Horace Pippin’s Military Journal

1921

Pippin was in France from December 1917 until Christmas 1918.

Horace Pippin served in the 369th Infantry Regiment – also known as the Harlem Hellfighters – during World War I. Racist practices by the U.S. and British militaries sent the segregated African American soldiers to fight alongside the French Army. Pippin's regiment spent 191 days in the front-line trenches, more time in continuous combat than any other American unit of its size. Pippin kept a journal of his time in combat, and his papers provide a firsthand account of the War from an African American perspective. Later, Pippin’s art would explore his wartime experiences.