In spite of his noble record—­perhaps in some measure because of it—­and in the face of his loyal response to the call to duty, the Negro unhappily became in the course of the war the victim of proscription and propaganda probably without parallel in the history of the country.  No effort seems to have been spared to discredit him both as a man and as a soldier.  In both France and America the apparent object of the forces working against him was the intention to prevent any feeling that the war would make any change in the condition of the race at home.  In the South Negroes were sometimes forced into peonage and restrained in their efforts to go North; and generally they had no representation on local boards, the draft was frequently operated so as to be unfair to them, and every man who registered found special provision for the indication of his race in the corner of his card.  Accordingly in many localities Negroes contributed more than their quota, this being the result of favoritism shown to white draftees.  The first report of the Provost-Marshal General showed that of every 100 Negroes called 36 were certified for service, while of every 100 white men called only 25 were certified.  Of those summoned in Class I Negroes contributed 51.65 per cent of their registrants as against 32.53 per cent of the white.  In France the work of defamation was manifest and flagrant.  Slanders about the Negro soldiers were deliberately circulated among the French people, sometimes on very high authority, much of this propaganda growing out of a jealous fear of any acquaintance whatsoever of the Negro men with the French women.  Especially insolent and sometimes brutal were the men of the military police, who at times shot and killed on the slightest provocation.  Proprietors who sold to Negro soldiers were sometimes boycotted, and offenses were magnified which in the case of white men never saw publication.  Negro officers were discriminated against in hotel and traveling accommodations, while upon the ordinary men in the service fell unduly any specially unpleasant duty such as that of re-burying the dead.  White women engaged in “Y” work, especially Southern women, showed a disposition not to serve Negroes, though the Red Cross and Salvation Army organizations were much better in this respect; and finally the Negro soldier was not given any place in the great victory parade in Paris.  About the close of the war moreover a great picture, or series of pictures, the “Pantheon de la Guerre,” that was on a mammoth scale and that attracted extraordinary attention, was noteworthy as giving representation to all of the forces and divisions of the Allied armies except the Negroes in the forces from the United States.[1] Not unnaturally the Germans endeavored—­though without success—­to capitalize the situation by circulating among the Negroes insidious literature that sometimes made very strong points.  All of these things are to be considered by those people in the United States who think that the Negro suffers unduly from a grievance.