Category Archives: African American Veterans

5 Powerful Lessons from the book “African American Experience During World War II”

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5 Powerful Lessons from the book “African American Experience During World War II”:

1. Unbreakable Spirit:
Over 1.2 million African American men and women served with unwavering courage and commitment in every branch of the U.S. military during WWII, despite facing systemic discrimination and limited opportunities. Their resilience and patriotism in the face of adversity stand as a testament to the indomitable human spirit.

2. Fighting for a Double Victory:
Black Americans sought to achieve a “Double Victory” – defeating the Axis powers abroad while simultaneously battling racism and injustice at home. This powerful movement united the community in a shared struggle for freedom, equality, and dignity.

3. Overcoming Segregation:
Black soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines served with distinction in segregated units, enduring substandard conditions and hostility from white communities. Yet, they persevered, shattering stereotypes and proving their mettle on the battlefield.

4. Pivotal Contributions:
African American service members played pivotal roles in some of the most significant battles of WWII, from the D-Day invasion to the Battle of the Bulge and the Pacific campaigns. Their valor and sacrifice were essential to the Allied victory.

5. Unrecognized Heroism:
Despite their immense contributions, African American service members were denied the recognition they deserved. Not a single African American received the Medal of Honor during WWII, despite the 472 awarded to other U.S. recipients. This injustice serves as a sobering reminder of the work still needed to ensure true equality and justice for all.

The African American experience during WWII is a testament to the power of resilience, courage, and the unbreakable human spirit. Their stories deserve to be honored, remembered, and studied, as they continue to inspire generations to come in the ongoing struggle for a more just and equitable world.

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African American Experience During Workd War II

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Discover the Untold Stories of Valor and Struggle: “African American Experience During World War II” by author Edward Brownlee.

Are you ready to delve into a riveting historical journey? Look no further! “African American Experience During World War II” sheds light on the remarkable and often overlooked contributions of 1.2 million African American service members during the tumultuous years of World War II.

What’s Inside?

Segregated Service: This book provides a gripping perspective on the experiences of African Americans serving in a segregated U.S. military. Despite their unwavering commitment to liberty and justice, they faced discrimination, inferior training, and limited opportunities.

Two Fronts, One Battle: These brave men fought not only on the beaches of Normandy and the Pacific islands but also against the hypocrisy and racism within their own ranks.

D-Day Heroes: Discover the untold stories of African Americans storming the beaches on D-Day, battling imperial Japan in the Pacific, and standing firm during the desperate days of the Battle of the Bulge.

Civil Rights Struggle: While fighting for freedom abroad, they simultaneously battled for their rights at home. Their resilience and courage shaped the course of history.

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Don’t miss out on this powerful narrative that honors the unsung heroes of World War II.

African American Experience During World War II

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#WWII #DoubleVictory
#WWIIveteran
#blackhistory
#BlackHistoryMonth
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#ww2uncovered #honorourveterans #WorldWarII #WWIIveteran #worldwar2 #greatestgeneration #ww2tanks #ww2 #wwiihistory #WWIIVet #ww2veteran #ww2history #lestweforget

WWII Hero Charles French

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Navy Mess Specialist 1st Class Petty Officer Charles Jackson French, hailed as the “Human Tugboat”, single-handedly pulled 15 injured sailors through shark-infested waters after a Japanese destroyer attack.

A future U.S. Navy Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer DDG-142 will be named USS Charles J. French, after Navy Mess Specialist 1st Class Petty Officer Charles Jackson French.

Known for his heroic actions in the Pacific Theater of World War II, French saved 15 of his shipmates after their high-speed transport was sunk in combat during the Battle of Guadalcanal.

Hailed as the “Human Tugboat” and “Hero of the Solomons,” Charles French joined the Navy as a mess attendant before the United States formally entered World War II, and served four years aboard the Hawaii-based heavy cruiser USS Houston (CA 30). French left the service after his tour aboard Houston, but reenlisted four days after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941. He was assigned to USS Gregory (APD 3) in March 1942.

On the night of Sept. 4, 1942, in the vicinity of the Solomon Islands, three Imperial Japanese destroyers and one cruiser opened fire on the Gregory and its sister ship USS Little (APD 4). With his ship sinking and his fellow Sailors in shark-infested waters, the uninjured French gathered injured shipmates on a nearby raft and tied a rope around his waist in order to pull the survivors to safety.

Ensign Robert Adrian, who gradually came to after suffering injuries to his legs and blast fragments in his eyes, attempted to persuade French to join them aboard the raft and out of the shark-infested waters, Adrian later recalled.

French refused, responding that he was more afraid of the Japanese than the sharks. Against a strong current, French swam all night — away from enemy gunfire and the Japanese-held shoreline.

French swam through the night until at sunrise, French and the raft of sailors were spotted by scout aircraft.

For his actions, French was recommended for the Navy Cross. However, due to his race, the cook only received a letter of commendation from Adm. William “Bull” Halsey, the commander of the Southern Pacific Fleet.

After the war, however, French’s story was largely forgotten and omitted from Navy history.

“French is now getting some long-overdue recognition.” ~ SECNAV Carlos Del Toro

“For too long, we did not recognize Petty Officer French appropriately, but we’ve begun to correct that. Recently, we renamed the training pool at Naval Base San Diego after him,” said Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro. “Today, with profound conviction and a heart brimming with long-overdue recognition, I am proud to announce the name of our newest destroyer, DDG 142, will be the USS Charles J. French.”

Previously, Secretary Del Toro posthumously awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal to French in May 2022.

References:

  1. https://www.navy.mil/Press-Office/Press-Releases/display-pressreleases/Article/3641986/secnav-del-toro-names-navy-destroyer-for-wwii-hero-charles-french/
  2. https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-navy/2024/01/15/navy-to-name-destroyer-after-wwii-hero-charles-french/

Still I Rise

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Still I Rise

Maya Angelou (1928 –2014)

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
’Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.
Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I’ll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops,
Weakened by my soulful cries?

Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don’t you take it awful hard
’Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines
Diggin’ in my own backyard.

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I’ve got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history’s shame
I rise
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I rise
I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.

Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.

From And Still I Rise by Maya Angelou. Copyright © 1978 by Maya Angelou.

Double “V” Campaign During the Second World War

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The Double V Campaign was launched by a prominent black newspaper, the Pittsburgh Courier, in 1942.

The campaign came in response to buzz generated from a letter written by a young black man, James G. Thompson. His article, entitled, “Should I Sacrifice to Live ‘Half-American”, broke barriers and started a conversation nationally that many blacks had been having for generations.

As the nation claimed victory in World War II, many black veterans carried their excitement back home.

The charge was clear: victory over fascism abroad and victory over racism at home. This assertion came in response to decades of expecting African-Americans to choose patriotism in times of war, but not experience equal protection of the law at home.

In this episode of ‘Black History in Two Minutes or So’ hosted by Henry Louis Gates Jr. — with additional commentary from Farah Griffin of Columbia University and Peniel Joseph from the University of Texas — the episode explored a campaign that ignited many African-Americans to take down Jim Crow laws and a became key player in the civil rights movement.

‘Are We Not American Soldiers?’ When the U.S. Military Treated German POWs Better Than Black Troops

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“It was common during World War II for the U.S. Army to treat German Prisoners of War better than Black American soldiers.”

In Jim Crow South, as African American soldiers sat in the restaurant’s kitchen eating their meals, about two dozen German prisoners of war who entered with their American guards “sat at the tables, had their meals served, talked, smoked, in fact had quite a swell time.”

In an April 1944 letter to Yank, a weekly Army magazine, Trimmingham, a Black soldier, asked the obvious: “Are these men”— Nazi prisoners who’d been captured while fighting on Hitler’s behalf—“sworn enemies of this country? Are we not American soldiers, sworn to fight for and die if need be for this our country? Then why are they treated better than we are?”

It was common during World War II for the U.S. Army to treat German Prisoners of War better than Black American soldiers. Segregation was official U.S. military policy during the Second World War

African American soldiers were often relegated to less desirable roles and excluded from promises of patriotic camaraderie. This particular brand of discrimination, however—the preferential treatment of imprisoned Nazi combatants—was especially offensive to many Black troops. It told them, loud and clear, that they were fighting for a country even as that country fought against them. For many white military personnel, there was no point in even pretending otherwise.

This preferential treatment of white German POWs by the U.S. Army on army bases across America seemed during the Second World War, at times, specifically designed to humiliate Black soldiers.

To learn more about this topic and the African American experience during World War II, read:  African American Experience During World War II

“History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, however, if faced with courage, need not be lived again.” ~ MAYA ANGELOU

Reference:

  1. https://time.com/5872361/wwii-german-pows-civil-rights/

African-American Soldiers Saw World War II as a Two-Front Battle

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“We cannot fight to crush Nazi brutality abroad and condone race riots at home. Those who fan the fires of racial clashes for the purpose of making political capital here at home are taking the first step toward Nazism.” ~ Vice President Henry Wallace

When World War II began on September 1, 1939, The Pittsburgh Courier immediately connected the United States’ treatment of African Americans and Nazi Germany’s treatment of Jewish people.

Drawing the connection between fascism abroad and Jim Crow at home, African American activists and service members declared the necessity of “double victory”, defeating the Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan during World War II overseas and systematic racism on the home front.

In 1942, The Pittsburgh Courier, a leading African-American newspaper at the time, launched the “Double Victory” campaign. The campaign became a rallying cry for black journalists, activists and citizens to secure both victory over fascism abroad during World War II and victory over racism at home.

Advocates of the Double Victory campaign understood that Nazism would not be completely vanquished in Germany until white supremacy was defeated everywhere, including in the U.S. South.

“In the freest country in the world, where even the President rages against racial discrimination, no citizen of dark color is permitted to travel next to a white person, even if the white is employed as a sewer digger and the Negro is a world boxing champion or otherwise a national hero…[this] example shows us all how we have to solve the problem of traveling foreign Jews.” ~ Chicago Defender

 

“The Double V,” short for “The Double Victory,” was a term first mentioned in an activist’s letter to The Pittsburgh Courier. The letter read, “Let colored Americans adopt the double VV for a double victory; the first V for victory over our enemies from without, the second V for victory over our enemies within.

A “double V for victory” sign, with the first V standing for victory of enemies from without and the second V for victory over enemies within, meaning those in the United States who limited the freedoms of African Americans.

#africanamericanexperiencewwii

To learn more about “Double Victory” and the experience of African Americans during WWII, you can purchase and read the “African American Experience During World War II” by Edward Brownlee.

 https://a.co/d/91sqs01

References:

  1. Matthew Delmont, Why African-American Soldiers Saw World War II as a Two-Front Battle, Smithsonian Magazine, August 24, 2017 https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/why-african-american-soldiers-saw-world-war-ii-two-front-battle-180964616/

Six Triple Eight Central Postal Directory Battalion

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The Six Triple Eight Central Postal Directory Battalion was the only all African American Women’s Army Corps unit deployed overseas during World War II.

The President of the United States awarded the 6888th Postal Battalion the Congressional Gold Medal on March 14, 2022.

African American Experience During World War II

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African American Experience During World War II by Edward L. Brownlee:

Do you want to learn about the untold stories of African American heroes in World War II? Do you want to discover how they fought for freedom and justice on two fronts, at home and abroad? Do you want to explore how they faced racism, discrimination and segregation in a military that denied them equal opportunity and civil rights?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you need to read African American Experience During World War II by Edward L. Brownlee. This book provides a historical perspective of the 1.2 million African American service members who served in every branch of the U.S. military during the war. It reveals how they overcame challenges, contributed to the war effort, and changed the course of history.

This book is based on extensive research, interviews, and archival sources. It covers topics such as:

  • The roles and achievements of African American soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines in various theaters of war
  • The struggles and successes of African American women in the military and civilian sectors
  • The impact of the war on the civil rights movement and the postwar social and political landscape
  • The legacy and recognition of African American veterans and their contributions to American society

African American Experience During World War II is a must-read for anyone interested in the history of World War II, African American history, or military history. It is a book that will inspire, educate, and challenge you to learn more about the brave men and women who fought for a better world.

Don’t miss this opportunity to get your copy of African American Experience During World War II by Edward L. Brownlee today. Click on the link below to order it from Amazon. You won’t regret it!

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