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LETTER TO PRESIDENT WOODROW WILSON
AN EXCERPT FROM THE COMMITTEE’S MAY 24, 1917, MESSAGE STATED “A Reserve Officers’ Training Camp, accommodating 1,250, at Des Moines, Iowa, for Colored men (to fight in World War I), to start June 15th ... Stop but a moment, brother, and realize what this means. At present, we have only three (Black) officers of the line in the army; in less than four months we shall have 1,250 officers. Our due recognition at last ... Some few people have opposed the camp as a ‘Jim Crow’ camp; they say we are sacrificing principle for policy ... In fact, it is less ‘Jim Crow’ than our other institutions, for here the Government has assured us of exactly the same recognition, treatment, instruction, and pay as men in any other camp get ... Our great task is to meet the challenge hurled at our race ... Let us not mince matters; the race is on trial. It needs every one of its red-blooded, sober minded men. Doctors, lawyers, teachers, business men, and all men who have graduated from high school. Let the college student and graduate come and demonstrate by their presence the principles of virtue and courage learned in the academic halls. Up, brother, our race is calling ... If we fail, our enemies will dub us COWARDS for all time; and we can never win our rightful place. But if we succeed— then eternal success; a mighty and fascinating step forward; 1,250 Colored Army officers leading Negro troops. Look to the future, brother, the vision is glorious.” Black men to apply and sign up for the training camp. Black churches and local YMCA locations were used as recruiting stations.
Dear Sir – The national Negro college men’s fraternity known as Kappa Alpha Psi, ... begs to assure you that this organization is in full sympathy and accord with the purposes of the government in waging the present war against the Imperial German Government in defense of the principles of International Law and the protection of our citizens upon the high seas, and hereby pledges its unswerving loyalty to the president and the flag in the great struggle which now confronts us. I am Respectfully yours, Elder W. Diggs Grand Polemarch of Kappa Alpha Psi
President Woodrow Wilson’s reply letter to Grand Polemarch Elder W. Diggs, June 1917.
of this organization included T. Montgomery Gregory ( ΦΒΣ , Harvard University) as chairman, Clarence B. Curley ( A Φ A , Howard University) as secretary, Frank Coleman ( Ω ΨΦ Founder, Howard University), Merrill H. Curtis ( A Φ A , Howard University), Winston Douglas ( Ω ΨΦ , Lincoln Uni- versity), W. A. Hall ( A Φ A , Virginia Union College), Charles H. Houston ( A Φ A , Amherst College), and Louis H. Russell ( A Φ A , Cornell University). The committee met in the base- ment of Howard University Chapel. They sent correspondence to various colleges and universities, placed newspaper ads, and leveraged personal relationships to inspire and encourage
Central Committee of Negro College Men Training Camp for Negro Officers recruitment flyer.
for Spingarn to report to the officer training camp, an organization was formed to continue his crusade. This group, known as the Central Commit- tee of Negro College Men, consisted of students and faculty from various historically Black fraternities and institutions. The executive committee
SUMMER 2025 ♦ THE JOURNAL 73
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