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WITH TWO ORIGINAL PHOTOS OF THE AUTHOR

439

(WWI.) JORDAN, WALKER H.

With “Old Eph” In The Army (Not a

History): A Simple Treatise on the Human Side of The Colored Soldier.

Three

full page inserted plates. 51 pages, plus Epilogue. Small 4to, original printed wrappers with

yapped edges; some light wear; one corner creased where folded over.

WITH

two pho-

tographs of Jordan, one of them signed by the author.

Baltimore, circa 1919

[1,500/2,500]

AN EXCEPTIONAL NARRATIVE WITH TWO ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE AUTHOR

.

One, is

a ”real photo postcard” posed by African American photographer Arthur Macbeth in his studio. It is

signed by the author, and shows him as a young recruit. The other, a 5 x 7 silver print (matted and

framed) is by Addison Scurlock of Washington D.C. and shows Jordan posed with a loving cup given

him by Headquarters Company 351st Field Artillery. Jordan now bears sergeant’s stripes. His account

is much more than the experience of a black soldier in the “Great War,” it is an extraordinarily well-

written story of forbearance in the face of prejudice. Jordan is recounts how the colored soldier was

treated before, during and after the war, with a scathing, but surprisingly not bitter criticism of the

High Command’s handling of colored officers at the end of the war, and a plea for racial understanding

in the face of a common enemy. “Eph” was a term coined in France by a white officer and “couched in

scorn and sarcasm for everything colored.” The term was transformed by the “valorous deeds” of the

colored soldier and transformed itself into a friendly and positive thing.

RARE

,

ONLY FOUR COPIES

ARE LOCATED

:

BROOKLYN PUBLIC LIBRARY

,

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

,

WISCONSIN HISTORICAL

,

AND ST

.

LOUIS PUBLIC LIBRARY

.