Especially in the matter of applying and carrying out the selective service regulations, the Provost Marshall General's office has kept a watchful eye upon certain local exemption boards which seemed disinclined to treat the Negro draftees on the same basis as other Americans subject to the draft law.

It is an actual fact that in a number of instances where flagrant violations have occurred in the application of the draft law, to Negro men in certain sections of the country, local exemption boards have been removed bodily and new boards have been appointed to supplant them.

In several instances these new boards so appointed have been ordered by the Provost Marshall General to reclassify colored men who had been unlawfully conscripted into the army or who had been wrongfully classified; as a result of this action hundreds of colored men have had their complaints remedied and have been properly reclassified." It is also valuable to note the opinion of this representative of his race as to the results of the negroes' participation in the war: "In a word, I believe the Negro's participation in the war, his eagerness to serve, and his great courage and demonstrated valor across the seas, have given him a new idea of Americanism and likewise have given to the white people of our country a new idea of his citizenship, his real character and capabilities, and his 100 per cent Americanism.

Incidentally the Negro has been helped in many ways physically and mentally and has been made into an even more satisfactory asset to the nation." Of the Negroes inducted into service, nearly all were assigned to some department of the army or to special work in connection with the army.
Of the few who were permitted to enlist, a very small percentage was permitted to enlist in the Navy.

Of this small number only a few were allowed the regular training and opportunities of combatants, to the DISCREDIT of our nation, not as yet, grown to that moral vision and all around greatness, NOT to be small..