“I am taking it upon myself to write to you in the hope that something may be done to put a stop to the treatment of the Black troops now stationed at Camp Lee, Virginia,” wrote Sydney Rotheny, a member of the 9th Quartermaster Regiment. “The situation is getting very serious and I can truthfully say for myself and the other two thousand Black men now at Camp Lee, that we are getting very tired…”

Rotheny described a series of indignities: White officers slapped and threatened to kill Black enlisted men. On the bus into town, white soldiers demanded that Black soldiers give up their seats. To get back from town, white military police made Black soldiers wait in a separate line until all white soldiers boarded the bus. This meant Black soldiers sometimes waited an hour or more as bus after bus filled with white troops and motored back to camp. At the segregated post exchange, an overzealous white second lieutenant took it upon himself to ban the sale of Black newspapers. Throughout Camp Lee, Black soldiers were called racial epithets daily.

“Aren’t we supposed to be men?” Rotheny asked. “Yet we are treated like dogs.” The majority of Black troops at Camp Lee were drafted from cities in the north and west and were struggling to adjust to the Southern system of racial segregation they found on and off base. “It would be a pleasure soldiering for Uncle Sam if we were treated like humans,” he concluded, “but as things stand now, all we want is out, out of the Army and back to our homes.”

“Myself and eight other soldiers were on our way from Camp Claiborne, La. to the hospital here at Fort Huachuca. We had to lay over until the next day for our train. On the next day we could not purchase a cup of coffee at any of the lunchrooms around there. As you know, Old Man Jim Crow rules. The only place where we could be served was at the lunchroom at the railroad station but, of course, we had to go into the kitchen. But that’s not all; 11:30 am about two dozen German prisoners of war, with two American guards, came to the station. The entered the lunchroom, sat at the tables, had their meals served, talked, smoked, in fact had quite a swell time. I stood on the outside looking on, and I could not help but ask myself these questions: Are these men sworn enemies of this country? Are they not taught to hate and destroy…all democratic governments? Are we not American soldiers, sworn to fight for and die if need be for this our country? Then why are they treated better than we are? Why are we pushed around like cattle?”