It is only fair to quote the opinion and appreciation of this representative of the Negro race of the selective service administration, especially as it affected the Negro and in reference to occasional complaints received.  The extract is from a memorandum addressed to the office of the Provost Marshal General on September 12, 1918 and is copied from the report of that official to the Secretary of War: 

“Throughout my tenure here I have keenly appreciated the prompt and cordial cooperation of the Provost Marshall General’s office with that particular section of the office of the Secretary of War especially referred to herein.  The Provost Marshall General’s office has carefully investigated and has furnished full and complete reports in each and every complaint or case referred to it for attention, involving discrimination, race prejudice, erroneous classification of draftees, etc., and has rectified these complaints whenever it was found upon investigation that there was just ground for same.  Especially in the matter of applying and carrying out the selective service regulations, the Provost Marshall General’s office has kept a watchful eye upon certain local exemption boards which seemed disinclined to treat the Negro draftees on the same basis as other Americans subject to the draft law.  It is an actual fact that in a number of instances where flagrant violations have occurred in the application of the draft law, to Negro men in certain sections of the country, local exemption boards have been removed bodily and new boards have been appointed to supplant them.  In several instances these new boards so appointed have been ordered by the Provost Marshall General to reclassify colored men who had been unlawfully conscripted into the army or who had been wrongfully classified; as a result of this action hundreds of colored men have had their complaints remedied and have been properly reclassified.”

It is also valuable to note the opinion of this representative of his race as to the results of the negroes’ participation in the war: 

“In a word, I believe the Negro’s participation in the war, his eagerness to serve, and his great courage and demonstrated valor across the seas, have given him a new idea of Americanism and likewise have given to the white people of our country a new idea of his citizenship, his real character and capabilities, and his 100 per cent Americanism.  Incidentally the Negro has been helped in many ways physically and mentally and has been made into an even more satisfactory asset to the nation.”

Of the Negroes inducted into service, nearly all were assigned to some department of the army or to special work in connection with the army.  Of the few who were permitted to enlist, a very small percentage was permitted to enlist in the Navy.  Of this small number only a few were allowed the regular training and opportunities of combatants, to the discredit of our nation, not as yet, grown to that moral vision and all around greatness, not to be small.