America sent almost 400,0000 black soldiers to Europe. In 1914 the barriers to black advancement were scarcely less formidable than they had been just after the abolition of slavery. They were hemmed in by complex legislation confirming their status as ‘ separate but equal’. In fact these laws based voting rights on property and education condemning the blacks to permanent inequality.
When war broke out black leaders hoped that service would dissolve prejudice and segregation. Far from it. In places such as Spartanburg, South Carolina there were riots at the presence of Black Yankees in training. The men and their black officers were allocated to labour battalions and given menials chores. There were no black artillary officers and no black pilots. On arrival in France segregation was imposed no black was allowed to speak to a French woman and French officers were told not to meet blacks ‘ outside the requirements of military service’
Yet the black soldiers fought as bravely as whites. Several hundred received the French Croix de Guerre but none received the Medal of Honour from their own country. At home their contribution to the war effort vanished utterly beneath renewed waves of oppression. Wilson had won the support of those few blacks with political influence in 1912, saying that he wished to see ‘Justice done to coloured people’. And in this Fourteen Points he asserted a right to self determination. It was one of the ironies of history that 10 per cent of his own population had to wait another 40 years before they had any hope of benefiting from those ideals.
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