News Archives: Black History Month: The Alaska Highway
Thursday, February 17th, 2022
95th Engineers at work - August 12, 1942. Retrieved from USACE Digital Library.
The Alaska Highway and its Mile Zero Post in Dawson Creek are both famous parts of the Peace Region’s history, but the role of Black American soldiers in the highway’s construction makes it a part of the Black history of the Peace as well.
During the Second World War, the Peace Region became an important transportation corridor to provide military equipment to the Soviet Union and to facilitate the American defence of Alaska. The latter concern led to the massive Alaska Highway project, a 1,500-mile roadway built over nine months in 1942-3 at a cost of $130 million (several billion today).
Such rapid construction over a long span required considerable labour and, as the United States prepared to simultaneously fight wars in Europe and the Pacific, military manpower was in short supply. For this reason, the US Army broke its rule about deploying Black American soldiers to cold climates and sent the 93rd, 95th, and 97th regiments North.
The regiments consisted of Black soldiers led by White officers in the segregated army. In keeping with US Army policy, when the 95th regiment arrived in Dawson Creek, British Columbia, they were kept in a camp away from the town. The officers told their soldiers that they wouldn’t be welcomed in the community (though the officers went into town). One private recalled that his lieutenant told the townspeople that the Black soldiers had an incurable disease. When local girls came out to greet the train with cookies and candies, the White officers patrolled the platform with drawn revolvers to prevent contact.
It took a tremendous tragedy for the soldiers of the 95th to be allowed into Dawson Creek. On February 13, 1943, a fire broke out in a stable where a truck with sixty cases of dynamite was parked. The explosion killed 6, injured 164, and started a massive fire. The US Army supported the firefighting efforts but initially the Black soldiers of the 95th were still kept out of town. It was only when the struggle dragged on and exhausted firefighters needed relief that officers relented. In the aftermath, the regiment helped rebuild the town and installed a water system to bring water from Pouce Coupe.
Those efforts to help fight the fire and with the subsequent recovery did not improve the treatment the Black soldiers received. They were routinely kicked off sidewalks when White soldiers met them. One Dawson Creek resident commented that with the treatment the Black soldiers received he “thought they were slaves,” a sentiment echoed by soldiers in the other segregated regiments. Captain Edward G. Carroll, the Ivy-league-educated chaplain who was the 95th’s only Black officer, noted the considerable ignorance among the people in the community. The Black soldiers stationed in Canada tended to be welcomed only by Indigenous peoples.
The military completed the Alaska Highway in late 1942. The Dawson Creek fire was one of the last tasks for the 95th regiment. There was effusive praise for the Black soldiers’ work. William Barclay, a Canadian civilian contractor, declared that the 95th regiment had come “into this bleak, somber and silent land and accomplished a task that has won the admiration and praise of free men everywhere.” Dawson Creek’s new dry cleaner provided their own tribute, working forty-eight hours straight to provide clean uniforms for the regiment to wear as they returned home.
This post drew heavily on John Virtue’s excellent work The Black Soldiers who Built the Alaska Highway. Canadian author Lawrence Hill, probably best known for his The Book of Negroes, is also researching a new book on the Black soldiers sent to Canada during the Second World War.
Photos:
Dawson Creek Block destruction 1.
Dawson Creek Block destruction 2.
