ABSTRACT
During the years between the Philippine insurrection and the US entry into World War I, black mutinies and riots broke out near bases in Brownsville and Houston. Many black elites hoped that the willingness of African Americans to fight in World War I would somehow break the cycle of white repression and black violence. Almost all the blacks who served in the war did so in the US Army, since they were barred from the Marines and Coast Guard and effectively barred from the Navy. In the army they were forced into service units like the stevedores, the quartermasters, and the pioneer infantrymen, whose responsibilities included cooking, cleaning, digging latrines, burying the dead, and loading supplies. In March 1918 Germany launched a major offensive aimed at driving the Allies out of their trenches and then seizing France's English Channel ports. With things looking grim, the all-black 369th, under French command, halted the German advance at Cantigny.
