Doug Fisher on the writing of his book: African American Doctors of World War I: The Lives of 104 Volunteers, by W. Douglas Fisher and Joann H. Buckley (McFarland & Company, 284 pp., 2015)
[Amazon overview: In World War I, 104 African American doctors joined the United States Army to care for the 40,000 men of the 92nd and 93rd Divisions, the Army’s only black combat units. The infantry regiments of the 93rd arrived first and were turned over to the French to fill gaps in their decimated lines. The 92nd Division came later and fought alongside other American units. Some of those doctors rose to prominence; others died young or later succumbed to the economic and social challenges of the times. Beginning with their assignment to the Medical Officers Training Camp (Colored)–the only one in U.S. history–this book covers the early years, education and war experiences of these physicians, as well as their careers in the black communities of early 20th century America.]
“(Joann’s) curiosity led me to take a broader focus on the history revealing much more about the courageous black troops who volunteered and served in combat in France. When she learned about the black doctor, Dr. Rucker, who served under my grandfather, she asked a simple question. ‘Was he the only black doctor who served in the war?’ I had no answer. While doing our early Rucker research we learned he attended a training camp for black doctors at Fort Des Moines. . . . Medical Officers Training Camp – Colored (MOTC – Colored). . . . [T]here was nothing about the individual trainees who participated (in the) . . . report written by the Camp Commander, a white physician. . . .
“We searched for two solid weeks (at the National Archives). [C]art after cart of storage boxes filled with file folders . . . from WWI. Many had not been looked at for 70 years (since 1940). . . . As we prepared to give up, Joann was looking through the very last storage box. . . (and) observed that the last document was unusual. . . two pages wide, almost four feet long and . . . glued together. . . . (The) Heading read: TABLE OF MEDICAL RESERVE CORPS – COLORED – RECEIVING INSTRUCTION, MEDICAL TRAINING CAMP, FORT DES MOINES, IOWA. . . . This ‘Lost’ Roster contained names, hometowns, ages, medical colleges with graduation dates, training dates at camp, the number of days they received instruction, and their next assignments. They all arrived there as 1st Lieutenants in the Army Medical Reserve Corps. They were already educated, experienced doctors and all they needed was training in how the U.S. Army operates both in peacetime and in wartime combat.
“[W]e devoted the next six years to developing biographies for every one of them, including their military service experience. . . . One evening we ran into (Harvard) Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. by accident . . . at the Mayflower Hotel in D.C. . . . He . . . asked us (for) more information about our project and. . . later (included) 15 of our bios in his newest edition of “African American National Biography.” . . . McFarland Books. . . . recommended we announce and release the book in early December 2015. . . . It’s now available at Barnes & Noble and on Amazon! . . . During 2016 we made more than a half dozen formal book presentations for various groups of readers and scholars. . . . Our audience was usually dumbstruck just to learn that 400,000 black Americans served in the Army during WWI, and that 40,000 of them were combat troops who fought valiantly and suffered heavy losses. . . . After the war, with the Army’s demobilization, their efforts were largely forgotten. We welcomed the chance to tell their story.”
Excerpted from Memoirs William Douglas Fisher: My Life so Far. . . (Self-published, 313 pp 2023), pp. 188-189, 214, 218, 226.