1922)23

“The black draftee from Georgia” is the literacy illustration of a nation that majority of America’s

black soldiers returned to in the Southern states. Wilbur little, a black American serviceman,

returned home to Blakely to find a group of white men at the station warning him not to wear his

service uniform. Due to his public defiance, the group lynched him several days later. Clifford’s poem

written in 1922 was to commemorate not just Little’s memory but of all coloured American

servicemen that experience ‘white backlash’ succeeding 1918. The Black American community’s

valiant soldiers were a population still under political and physical attack from their White

compatriots and socially constrained by Jim crow laws. The war had changed nothing. Little’s

lynching was one of many assaults by an ungrateful white populace (mostly southern) on a black

population that was sold a lie by government that service in the European theatre of war could aid in

their struggle of freedom in the United States. The historian Vincent P. Mikkelsen eloquently codifies

the situation in 1919 America for African American troops: “After almost three years of deadly

combat in Europe, the United States formally entered World War I, and among those who fought

were over 380,000 African American soldiers who, despite their lack of democratic rights at home,

were willing to make the greatest sacrifice for their country. Serving in the military provided the

perfect opportunity to define one’s own worth and epitomized racial pride, citizenship, and

manhood. Unfortunately, even after serving on the Western Front, equal rights were still withheld.

22 Fifth avenue cheers Negro veterans, New York Times, 18 February 1919, pp. 1–5

23 Davis, David A. “Not Only War Is Hell: World War I and African American Lynching Narratives.” African American Review, vol. 42, no. 3/4, 2008, pp. 477–491. www.jstor.org/stable/40301248.

Following the armistice, uncertainty loomed as to how racist whites, especially in the South, would

treat the returning black soldiers. The question was: Would a man who had just faced death in

Europe continue to accept Jim Crow”24. The political and social landscape would have been different

had the rhetoric of John Lyons been echoed across the states. American politicians, such as

statesmen James Vardam, demonstrated the condemnation by Washington of the fate of African

American’s status following the war, stating that “African American soldiers trained to kill whites to

be a greater threat to the US than the Germans”25. The very base of this new found respect to some

African Americans had come under attack from the very establishment that granted the opportunity.

Even though Black Americans had distinguished themselves during the war, their future military

worth had been racially decided. “Six years after the war ended, the entire Army War College

student body and faculty produced a study at the request of the Army Chief of Staff. Titled “The Use

of Negro Manpower in War,” this report was signed by the College Commandant, a Major General.

The study asserted that blacks lacked initiative and resourcefulness and concluded that although

black soldiers made “fair” labourers, they were “inferior” as technicians and fighters. Black officers

were evaluated as lacking courage and the mental capacity to command. Worse, the black “soldier

[the study stated] utterly lacked confidence in his coloured officer.” Most damning of all, the study

concluded that “in physical courage it must be admitted that the American Negro falls well back of

the white man and behind all other races.”26. Through the decades following the First World War,

black colonial soldiers in the colonial army continued to serve with distinction and held a prominent

position in the military. A common sight of the bastille parades of the early twentieth century were

colonial units from Africa, marching alongside their white counterparts of the common uniform.

Unlike their American allies, there was Legislature attempts by the French government to raise the

status of black combatants from the status of subject to that of French citizen. Therefore, there is a

distinct difference in experiences between returning black soldiers to their home countries, be it the

United States or metropolitan France. The tune had changed for many prominent French statesman,

with prominent politicians echoing similar sentences POLITICIANS and colonial rights.

Due to lack of white support, the energised black America following the first world war took it upon

themselves to generate legal change towards their rights. These notions lead to cultural and political

movements such as the New Negro and Harlem Renaissance – to become a “an image of a defiant

24 Vincent P. Mikkelsen. “The Journal of African American History.” The Journal of African American History, vol. 97, no. 3, 2012, pp. 330–332. www.jstor.org/stable/10.5323/jafriamerhist.97.3.0330. 25 not only war is hell JSTOR article. 490. 26 Gropman, Alan L., 'Book review: The American foreign legion: Black soldiers of the 93d in world war I', Armed Forces & Society, iv, 32 (2006), 671–673

racial identity”27 in an white America wholly ungrateful for the sacrifices of many of her second class

citizens. The energy of this new renaissance black America found a home nestled amongst the more

open and cosmopolitan Paris of the inter war period. The Montmartre suburb of the city become the

beating heart of Paris’s introduction to the new Jazz era as many leading musicians such as Arthur

Biggs spread their energy for the music in the sanctuaries of clubs such as Bricktops. Unlike Afro

Americans returning home to their roots in the Southern United States, many of the colonial west

African troops returned to their respective colonies to find a radical change in social status. The

article, World War I Conscription and Social Change in Guinea, by Anne summer provides sufficient

evidence to the notion that the great war contributed to social mobility throughout one of France’s

West Africa Colonies. Summer argues that All things considered, it had been anticipated that in

Guinea, returning troop’s loyalty to the French empire was to be strengthened through their shared

struggle. The French governor made observations during his tour of a province in Guinea that “They

come back demanding a job as an agent or a guard. They are always hanging about the Poste, always

wearing their military uniforms. They are parasites and get angry when one cannot give them all

jobs, claiming that they were promised jobs like this before they left France.... Their indiscipline is

notorious and we have to intervene continually to restore order, but we must not be too severe with

them. Why not group them in their own villages with their own chief, or perhaps just place them

under the direct authority of the commandant de cercle? There are going to be an awful lot more of

them coming home soon and their dispersion all round the interior could have explosive

consequences-not only because of their new mentality but because they are privileged-they pay tax

but they are exempt from prestations”28. The elevated expectation of French colonial subjects, now

turned citizen, was due to the ‘colour blind’ nature of French legislature during and succeeding the

war. It is easy to conclude from government sources that the upper echelon of French society – the

legislature – was motioning towards equalling the social and political rights of her colonial black

servicemen. In complete contrast to the United States, prominent members of the house of deputies

stated from the early stages of the war that “it is an obligation for France to seek to compensate the

indigenes who fight for her, or who, simply but loyally, have fulfilled their military duty. The highest,

noblest recognition that France can perceive is to offer what she considers most precious, that is to

say, French nationality”29

A more harrowing perspective of this conflict was the ultimate price payed by those holding the

status of servant to their white masters. A study by “Joe Harris Lunn, analyzing annual casualty rates

27 Not only war is hell – 477 (printed it off) 28 Ibid. 2829 Proposition number 280 - “the accession of the former military colonial subjects to the status of French citizen” by Albin Rozet, Chamber of deputies (1/4/1915)

of West Africans, concludes that the probability of a West African soldier being killed during his time

at the front was two and a half times higher than that of a French infantryman”30. This alone truly

represents what it meant for a black soldier to be a member of this conflict, being torn from their

homes to fight an enemy they knew nothing of and exposure to. The transition stage from colonial

subject to European citizen was spurred by blood, death and fear, paid for by the bravery of France’s

savior soldiers. Credit to the French If contrasted to the Americans, at least there was a degree of

appreciation to her black soldiers. That a man’s color was not the defining fact of his merits and

color lines should be disregarded for the greater good of France. Without being too critical and

insulting to the American efforts of the First World War, the help that nation gave Britain and France

was tarred with this image of acute Racism. Some of America’s most decorated units of the war

were solely Black, and their efforts were insulted by a toxic ideology of a white population too racist

to appreciate the efforts of black Americans fighting for a false promise. Thus, one must conclude

that being Black and fighting in a French uniform would have been a degree better along the lines of

colour blindness if one was to compare that to the Afro-American experience.

Word count: 4000

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