The World War I Illinois State Normal University Service Records collection is filled with stories of heroism from ISNU students and staff, collected by our first librarian, Ange Milner. Milner also collected files from Black students who participated in the war effort in America and in Europe, and who faced the terrors of war while not be treated as equals from their superior officers and other white soldiers. This blog post is a summary of the Pioneer Infantry as told by the Torchbearers of Democracy: African American Soldiers in the World War I Era from Chad L. Williams that can be accessed as an ebook in the library catalog.
The United States entered World War I in April 1917 after Germany failed to follow through on a promise to end submarine warfare in the North Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. The Selective Service Act was approved in May 1917, and two senators from southern states fought the enrollment of Black Americans in fear that participating in the war would embolden them to oppose racial discrimination in the States. During the Civil War just a few decades prior, 187,000 Black men, known as Buffalo Soldiers, fought for the Union, proving that they were “willing to pay the cost [of freedom] with their blood” (Williams, Pg. 5). Congress went ahead with drafting Black Americans, and it is estimated that 2.3 million Black men registered and 370,000 served (Williams, Pg. 6). The southern senators’ fears were founded because it led to “Black people on the everyday level to resist white supremacy, affirm their citizenship, and assert their basic humanity” (Williams, Pg. 4).
The draft cards differed based on a person’s race. A corner of the draft card was ripped to indicate a Black individual, which excluded them from the Marines, would place them in menial roles in the Navy, or enroll them in certain Army divisions, including the Services of Supply (SOS) units and its subunit, the Pioneer Infantry. The SOS was the support unit for the war effort who brought food, ammunition, and other materials to camps, but the members were not trained for combat (Williams, Pg. 111). One-third of the entire SOS units were Black soldiers, and the “disproportionate representation of African Americans reflected how the Army attempted to link Black military service exclusively with labor, as opposed to combat” (Williams, Pg. 111). If they were sent overseas, they would have as little as a month of training. Williams provides a list of common duties for these soldiers: “constructing base facilities, delivering mail, building roads, feeding horses and mules, cleaning latrines, salvaging battlefields, and burying the dead,” and the labor division contributed to the continued racial hostility (Pg. 111). Williams also quoted an SOS individual stuck at a camp: “I don’t want to stagger under heavy boxes… I want a gun on my shoulder and an opportunity to go to the front” (Pg. 112).
The Pioneer Infantry also supplied materials but to the front. They had similar duties as the SOS units, but were bringing ammunition to combatants, salvaging the battlefields after the battle had ended, and burying those who died in the field (Williams, Pg. 113). They received some training, but it was still not comparable to white soldiers, resulting in one unit uninformed on how to use their masks during a gas attack (Williams, Pg. 114). During the final push in the war, the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, some Pioneer Infantry units fixed roads, preserved books in local libraries, cut barb wire, and more tasks that should have required combat training from being near the fighting. According to Williams, though they did not engage in combat, “it was nevertheless close enough to provide an affirmation for many African American pioneer infantrymen that they did indeed deserve the title of soldier” (pg. 114).
After the Armistice was signed on November 11, 1918, the Pioneer Infantry helped repair France while they waited to be sent home. There were mixed reactions as to how the French civilians treated Black soldiers. White soldiers attempted to teach French civilians about American racism, which some learned from, but some rejected that notion, as told by firsthand accounts from Pioneer Infantry soldiers in Torchbearers of Democracy: “They treated us with respect. Not like the white American soldiers” (Williams, Pg. 163). But Black soldiers were accustomed to the racism in America and misconstrued “respect” with a general lack of hatred and racists comments. In turn, Williams writes that white soldiers “held French civilians in low regard” for “refusing to conform to American racial customs” that led to French merchants and hosts preferring to work with Black soldiers over white soldiers (Pg. 164). White soldiers were “cartoon[s] of the bumptious American,” did not learn French, were uninterested in French culture and history, and were generally arrogant and demanding of French civilians. One Black soldier was quoted in Torchbearers of Democracy: “The general contrast between our attitude and the typical attitude of the white officers was so great that the townspeople took our side and after we had been in the district a month all the lies the white officers tried to spread about us fell on deaf ears” (Pg. 164). More stories of Black Americans interacting with the French can be found in Chapter 4 of Torchbearers of Democracy.
Upon returning home, Black soldiers were excited to see their loved ones and energized at the possibility of the end of racial discrimination. They were proud to have served their country, of being the victors in a great war, and hoped they would be rewarded and respected. They were well received with homecoming parades and celebrations in northeastern and midwestern cities, but they knew their battle had just begun. They felt that with the war behind them, and proving their loyalty and commitment to their country, “African Americans exuded a confidence that racial conditions would indeed change for the better” (Williams, Pg. 189).
ISNU had students of color in the collection who joined the Pioneer Infantry: Herbert William Dice and John Walker Duff. Dice served as a Corporal in the 809th Pioneer Infantry and worked in Army hospitals and cemeteries after the war ended, presumably exhuming and reburying or preparing bodies to return to the states. John Walker Duff was a member of a prominent Bloomington family who served with the 802nd Pioneer Infantry and participated in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. Visit the World War I Illinois State Normal University Service Records to read their files containing letters, newspaper clippings, and portraits.
