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marvin e. fletcher The Black Soldier-Athlete in the U.S. Army, 1890–1916 Today white Americans find nothing unusual in reading about or seeing Blacks and whites compete against each other in athletics. The same could not be said of the years between 1890 and 1950. Segregation made interracial sports competition infrequent. Athletics in the army was a major exception to this generalization. The army, in segregating the men of its units, created the conditions that permitted Blacks and whites to compete against each other. Blacks took advantage of the opportunity and showed Americans how much segregation deprived athletics of skilled and competent people. In addition, the competition and recreation programs made army life more attractive for the Black soldier. For many reasons the period from 1890 to 1916 has rightly been called the worst in U.S. history for Blacks. Politically, legally, and economically their status continually grew worse. Neither of the national political parties displayed much interest in their vote or their welfare. In the South, where most of them lived, restrictions such as the literacy test and the poll tax, made it very difficult for them to vote. Most Blacks were landless sharecroppers, never able to get out of debt to the white landowner. Segregation became more complete after having been given sanction by the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896). Athletics was but one of the many areas hurt by such segregation. Not very much is known about the Black athlete in this period. There was some interracial competition but in only a few sports. At this time baseball was the only sport with many professional players. A handful of Blacks played in the International League in the 1880s, but by the early 1890s none were allowed to compete.1 At the same time all-Black teams competed in the white leagues, but these were soon eliminated also.2 By the early part of this century Blacks were restricted to all-Black leagues. While on occasion they were able to compete against barnstorming white major leaguers, for the most part whites simply ignored them.3 On the amateur level Blacks attending schools such as Rutgers, Brown, Amherst, and Harvard took part in a variety of sports including football, basketball, and track and field.4 Some Black schools (such as Howard University) also had organized competition but here again whites avoided or ignored them. Few Blacks had the opportunity to enter athletic programs or compete against others. The U.S. Army provided Blacks with this chance. Created in 1866, the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry and the Twentyfourth and Twenty-fifth Infantry were all-Black units. Not until the end of the Indian Wars, in 1890, did the Army as a whole have much time for anything besides Indian fighting. During the following twenty-six years of peace, before World War I, there was more time for recreation, including athletic competition. In addition, the army moved out of the small, western posts it had occupied during the Indian Wars and into large camps near the urban areas of the United States, the Philippines, and Hawaii. These changes in the army’s mission and location resulted in a growth of athletic activities within and between regiments. One of the most popular sports in America at this time was baseball. Organized activity ranged from intra-regimental competition to games between Black regimental teams and white military and civilian teams. Within the Black regiments competition for a position on a company or regimental baseball team was always keen. On one occasion the chaplain of the Tenth Cavalry reported that the Black soldiers were concentrating so seriously on baseball that they did not even get drunk or cause disturbances.5 The unit officers (who were most often white men) took advantage of this attitude as a means of discipline: bad behavior meant exclusion from competition.6 The officers also encouraged and coached the teams, but rarely played on them and then only on the company level.7 Uniforms generally were purchased with money from the troop or regimental fund. For example, Troop D, Ninth Cavalry, chose blue uniforms with dark blue socks.8 Competition between regiments was keen and took place wherever two units could get together. When the Tenth Cavalry was stationed at Fort Ethan Allan (near Burlington, Vermont) they scheduled a game with the Fifth Infantry, located then at Plattsburg Barracks, New York. 258 marvine.fletcher [3.21.106.69...

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