Fighting for Equality: African American Men in Combat in the World Wars

The Tuskegee Airmen of World War II are famous, but did you know that in World War I, two infantry divisions of African American soldiers fought against the Germans? Or that in World War II, those same divisions fought again in Italy and the Pacific? And that at the same time in northwest Europe black soldiers formed tank, tank destroyer, and artillery battalions that spearheaded or supported white divisions, which in 1945 actually included more than fifty “fifth platoons” of black volunteers serving in white infantry companies?

In both wars, these men fought for equality in the United States. How were their exploits acknowledged or denied by the US Army and received by white Americans? Scholars of African American military history and war and society, John Morrow, PhD; Robert Jefferson, PhD; and Jeffrey Sammons, PhD, offer their insights about these important topics.

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