Black soldiers: A history of valor & resistance
By Carlos Rovira
The U.S. military reflects the racism of the
U.S. capitalist system.
African Americans' role in the military during the Civil War
was wholly progressive. Indeed, Black soldiers had a vital
stake in smashing the hideous system of slavery.
While President Abraham Lincoln often expressed his
indifference to the issue of emancipation, he was forced to
recognize the absolute necessity of arming African
Americans.
Black soldiers soon became feared by the Southern
slavocracy. Their tenacity, skill and valor proved decisive to
the North winning the Civil War.
For instance, when Gen. Ulysses S. Grant was sent to fight
Gen. Robert E. Lee's military forces in Virginia, he requested
Black regiments as his principal troops.
Then there was Harriet Tubman. A former slave, she became an
intelligence officer for the Union Army, operating behind enemy
lines.
Tubman's courage made possible the capture of Confederate
garrisons-and the famous "Underground Railroad" she organized
led to the liberation of hundreds of slaves.
All told, 200,000 African Americans served in the Army and
Navy during the Civil War. Thirty thousand died in combat.
The Civil War was the last time Black people had a positive
stake in a U.S. war's outcome. After they were betrayed during
Reconstruction, the African American people were further
undermined and impoverished when the South was overrun by
capital investments in manufacturing, lumber and agriculture.
Then capital cast its eyes abroad. The Monroe Doctrine had
already reserved all of Latin America to be exploited
exclusively by U.S. capitalists.
The mysterious explosion of the U.S. battleship Maine in
Havana on Feb. 18, 1898, served as an excuse for Washington to
declare war on Spain. The U.S. invaded the Spanish colonies of
the Philippines, Guam, Cuba, and Puerto Rico, colonizing them
anew, this time under U.S. control.
Many Black soldiers played a military role this time,
too-but on a different side.
Resisting the U.S. armed invasion
In 1899 under the leadership of Aguinaldo, the Filipino
people furiously fought the new invaders. They inflicted many
casualties on the U.S. Army, which claimed to be "helping the
people's quest for freedom."
The U.S. government retaliated by slaughtering hundreds of
thousands of Filipino women, men and children.
This genocide was not passively accepted inside the United
States, as mainstream historians contend. For example, the
Anti-Imperialist League held mass protests in major cities
throughout the country.
Significant anti-war sentiment was also expressed widely in
Black communities. The Black press as well as other
representatives of the African American people vigorously
denounc ed the war. The great historian and African American
leader W.E.B. Du Bois played a notable role in this
movement.
Most important, Black resistance surfaced inside the U.S.
military. Four Black regiments sent to fight in the Philippines
established a bond with the Native people there, who also were
dark-skinned.
These Black troops resented white officers and soldiers
describing Filpinos with the same racist slurs applied to
African Americans in the United States.
Filipino insurgents appealed to Black soldiers not to fight
on the side of imperialism. Posters denouncing racist lynchings
in the United States were placed throughout the islands.
This political agitation helped lead to many Black troops
deserting the U.S. military.
Some of these African Americans went over to the other side,
joining the Filipino guerrilla fighters.
The most notable was David Fagan, formerly of the 24th
Infantry Division. The Filipino freedom fighters so respected
Fagan that he was made a commander in their army.
David Fagan's example demonstrates how unity is possible.
This is a highly relevant lesson today. Once unity among the
working classes and peasant farmers of all nationalities can be
established, it lays the basis for overthrowing the tyrannical
reign of U.S. imperialism-and preventing another 100 years of
terror.
Sources for this article include "The History of the Negro
People" by William Foster; "People's History of the United
States" by Howard Zinn; "Afro American History" by Herbert
Aptheker; "The Philippines Reader," edited by Daniel B.
Schirmer and Stephen Rosskamm Shalom; and "The Spanish-American
War" by Philip S. Foner.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
Subscribe wwnews-subscribe@workersworld.net
Support independent news http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php)
HOME
:: U.S. NEWS ::
WORLD NEWS ::
EDITORIALS ::
SUBSCRIBE ::
DONATE
Email
this article
Printable
page