Porter, Steward, Citizen

In 1919, Royal Christian privately published a memoir based on his experiences in World War I. However, the book has been lost to public knowledge for almost a century. Unlike traditional accounts of wartime experiences of African American soldiers serving on the western front in combat regiments or in the various labor battalions in France, Christian served as a professional valet for Colonel Moorhead C. Kennedy, the Deputy Director General of Transportation for the American Expeditionary Forces in Paris and London during the First World War. This narrative is a remarkable contribution to the history of African American men participating in WWI and the unintended consequences of the war in Europe to the development of the African American community. Pellom McDaniels III provides a lightly edited and annotated version of Christian's memoir, supplemented by an extensive introduction and numerous previously unpublished archival photos and documents. Trip to the Battlefields of Europe accounts both directly and indirectly for the challenges African Americans encountered in their efforts to serve the cause of freedom and democracy. Christian chronicles some of the inner workings of the American military and how race served as a barrier to opportunity. In addition, Christian's perspective as an African American man in Europe both during and after the war provides a window to the reader of what tens of thousands of black soldiers witnessed and experienced in their time overseas. Roy's Trip to the Battlefields of Europe offers a unique perspective on African American manhood, masculinity, and citizenship, advancing our understanding of how men like Christian negotiated their obligations to family, community, and themselves, within a society that maintained a deep and abiding attachment to the myth of white supremacy.