Representative Willburn highlights Fort Des Moines officers' training in Black History Month presentation, invites public to June 14 ceremony

Representative Willburn delivered the House’s Black History Month presentation, recounting the creation and legacy of the Fort Des Moines officer training camp and inviting House members and the public to a June 14 ceremony at Fort Des Moines Memorial Park.

The presentation summarized key historical points: when the United States entered World War I in 1917, federal authorities limited Black enlistments and initially resisted training Black officers. Political pressure from organizations including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People led to a compromise that created a single officer candidate school for Black college graduates. Fort Des Moines, an isolated former cavalry post in Iowa, was selected for that training. The speaker said roughly 1,000 Black college graduates were selected as officer candidates, and a total of about 1,250 candidates comprised the training regiment, including 250 noncommissioned officers and other infantry trainees.

Why it matters: the Fort Des Moines officer training camp marked an early, nationally significant step in the military commissioning of Black officers, with graduates who later became civic leaders and helped open military and civic opportunities for subsequent generations.

Representative Willburn named institutions and individuals connected to the camp and its graduates: Howard University, Tuskegee, Harvard and Yale (as institutions that had cadets among the candidates); Camp Dodge in Des Moines (as a subsequent training post); and noted that 638 captains and lieutenants received commissions on Oct. 15, 1917, and later served with the American Expeditionary Forces in France, including in the Meuse-Argonne sector and the attack near Metz. The speaker recounted that the returning officers faced racial violence in 1919 but that many went on to prominent roles, referencing figures such as Charles Howard and James B. Morris (who later published the Iowa Bystander newspaper) and later generations of Black officers including Gen. Chappie James and Gen. Colin Powell.

Representative Willburn also noted the 1997 founding of Fort Des Moines Memorial Park — described in the address as a 4.6-acre museum and memorial — and said the grandson of cadet James Morris helped establish the memorial. He invited colleagues and the public to attend a Fort Des Moines commemorative event on June 14 at 1 p.m., which will include special recognition of Lieutenant Colonel Harriet Waddy and the U.S. Army Women’s Auxiliary officer training at Fort Des Moines during World War II.

The remarks were delivered as the House’s Black History Month presentation and concluded with an invitation to the public event; no floor action or vote related to the presentation was recorded in the transcript.