White Backlash and the Aftermath of Fagen\u27s Rebellion: The Fates of Three African-American Soldiers in the Philippines, 1901-1902

In the Summer of 1899, four Black regiments-the 24th and 25th Infantries and the 9th and 10th Cavalries-which had previously fought in Cuba were dispatched to the Philippines. They were part of the United States\u27 effort to suppress Filipino Nationalist aspirations for independence. Emilio Aguinaldo had been leading a well-organized Filipino resistance to what he considered an American replacement of Spain as the oppressor. As foot soldiers for a racial imperialism, African-American soldiers in the Philippines found themselves placed in an extremely difficult situation. White Americans characterized Filipinos as they did African-Americans: as inferior and even sub-human. Consequently, when the United States military occupied the Philippine islands, it brought with it a series ofracist practices and attitudes which alienated both Filipinos and African-American soldiers