Unknown location
(US National Archives)
Front row (left to right): Private Ed Williams, Herbert Taylor, Private Leon Fraitor, Private Ralph Hawkins. Back row (left to right): Sergeant H. D. Prinas, Sergeant Dan Storms, Private Joe Williams, Private Alfred Hanley and Corporal T. W. Taylor.
When America joined the Great War, the first African-American regiment to fight was the 369th Infantry, transported to France at the end of 1917. The racism and discrimination the soldiers encountered had begun during training in America, and continued in Europe, with many white US soldiers refusing to fight alongside the 369th. After April 1918, under the control of the French Army, such discrimination lessened.
Nicknamed the ‘Harlem Hellfighters’, members of the 369th were renowned for bravery, ability and ferocity. On their return to New York City after 1918, they received a euphoric welcome, marching up Fifth Avenue.
‘When I was in conference with Frenchmen in Paris, I tried to explain as simply and temperately as I could the attitude of the whites in America towards the Negro, and when I had finished those Frenchmen said: “It is a kind of insanity, isn’t it?” And when white American officers in France had decided it was necessary that the French should be told, lovingly and kindly, just how America treats Negroes in America, then the French war ministry collected every copy it could find of this circular and burned it.’
Professor W. E. B. Du Bois addressing a high-school crowd, The Broad Ax, Chicago, May 24, 1919
