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Very few African American soldiers in the First World War ever saw combat or accrued the cultural status conferred by participation in combat, because they were placed primarily into labor units. Sexualized assessments of motivation susceptibility played a crucial, but heretofore unappreciated role, in this placement. As this article demonstrates, sexual racism was central to these assessments and to Black soldiers’ placement because motivation susceptibility was measured, by the War Department, in terms of so-called “morale,” which referred simultaneously to a soldier’s mood and willingness to fight. Military leaders believed that morale was improved or imperiled by a soldier’s sexual conduct. If a soldier was sexually restrained, he could be motivated to fight by chivalrously redirecting his sexual energy into battle. Conversely, if a soldier was sexually unrestrained, he could not be motivated through “parasexual” measures. Connecting the dots between the morale programs of the First World War and the racial exclusion of personnel placement, this article demonstrates that sexualized motivation is central to the story of race and racism in this pivotal conflict.