Remembering Sgt. Henry ‘Black Death’ Johnson, the first Black American WWI hero

1913 not 1923

LTC Trent Klug But the army and navy were segregated all the way back to the beginning of the services. Up until WWII, the navy only used blacks as cooks, stewards and orderliness. The 54th Mass.Vol. Inf. became the army's first Civil War segregated unit and then they formed the U.S. Colored Troops.

After the Civil War they kept only the 9th and 10th Cav. and 24th and 25th Inf. Regts. as segregated units until WWI,when they formed the black 92d and 93d Inf. Div.s, each with four Infantry regiments.