The United States Army in 1917 maintained four Black regiments as part of its regular establishment: the 9th and 10th Cavalry, known as the Buffalo Soldiers, and the 24th and 25th Infantry. These were units with long histories dating to the post-Civil War era, organized specifically to allow Black men to serve in the military while maintaining racial separation. They were led predominantly by white officers — the Army’s assumption being that Black men could serve as soldiers but not as officers with authority over white soldiers.
The National Guard system was more varied. Some states had Black National Guard units; others did not. New York’s 15th National Guard was one of the more established Black state military units, and it had been organized before the war with the specific understanding that it would serve as a military unit for Black New Yorkers who wanted to serve their state and country.
When the United States entered the war in April 1917 and began the rapid expansion of the military through the Selective Service Act, the question of what to do with Black soldiers became an immediate practical and political problem. Black Americans were subject to the draft and expected to serve; the NAACP and other Black organizations supported the war effort as an opportunity to demonstrate citizenship and patriotism that would, the argument went, strengthen the case for civil rights at home. But how they would serve, alongside whom, and under what conditions were questions that the military answered through the racial categories it had always used.