528 



MEMOIRS NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



[Vol. XV, 



Section 7. — Data concerning negro troops. 



Examining of negro troops in any considerable numbers was carried on only at Lee and at 

 Dix. Differences shown in these two camps were sufficiently marked to leave no question 

 regarding their genuineness. 



At Camp Dix 1,111 negro enlisted men of the Three hundred and forty-ninth and Three 

 hundred and fiftieth Field Artillery Eegiments were examined. Of these, 266, or 23.9 per cent, 

 were unable to take examination a, because of illiteracy. Contrasted with the 8.6 per cent of 

 white enlisted men excluded from a at this camp, this percentage in itself is indicative of an 

 important difference between negro and white troops. The negro group was made up of men 

 drafted from the same general section of the country as the white troops (New York and New 

 Jersey), so that geographical selection is not responsible for the difference. Table 172 and figure 

 27 show the percentage distributions of this group of negro enlisted men in comparison with the 

 white enlisted men at Dix. The difference is sufficiently striking to require no comment. 

 Comparison of medians shows equally marked differences — median for white enlisted men (Dix) 

 = 171; median for negro enlisted men (Dix) =53. In fact, the upper quartile of the negro 

 group is far below the median for the whites. Only 1 .3 per cent of the negroes made A or B grades 

 as compared with 19.2 per cent of the whites. 



Table 172. — Percentage distribution of scores by race — Enlisted men. 



' Less than 0.1 per cent. 



1 These values figured for total including illiterates, counting these as falling in the lower half of tho distribution. 



At Camp Lee 5,774 negro men, drafted mainly from Virginia and representing 39 companies, 

 were examined. Of these, 3,489 were able to take examination a, while 2,285, or 40 per cent, 

 were excluded on account of illiteracy. It will be remembered that only 18 per cent of the white 

 drafted men from the same general locality were eliminated on this ground. The proportion of 

 illiteracy, as determined by the Lee standards of segregation, is thus more than twice as great 

 among the negro recruits as among the white recruits of this region. Percentage distributions 

 of these two groups are shown in table 172 and figure 28. It is evident that the negro group is not 

 only markedly lower mentally than the white, but that the Lee negro group is much lower than 

 the Dix. This may represent a difference between northern and southern negro groups, though 

 evidence from additional groups would be necessary to establish this point. The medians, 

 upper quartiles, and percentages making A or B grades show the same striking differences. 



Table 173 and figure 29 show in greater detail the percentage distributions of these two 

 groups. It is evident that the impressiveness of the difference is not reduced by the initial 

 elimination for illiteracy, which has removed from consideration so much larger a fraction of 

 the negro than of the white group. The means of the two groups are shown in table 174; white 

 enlisted men, 147.6 ±0.37; negro enlisted men, 58.3 ±0.58. It will be noted also that the 

 dispersion of the negro group, as indicated by the standard deviations, is smaller than that of 

 the white. 



