FORT LEAVENWORTH, Kansas — Dr. Bernard F. Harris Jr., instructional systems specialist at the Center for the Army Profession and Leadership, shared highlights from his doctoral dissertation about the education and training of African American officers during World War I during the Buffalo Soldier Day observance July 24 at the Frontier Conference Center.
During his welcome and introduction of Harris, Combined Arms Command and Fort Leavenworth Commanding General Lt. Gen. James P. Isenhower III said the Buffalo Soldiers, including those who served in the 9th and 10th Cavalry and 24th and 25th Infantry regiments, played a vital role in shaping the early frontier Army.
“Today we honor the legacy of the Buffalo Soldiers, whose courage, discipline and dedication to duty left a lasting mark on our Army and on our nation,” Isenhower said. “Serving across the American West, the Great Plains, and later, well beyond. They distinguished themselves in Cuba during the Spanish-American War, and in the Philippines, earning a reputation for exceptional discipline and readiness. Their units set enduring standards in mounted maneuver, marksmanship and field craft.”
He said their service also paved the way for future African American soldiers to advance and lead throughout the Army.
“Their legacy continues to guide us in the leaders that we develop today, the standards we uphold and the traditions we protect and honor. Buffalo Soldier Day is a reminder that our Army's strength has always come from soldiers who face challenges head-on and soldiers who upheld the values of service, duty and commitment.”
Isenhower said that Harris’ research helps make those connections between past and present.
“Dr. Harris' work provides valuable insight into this important part of our Army history and helps connect the service of the Buffalo Soldiers to the development of military leadership in the years that follow,” he said.
During his presentation, Harris shared information about five Black civilians who trained to become U.S. Army officers in 1917 at Fort Des Moines, Iowa, and he offered context to help describe the men’s experience.
“My information today is just to give you a glimpse into what these gentlemen went through. It's not all pleasant; however, at the end, they were able to gain enough social capital in America and in the Black community in order to become members of the ‘Talented Tenth,’” he said, referring to social activist W.E.B. Du Bois’ concept that the top 10 percent of Black Americans would become leaders and professionals who would help others advance as well.
“They were able to actually have a voice in what was going on in the future, and you're going to see a few of those individuals really made a serious contribution,” he said.
Harris said the men featured in his dissertation and lecture were the individuals he was able to find the most information on.
“They had various memoirs, some unpublished, that I was able to get my hands on and really find out what their personal experiences (were) when they went through Fort Des Moines and through World War I.”
Harris said at the time, the federal government left it to the states to make segregation decisions.
“So, based on that, northern schools would allow and admit various numbers, sometimes one, maybe up to three … Black students to attend class, so that way, at least they could show that they were trying to be integrated,” Harris said. “And south, mainly your (historically Black colleges or universities) such as Atlanta University, Howard University, those were your primary schools for African Americans that wanted to go get higher education. However, you've got to understand, the majority of Americans during this period, they only had elementary school, so very few people went on to finish high school and then continue on to college.”
Harris said Lt. Col. Charles Young, the third Black officer to graduate from West Point in 1889, recognized the pending need for the Army to become involved in WWI.
“(He) was looking ahead and saying, ‘Hey, we're going to get dragged into this thing, and we need more officers to command this growing Army, this growing draftee Army that we're about to have,’ so, he actually set up a six-week course at Fort Huachuca, where he was stationed at that time, and he's training NCOs — white and black NCOs. That's what really made it unique.”
Harris said Emmett Scott, former personal secretary to Booker T. Washington and Secretary of War Newton Baker’s special advisor, pushed for at least one Black officer training camp to be established.
“The paradigm was to have Black enlisted troops always led by white officers. They wanted to have Black troops being led by black officers.”
Harris equated the World War I-era officer training camps to present day officer candidate schools. He said the training camp days started at 5:30 a.m., were 10 hours long and lasted 14 weeks. About 1,000 Black candidates attended the camp at Fort Des Moines, with about 150 experienced NCOs from the 9th and 10th Cavalry and 24th and 25th Infantry regiments serving as assistant instructors. Harris said the camp’s commander stressed the importance of the candidates’ success, despite them being set up for failure at times by the NCOs and amid ongoing supply and logistical issues related, and unrelated, to the camp’s hasty formation.
“This is one of the main things he says, that your race is on trial, and you are the representatives. No pressure, right? No pressure. So, just think about that. You're starting a course, and the commanding officer tells you that if you fail this course, it's going to reflect on your entire race,” Harris said. “Unknown to everybody, the War Department — and I've actually seen some of the reports — had already stated that they want to try to wash out as many as they could, because they want to keep the entire number of officers in the U.S. military, as far as being Black, they wanted to keep the 7 percent.”
Harris said later white officers, some of whom wanted to work in African American units amid stigma because promotion rates were high, were pulled into Black units to fill artillery, engineer and other roles that weren’t offered among the three positions Black officer training camp candidates could select.
Harris described some of the trials of Black units, including having to give up their familiar equipment and then having to use another country’s equipment when sent to Europe.
After the war, Harris said of the men featured in his dissertation, a couple of them returned to school and graduated or were given credit based on military service, one interviewed former slaves to compile a slave narrative, a couple of them became involved in politics, and one became a civil rights activist and purchased the Des Moines Bystander newspaper.
He said one of the men, Charles Hamilton Houston became the most famous of them all.
“He goes through a whole bunch of really bad racism at the time that convinces him to become a lawyer … and then he lays the groundwork for Brown v. Board of Education,” Harris said, with Houston’s protégé, Thurgood Marshall, taking over the discrimination case after he passed away and eventually working toward ending segregation in America.
Visit the Fort Leavenworth Garrison Facebook page to listen to Harris’ lecture in its entirety.
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