African American Army Officers of World War I ─ A Vanguard of Equality in War and Beyond

This book documents the experiences of 639 African American officers who served in the 17th Provisional Training Regiment of the US Army during World War I, the first class of African Americans to receive officer training. It details the creation of the segregated army officer training camp at Fort Des Moines, the officers' training and wartime experiences, and their postwar contributions in fighting discrimination, segregation, and inequality and how these contributions served as foundations for the civil rights movement from the 1940s to the 1960s. It describes the debate among white Americans about whether to allow black participation in wars, how prejudice occurred in military policies regarding the use of black troops, and the debate on whether to allow black men to become officers; the rebuttal from African Americans and how black men overcame stereotypes and persuaded the War Department to create a camp for their training and commissioning as officers; how newspapers responded to its creation; life at the camp, the training regiment, and interactions between the cadets, their commanding officer, and the local community; their wartime experiences; and their postwar activism, including officers who served as attorneys fighting for legal change, those who became authors to voice their opinions, those who became educators, and the role of officers in desegregating the military and efforts toward integration in World War II. Annotation c2015 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)

Adam P. Wilson joined the department of history and philosophy at the University of Tennessee at Martin in 2011. His expertise is in African American history. He lives in Arlington, Tennessee.