During the Great War, arrangements for drafting and deploying the 357,000 African Americans who served in the United States Army during World War I were only gradually arriving at by the War Department in the summer of 1917. In the end, eighty percent of the black soldiers who reached France had jobs that only consist of unloading ships, building roads, and reburying the dead. The 92nd and the 93rd combat divisions were formed, consisting of drafted men, and created from a mixture of National Guard units and draftees. The French commanded the 93rd combat division in fulfilling the Pershing’s obligations to the Allies and the Americans lack of faith in black combat troops was demonstrated further.
