African Americans made quite a number of contributions to war in the late 19th and early 20th century. They were however faced with more than enough challenges, considering that at this era, there were quite a lot of struggles against racial discrimination, especially to African Americans by their white counterparts. In the Civil war, African American men were barred from actively participating in combat, and only served white soldiers, who are the ones who participated in combat. Black women on the other hand, were not even allowed to enroll in the army and the closest they got to the army was serving as nurses. They were however used as spies.
Despite facing a lot of racial discrimination, African American soldiers played a big role in wars, and did not receive any recognition until mid 20th century, when they were recognized as equals. World War I was a significant war, which saw a massive enrollment by the African Americans as soldiers, which helped the community prove that they deserved better and equal rights back home. They showed their desire to be in the frontline service, although leaders in the military had the belief that they were not physically, morally and mentally fit to serve in the frontline. They were therefore, only used to serve in non-combative service such as labor service, which had little combat.
Such contributions as the ones made by the 369th Infantry Regiment however could not go unnoticed, considering they were without full training but served in the frontline for a period of not less than six months. The unit got its recognition from the fact that they did not lose territory to the enemy and they did not lose any prisoner in the entire time they served (Harrold, Hine, Hine, 2005)
References
Hine, D., C., Hine, W., C. & Harrold, S. (2005). The African-American odyssey. State College. Prentice Hall.
