The policy had a specific racial implication for the 369th and the other Black regiments of the 93rd Division. White American soldiers in France were governed by Jim Crow social norms that most of them had brought from home, and the Army’s policy — officially and unofficially — was to maintain racial segregation in service and in social life. French civilians and soldiers, who had different histories with race and who had been integrating African colonial troops into their units for years, were not applying the same norms. The American Army issued a memo to French officers — a document that became known as the “Secret Information Concerning Black American Troops” — requesting that they not treat Black American soldiers as social equals, not shake hands with them, not eat with them, and not praise them too effusively in ways that might challenge the American racial hierarchy.
The 369th arrived as part of this arrangement. After an initial period of labor work — building infrastructure and moving supplies, the assignment that Black units received by default while their white counterparts received combat assignments — the regiment was offered to the French Army in March 1918. Pershing, unable to integrate the regiment into his American command structure on acceptable terms and unwilling to give it combat status within the American line, attached it to the French 16th Division.
For the men of the 369th, the attachment was a liberation in a specific sense: they were going to fight. The French did not apply the racial restrictions that the American Army maintained. They gave the regiment French equipment, French rations, and French tactical support, and they treated its soldiers as soldiers. The regiment would remain attached to French forces for essentially the rest of the war.