The Negro in the Special Services of the U. S. Army: Medical Corps, Dental Corps and Nurses Corps

Abstract

Prior to the large scale entrance of the Negro medical man into the Army of the United States during the World War I, there was barely a token representation. Careful search of available records reveal that to Dr. Alexander T. August, a graduate of the University of Toronto, goes the distinction of having been the first Negro surgeon in the United States Army. He served during the Civil War and was a surgeon U.S.C.T., 7th Regiment. We find also listed as serving during the Civil War, Dr. Martain L. Delaney, a graduate of Harvard and holding the rank of Major and Dr. Chas. B. Purvis, a graduate of Western Reserve University and one of the founders of the Howard University School of Medicine. Also serving were Dr. Edward Clarence Howard of Philadelphia and Dr. John V. De Grasse who served as an assistant surgeon, U.S.C.T., 35th Regiment. We have searched most diligently but find no record of the services of Negro medical men as officers in the Spanish American War. In the regular Army either prior to or after World War I, there were no Negro medical officers. In the National Guard Regiments; 15th New York; the 8th Illinois; the 1st Separate Battalion of Ohio; and the 1st Separate Battalion of Massachusetts there were Negro medical officers with ranks ranging up to Major. The position of the Negro in the American Scene is so well known that a review of it here would only be tautalogical. But certainly all of us are made more vividly aware of the many proscriptions and limitations that surround us during National emergencies, both past and present. Racial discrimination in government, in Army, in Navy, in National Defense and industry was marked during World War I, but it is unprecedented during the present National emergency, despite the incontrovertible fact that the Negro has always been loyal, patriotic and ready to serve. In the Revolutionary War there were 3,000 Negro troops, in the Civil War there were 200,000 Negro troops and in World War I there were 400,000 Negro troops. As strange and paradoxical as it may seem, the Negro, an American citizen, has had to for the right to fight in all of the wars that the United States has waged. This was evident during World War I, and is even more apparent in this world conflict. Especially is this apparent in the special services of the Army; medical, dental and nurses corps. Despite a critical shortage, full use is not being made of the training and experience of the Negro medical group. One reads daily and hears almost hourly pleas over the radio concerning the desperate shortage of doctors and nurses and yet in the face of this, the large reservoir of Negro physicians, dentists and nurses has been barely tapped. The total number of Negro doctors