France..US Army...and black soldiers

[JPhilip]

Hello,
From an article found this morning and translated from french to english...edifying




The difference between the reception of French and segregation imposed by Jim Crow laws in the United States worried American white officers




"In a circular issued in 1919 by William Edward Burghardt Du Bois -a historian and sociologist activist for the civic rights- in the magazine of the NAACP, a French liaison officer advises officers on how to handle black American troops.

The memo, signed by Lt. Col. Jean-Louis Albert Linard, shares of white America's concerns about treatment "familiar and indulgent" received by officers and soldiers in France. According to archivist Benjamin Doizelet, the French officer is not really the author of this document, dictated by the US authorities.

At the time, the units of black American soldiers were affected in France with the French troops. The French were generally welcoming, in socially integrating. The difference between these conditions and segregation imposed by Jim Crow laws in the United States concerned officers and white American soldiers who attempted by many ways to recreate racial separations: by putting up posters "Reserved for whites" in military bases, imposing curfew and enacting other regulations that black soldiers remain in line.

Accusations of rape and cowardice

During World War II, racist rumors that black soldiers were not sufficiently powerful and they represented a danger to French women circulating in abundance. The investigation by William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was just supposed partly refute these allegations. In The Encyclopedia of African American History, the historian Cary De Cordova Wintz wrote that Du Bois' concluded that blacks were often led by officers and NCOs white racists who provided poor leadership and sent troops poorly equipped on the battlefield, then defended by deferring the blame on the black troops. "

Historian Robert Russa Moton added that, at the time deputy director of the Institute Tuskegee -an African American school in Alabama-, went to France in 1918 to investigate the behavior of black troops, and "found that the charges of rape and cowardice [brought against black soldiers] were the subject of a serious exaggeration."

The circular Lieutenant Colonel Linard has probably not been as effective as hoped. Historian Richard Stolkin notes that these instructions "have not fully yielded to the French"; "General Henri Gouraud as continued to praise the effectiveness of black units and were rewarded with the Croix de Guerre." At the end of the war, 171 black American soldiers were decorated with the French Legion of Honour.

The circular, as it appeared in the magazine of the NAACP, is reproduced below in English and French (note the use of the swastika as a decorative element)".

Thanks


PS : you can click on documents below to enlarge them and have a good reading...

[CampX]

Thank you for posting that, I find that part of History to be very interesting.

Dean O
Canada

[CBH]

Oh the land of the Free . Thank you for posting this .

[CampX]

Well CBH, let us look at Canada in WW1, yes we raised a "Black" Battn in NS during the war, the one and only and they were No2 Construction Battn, how many "blacks" served in Fighting Battns?.. Yes there were some, one name comes to mind, a long forgotten Man that a movie should be done about, CW Slave, escaped to the Federal Army, served there, when to the Span Am War, did many things including A performance before Queen Victoria.. the list goes on and on, He came to Canada and joining a Fighting Battn, was to old, so he was asked again his age, he lied, and went with the to France and Belgium as a cook to the Battn.
After the War, at some point he went to a Soldiers Home out West and looked after Soldiers there

When Montgomery Came to Canada after WW2 he was still alive, but nearing his end, Montgomery made it a point to Visit him and Honour Him. I am sure he was one of many "blacks" that served in WW1 with Canadian Battns, remember Rasits were here also.

Why has this mans story Never Been Told? only the few that want to know the truth and search for it can find his story.

Not to mention other "Black" CEF Soldiers.

Now this is not an attack on you, however I hope you see my point...maybe the Americans were just more open about the way they were than we were.

Also remember the 2 "Black" companies that helped us throw the Americans off Queenston Heights in the War of 1812, the same Battle that Brock was killed, he is remembered, but not them..and it goes on and on

If you do not know the "Black" Soldier I mentioned that started in the US Civil War and fought with us in WW1, let me know.

Take Care

Dean O
Canada

[CBH]

I'm familiar with the part played No2 Construction Battn , apparently many of these soldiers were members of a Halifax Masonic lodge .
Canada is not without sin , however we where the last stop on the underground railway , the Promised land as it were . Racism exists but it isn't written into the Law and supported by the government . And if your compare race relations there is really no comparison . I'm not saying we are perfect but we don't linch people .

[SteveR]

I'm familiar with the part played No2 Construction Battn , apparently many of these soldiers were members of a Halifax Masonic lodge .
Canada is not without sin , however we where the last stop on the underground railway , the Promised land as it were . Racism exists but it isn't written into the Law and supported by the government . And if your compare race relations there is really no comparison . I'm not saying we are perfect but we don't linch people .

The Jim Crow period of American history was shameful but you seem to be a really annoying person.

Canada has treated and still treats Indians in a shameful manner. They are second class citizens in Canada today lad and that is a fact.

I am friends with plains Cree, Blackfoot, the Mowhaks, Senecas and other tribes up there and am very well aware of the problems they still have with the European immigrants today. There are Senecas in Ottawa county where I live and New York and Canadian Iroquois people come to the Seneca - Cayuga Green Corn dance in August to visit their Oklahoma cousins every year and I am fully aware of how white Canadians treat them.

Don't be so snotty lad. You have nothing to brag about.

White superiority still reigns in Canada today.

PS
When Canada invaded the USA during the War of 1812 it wasn't the white Canadians that were successful it was their Indian allies, The Huron, Ottawas, Abnakis and other Indians that won the battles NOT the white Canadian soldiers.

[JPhilip]

Hello again,
Easy lads....i didn't post this informative thread on black soldiers for the members on the WRF to have a contest on which country is the most racist around the world...this thread is all about soldiers who were despised and forgotten because of the colour of their skin...

I often think about my grandmother telling me on how she met a black person for the first time, it was in 1918 right after the end of the war, she was 7 years and a half and was living in the newly liberated Alsace.

"I was at the window with my mother, we were looking at some soldiers who were walking outside....then the huge face appeared at the window, an evil face with huge teeth and scars everywhere...when he knocked at the window, i was already under the dining table staring at this devil who was wearing a french uniform...
In approximative german, he asked if the little girl was here...once in front of him, not very relax, i heard him telling this :
- i saw you when we arrived in town (Mulhouse), you were playing outside, i never had a little girl as a friend, do you want to be my friend ?
- i have made this for you, showing two wooden toys that he carved for her at the barracks....an elephant (and i dont remember what the other one was)..."

The soldier came everyday at my family's home to have tea or coffee, and beer of course, and as his feet were too long for the french military he only had a pair of sandals. My great grandfather bought him a pair of ankle boots made especially for his size 52 (approximatively a US 15)

After a time of occupation in Germany, his was sent back to Africa and he wrote to my grandmother at least once a year until the following war...

My grandmother told me that she preciously kept the toys for years, until they were lost with all their belongings during WWII.
Thanks

[CampX]

Guys, you must now that we Canadians like to throw "facts" in each others faces.
CBH I know though the forums, and he realy knows his stuff, I do not think we mean to hurt each other..however some Canadians really get into the nut and bolts.. And I know CBH knows his Stuff
I also think Canadians like CBH and Myself can get upset as we are between the US and the UK, watch any WW1 or WW2 doc, and we, as Canadians are hardly mentioned..and besides CBH is probably that Nova Scotia Saved from floating off into the Adlantic.
We keep telling them we will cut the Caseway that keeps them part of Canada, and They keep asking us to do it

Remember "we are an Island, A Rock in the Sea". Love the song and people

CBH and others.. no insault ever intended..

Sorry for any insult that you may Think I made, just thought we could get a bit at each other in a good solid way

Now if ANYONE here thinks I crossed a line, please let me know, I would rather leave a forum, then think my fellow Canadians think I was insaulting them


Let me know Friends

Dean O
Ajax Ontario, originally from NS

[Gunny Hartmann]

It's a real shame the way many countries have treated non white and colonial troops in the not too distant past, i think it's appalling the way the British government has treated the Gurkhas, they put their lives on the line for Britain but once they had finished their military service they were sent back to Nepal, not welcome in the country they had fought for!...

[SteveR]

Guys, you must now that we Canadians like to throw "facts" in each others faces.
CBH I know though the forums, and he realy knows his stuff, I do not think we mean to hurt each other..however some Canadians really get into the nut and bolts.. And I know CBH knows his Stuff
I also think Canadians like CBH and Myself can get upset as we are between the US and the UK, watch any WW1 or WW2 doc, and we, as Canadians are hardly mentioned..and besides CBH is probably that Nova Scotia Saved from floating off into the Adlantic.
We keep telling them we will cut the Caseway that keeps them part of Canada, and They keep asking us to do it

Remember "we are an Island, A Rock in the Sea". Love the song and people

CBH and others.. no insault ever intended..

Sorry for any insult that you may Think I made, just thought we could get a bit at each other in a good solid way

Now if ANYONE here thinks I crossed a line, please let me know, I would rather leave a forum, then think my fellow Canadians think I was insaulting them


Let me know Friends

Dean O
Ajax Ontario, originally from NS

I appreciate your comments friend.

I have no axe to grind with Canadian forum members.

Being an American Indian who has been involved in Indian affairs all of my adult life I am aware of how Indian people are treated throughout the Americas. I have been a member of the American Indian Movement ( AIM ) for over 40 years now. We try to make others aware that there are many social problems and inequalities.
The FBI has a folder on me. I have been questioned by FBI Agents in the 70s because of my association with AIM.
There are problems that need to be addressed in a civil manner with respect towards all.

I spoke my piece simply to make others aware that no country in the Americas is free from bigotry.