When the Civil War ended, hundreds of African Americans enlisted in the
U.S. Army to gain social mobility and regular pay. These black soldiers
protected white communities, forced Native Americans onto government
reservations, patrolled the Mexican border, and broke up labor disputes in
mining areas.

    Despised by the white settlers they protected, many black soldiers were
sent to posts along the Texas-Mexico border. The interactions there among
blacks, whites, and Hispanics during the period leading up to World War I
offer James N. Leiker the opportunity to study the complicated, even
paradoxical nature of American race relations.

    Racial Borders establishes the army's role in transforming the Rio
Grande from a "frontier" into a "border." But more important, it warns
about the dangers of simplifying history into groupings of "white and
non-white," "oppressors and oppressed."

    Leiker draws on Mexican and U.S. military records and Texas state and
black national newspapers to remind scholars and reformers of the tangled
history of race relations in America.

_________________________________________________________

JAMES N. LEIKER is an assistant professor of History at Johnson County
Community College in Overland Park, Kansas.


Perspectives on South Texas, sponsored by Texas A&M 
University–Kingsville


What people are saying about this book


". . . an important contribution to African American history during 
the late 19th century while also providing a lucid commentary on 
the evolving racial structures of the Texas/Mexico border during 
that era."—Choice

". . . will add enormously to our understanding of the construction of
identity in the West."—Quintard Taylor