Act in Relation to the Organization of a Colored Regiment in the City of New York

Explanation and Analysis of the Document

Although legislation intended to create an African American regiment for New York City had been introduced and passed by the legislature before, first in 1911 and again in 1912, the governor did not sign those bills into law. On June 2, 1913, the newly elected Governor Sulzer signed into law the Colored Regiment of Infantry Act.

The 1913 act amended Article 2 of Chapter 41, “Military Law,” of the 1909 laws of New York State, which defined the command, organization, and administration of the state National Guard. Legislation similar to the enacted bill had been proposed in 1911, but that bill contained additional language that duplicated provisions in the existing military law. In 1912 a much shorter version of the 1911 bill was proposed, but that bill also contained redundant language. The final bill was pared down to the language essential to require the adjutant general—the senior New York State military administrative authority—to create a regiment no later than three months after the bill became law. However, the law inadvertently contained a provision that allowed the adjutant general to delay creation of the regiment: It required the officers of the regiment to be commissioned according to the military law provisions for eligibility and examination. The adjutant general interpreted the law to require that the regiment’s officers be black, but black officers of the provisional regiment did not have sufficient military education to pass the examinations.