Sidelights on Negro SoldiersWilliams, Charles H. (Charles Halston)
History
Sidelights on Negro Soldiers
Williams, Charles H. (Charles Halston)
World War, 1914-1918 -- Participation, African American
Two of the largest community centers for Negro soldiers were located
at Washington, D. C., and Baltimore, Md. During the summer of 1918 a
well equipped “Soldiers’ Club” was established in Washington; it was
conducted by J. B. Ramsey and the co-operation of the community was
more effective than in any other center visited by the writer. Some
form of entertainment was given practically every evening by club or
church organizations; on Sundays many wounded soldiers at the Walter
Reed Hospital were taken to church and then to dinner; and on Christmas
Day, 1918, and New Year’s Day, 1919, there was very special hospitality
and entertainment. The center in Baltimore was opened July 20, 1918,
and was in charge of Dr. W. H. Weaver, a Presbyterian minister. The
club was visited by soldiers from Camp Meade, Camp Holabird, Curtis
Bay, the Canton warehouses, and Edgewood, and its chief feature was
its sleeping-quarters accommodating two hundred men. For these the
fee was 25 cents a night and they were the most attractive found in
any center for Negro soldiers. The men at Camp Upton had access to the
recreational facilities of New York, and while a club was established
for them in Harlem, they did not depend upon the community center as in
most other places. At Camp Devens in Massachusetts the soldiers’ clubs
were open to all men in uniform irrespective of race.
So much has been said about racial goodwill in Virginia that it was
surprising that there should be in this state in the beginning an
indifference that was very close to opposition to the establishing of
clubs for Negro soldiers. After the first eight months of war, however,
the need became so urgent that clubs were established at Petersburg
and Richmond for the soldiers at Camp Lee, at Alexandria for those at
Camp Humphrey, and at Norfolk, Portsmouth, Newport News, and Hampton
for the sailors and soldiers in the various camps and training stations
on the Lower Peninsula. At Petersburg, on account of the opposition of
the local ministers, dancing was not included as a part of the club
entertainment. At Alexandria an Odd Fellows Hall, owned by Negroes, was
donated to the Community Service without rent. The first club erected
at Newport News proving altogether inadequate, eighteen city lots were
purchased and a new building costing $25,000 erected. A staff of six
secretaries was employed. To furnish the building at Hampton, Negro
citizens raised $1,000, an effective program being carried out under
the direction of Miss Elizabeth Martin. The success of the work in
Newport News and Hampton was largely due to the sincere effort of J. L.
Einstein, director of community work on the Lower Peninsula.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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