Loyalty Within Racism
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LOYALTY WITHIN RACISM The SEGREGATED SIXTEENTH BATTALION of the MINNESOTA HOME GUARD During World War I Peter J. DeCarlo hen President Woodrow indifference. Some black leaders loyalty while framing their demands Wilson asked Congress to were opposed to war overseas when for democracy and equality, thereby Wdeclare war on Germany African Americans had a war to fight turning the war into an opportunity on April 2, 1917, he famously asserted, at home: civil rights. Others saw for racial progress in Minnesota? “the world must be made safe for black participation in the war effort A unique wartime organization democracy,” and claimed that the as a path toward racial progress and that illuminates the experiences of United States was “one of the champi- equality. As the demand for 100 some African American Minnesotans ons of the rights of mankind.” To many percent loyalty to the United States during World War I is the Sixteenth African Americans, Wilson’s words swept the country and the Selective Battalion of the Minnesota Home revealed the hypocrisy at the heart of Service Act instituted the draft for Guard. The Sixteenth was the only America. The US government wished all men ages 21 to 30, support for the Home Guard unit that recruited Afri- to promote democracy abroad while war among African Americans grew. can Americans and marked the first denying equal rights to 12 million citi- While much of the patriotism and time the state military allowed the zens based on the color of their skin. hope was genuine, some of it was recruitment of black people. Black Across the country, black Amer- pragmatic.1 In Minnesota, African soldiers were citizens but their rights icans reached various conclusions Americans faced the same dilemma. were denied every day. An African about whether to support the war. Should they blindly support a gov- American in uniform was a potent For many, the European war was a ernment they saw as duplicitous? distant affair that only warranted Or might they be able to prove their Soldiers of the Sixteenth Battalion, 1918. symbol of America’s democratic hypocrisy. The men of the Sixteenth Battalion entered the contradictory space of serving on the Minnesota home front while facing pervasive discrimination. The story of the segregated unit reveals a complex and conflicted Twin Cities African American community during a time of great trial. ive days after the United States entered World War I Fthe two leading black news- papermen of the Twin Cities, Charles Sumner Smith and John Q. Adams, declared the loyalty of black Minnesotans— though not without Charles Sumner Smith, reservation, and not without dis- ca. 1917. Smith was agreement between them. Smith, captain of Company D, editor of the Twin City Star, declared, founding member of the Twin Cities Protective League and Minneap- The Negro cannot be expected to olis NAACP, and editor rally to the country’s call today as of the Twin City Star. he did to Lincoln and McKinley; Image is from the but he is ever ready. Should Appeal, Aug. 25, 1917. the American people grant him equal rights as other Americans, “cut out the color line in the army. have accepted the unit for service, but he will then forgive their [sic] WE ARE ALL AMERICANS.”3 racism is a likely supposition.4 wrongs he has suffered. As it The color line in the army (seg- When the Spanish- American War is, he is calm and deliberate. He regated units) Adams referred to began, another attempt was made to will enter this war for his second had been firmly established during form a black military company, this emancipation. the Civil War and perpetuated time in Minneapolis, but it made less thereafter. In 1881, as Minnesota’s progress than the Rice Guards and Smith believed the best military independent militia companies began never coalesced.5 By the advent of response was a “military corps of transitioning into the state National World War I, the US military was a Negroes . under Negro officers.” Guard, blacks attempted to claim a supreme example of institutionalized He accepted segregation in the mil- place within it. An all- black militia racism, and state militaries had fol- itary as reality and felt blacks could company formed in St. Paul. It was lowed suit. While those who agreed prove themselves within its racist endorsed by Mayor Edmund Rice, with John Q. Adams that segregation framework.2 from whom they took their name: the in the military needed to end, not Adams, editor of the Appeal, Rice Guards. However, the unit never accommodating to it meant giving up struck a more radical tone, initially appeared on any official roster of the opportunity to serve in the mili- agreeing with Smith, “Now that the state troops and was short lived. It is tary. Most blacks felt that the military war is really here, colored patriots are unknown why the state appears not to was a prime proving ground for racial ready and anxious to become defend- ers of their country.” He feared that segregation would be accommodated PETER J. DeCARLO is a historian and the author of Fort Snelling at Bdote (Minnesota Historical Society Press). He holds a master’s degree in history and works at the Minnesota by some blacks whom he called “the Historical Society as MNopedia’s digital content developer. foe within.” To Adams it was time to SUMMER 2017 209 Most blacks felt that the military was a PRIME PROVING GROUND for racial progress. progress. Better to serve and protest them in the draft. Then, on May 18, effort. Newspapers closely followed obliquely than not serve at all. 1917, Congress passed the Selective the progress of men who were train- When Congress declared war, Service Act instituting the draft for ing to be officers. Of particular note America’s black leaders petitioned the all US men between the ages of 21 was Dr. John Roy French, a black den- war department to allow black offi- and 30, regardless of race. Black tist from St. Paul whose application to cers to be recruited. When it became Twin Citians still hoped that Bun- the US Medical and Dental Corps was clear the war department would only drant’s volunteer company would rejected based on his skin color. With allow blacks to train segregated from be accepted for service. “The Mil- the help of Fourth District congress- other officers, debate within the Afri- itary honor of the Negro citizens” man Carl Chester Van Dyke, French can American community ensued. depended on it.8 Amid the changes in eventually qualified for the Medical A groundswell of support from black federal enlistment policies, however, and Dental Corps, becoming the first universities led most black leaders to Bundrant abandoned the volunteer black man in the country to do so.10 endorse the government's plan. The company and it dissolved. He and As the nation mobilized for war, military opened a single segregated others formed other plans to join the the Minnesota Legislature created officer training facility at Fort Des military. the Minnesota Commission of Public Moines, Iowa, in July 1917. The officer On June 5, 1917, all eligible men Safety on April 16, 1917. The com- training corps was composed of black registered for the draft. After filling mission was charged with protecting veterans, noncommissioned officers out their draft cards, black men were, life and property and ensuring that from the segregated regular army in the words of the Appeal, “subjected Minnesota’s “military, civil, and units, and college educated or profes- to an infamous insult.” To identify industrial resources” were “efficiently sional men. They reflected a concept them as African American, local draft applied” toward the defense of the advocated by W. E. B. Du Bois: the boards throughout the nation tore state and the country during the war. Talented Tenth— the idea that one in off the lower left corner of the form. The seven- man commission, headed ten black men would become edu- John Q. Adams immediately lashed by Governor Joseph A. A. Burnquist, cated leaders and bring about social out against the practice, arguing that had vast power “to do all things non- change. Among the officer candidates no US soldier should go abroad to inconsistent with the constitution were John Bundrant and eight other fight until the “undemocratic condi- or laws of the state of Minnesota or men from Minnesota.6 tions” at home were “eliminated.”9 of the United States.”11 In short, the Initially, Bundrant had tried to More than 370,000 black men commission enforced loyalty to the form a segregated company that were drafted nationwide, 511 of them state and the nation by cracking down would volunteer for federal service. Minnesotans. The vast majority faced on those deemed disloyal— part of Bundrant and Charles Sumner Smith, racism and terrible conditions in a national trend as the federal gov- both Spanish- American War veterans, pioneer (engineering) regiments that ernment increased surveillance of had obtained permission from the built roads, bridges, and fortifica- American citizens. state adjutant general, Walter F. Rhi- tions overseas and in labor units that One of the Commission of Public now, to raise “a colored unit for the moved supplies, unloaded ships, and Safety’s first acts was the creation of world war.” Bundrant then organized performed many other tasks. Only the Minnesota Home Guard, estab- recruitment efforts and volunteers 42,000 were combat troops, serving lished on April 28, 1917. This volunteer began filling the ranks.7 in the Ninety- second Division and organization replaced the state’s On the national level military Ninety- third Provisional Division.