Yes, they did.

The Western Front was the most multiracial and multicultural place on earth during the four years that the First World War lasted. With men and women drawn from every corner of the world to labor and fight in Europe for the Entente powers, it was not surprising that Germany would try and create dissident amongst colonial and minority soldiers in the French, British, and American ranks. Soldiers from British India, for example, became an early target of these efforts as propaganda pamphlets and leaflets in Hindustani were dropped from planes over Indian units. These propaganda leaflets predictably encouraged desertion and mutiny, but also the killing of British officers. This was something that was extended into German prisoner of war camps for colonial soldiers in which it was hoped that these men could be convinced to join the German and Ottoman cause. While it did produce some volunteers, these were only a handful at most.

Looking ahead from 1914/1915 to the African American soldiers of 1918, Germany again saw an opportunity to seed dissension amongst the newly arrived American soldiers. This was not only aimed at African American soldiers as white American soldiers were also encouraged to desert. However, while the propaganda aimed at white soldiers spoke in broad terms about a "live and let live" policy and promises of good treatment in Germany until the end of the war, propaganda leaflets aimed at African American soldiers specifically dealt with issues surrounding civil rights in the United States, in particularly about the usage of the word "democracy" in American discourse at the time (President Woodrow Wilson famously claimed that the United States entered the war to make the world "safe for democracy").

I quote, in full, one such leaflet:

Hello, boys, what are you doing over here? Fighting the Germans? Why? Have they ever done you any harm? Of course some white folks and the lying English-American papers told you that the Germans ought to be wiped out for the sake of humanity and Democracy. What is Democracy? Personal freedom; all citizens enjoying the same rights socially and before the law. Do you enjoy the same rights as the white people do in America, the land of freedom and Democracy, or are you not rather treated over there as second class citizens?

Can you get into a restaurant where white people dine? Can you get a seat in a theatre where white people sit? Can you get a seat or berth in a railroad car, or can you even ride in the South in the same street car with the white people?

And how about the law? Is lynching and the most horrible crimes connected therewith, a lawful proceeding in a Democratic country? Now all this is entirely different in Germany, where they do like colored people; where they treat them as gentlemen and as white men, and quite a number of colored people have fine positions in business in Berlin and other German cities. Why, then, fight the Germans only for the benefit of the Wall Street robbers, and to protect the millions that that they have loaned to the English, French, and Italians.

You have been made the tool of the egoistic and rapacious rich in America, and there is nothing in the whole game for you but broken bones, horrible wounds, spoiled health, or death. No satisfaction whatever will get you out of this unjust war. You have never seen Germany, so you are fools if you allow people to make you hate us. Come over and see for yourself. Let those do the fighting who make the profit out of this war. Don't allow them to use you as cannon fodder.

To carry a gun in this service is not an honor, but a shame. Throw it away and come over to the German lines. You will find friends who will help you.

(Quoted in Arthur E. Barbeau & Florette Henri, The Unknown Soldiers: African-American Troops in World War I, p. 148-149.)

Yet as historian Chad L. Williams reminds us, African American soldiers did not need German propaganda to remind them of the realities of white supremacy in the United States. African American soldiers recognized that what these leaflets said about the United States and the contradictions in fighting for a nation who oppressed them was the truth -- but chose, despite this, to continue fighting. Desertion amongst frontline African American soldiers was low and not tied to German propaganda. A reason for the will to fight was a belief that through their participation in the war, they were doing their duty and expected their efforts to be repaid by the restoration of their civil rights and the destruction of Jim Crow. Since the United States was using the fight for democracy as their rallying cry for the war, then it should also be brought to the United States. Despite the valiant participation of African American soldiers during the First World War, this was not to be. Born out of the disappointment that African Americans had with the experiences during and after the war was a new type of racial attitude, a "New Negro", that would no longer accept the status quo. They wanted change and they wanted the full restoration of their civil rights.