Last year Gwen posted about Medal of Honor, a World War II based video game that featured an all white cast. In her post, she gives numbers as to the diversity of the U.S. military at that time. Here, I offer some photographs of Black American soldiers during the war (borrowed from The History Place):
Comments 16
Anonymous — November 12, 2010
I think it's telling, though, that only one of those pictures has any white men in it, showing how even though there was diversity, there was still heavy segregation and racism. Really interesting and sobering.
Zoe — November 12, 2010
More on this here: http://www.aacvr-germany.org/AACVR.ORG/
azizi — November 12, 2010
Here's an excerpt of a related story:
Black soldiers to be honoured
By TOM GODFREY, Toronto Sun
Friday, November 12, 2010
Members of Canada’s only black military battalion which served in France during the First World War will be among those honoured at Queen’s Park during Thursday's Remembrance Day ceremony.
The 600-member No. 2 Construction Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force, was formed in July 1916 after white officers refused to fight or socialize with black recruits. It was the country’s only segregated unit.
“The white soldiers didn’t want to be with, or share quarters with black soldiers,” said Rosemary Sadlier, of the Ontario Black History Society. “Blacks have been defending Canada right from the beginning.”
Sadlier said African-Canadians have fought for their country since 1783 and served in the War of 1812, both world wars and recent conflicts"...
http://www.torontosun.com/news/torontoandgta/2010/11/10/16073221.html
Grizzly — November 16, 2010
I was a history major in college, and since college have studied history as a hobby (for going on 20 years), and to the best of my knowledge I have never before this post seen pictures of black WWII soldiers.
I appreciate this post.
Ryan — November 17, 2010
Not every video game depicts World War 2 as an "all white" ware. For example, THQ's "the Outfit" was a recent WW2 video game that featured a black man as one of the three main protagonists:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Outfit_(video_game)
jo hoyle — June 21, 2011
During WW2 my Great Granfather ran a local home guard platoon in Nottinghamshire. The locals were so startled by seeing black GIs that he invited some of the soldiers to meet the locals. He wanted to show the locals that the black soldiers were no different than the white GI's. Within the group of soldiers he befriended was a man called Martin Luther King Senior, I'd like to think that my great grandfathers actions may have indirectly impacted on his son's mission to bring about equality.
jo hoyle — June 21, 2011
During WW2 my Great Granfather ran a local home guard platoon in
Nottinghamshire. The locals were so startled by seeing black GIs that he
invited some of the soldiers to meet the locals. He wanted to show the
locals that the black soldiers were no different than the white GI's.
Within the group of soldiers he befriended was a man called Martin
Luther King Senior, I'd like to think that my great grandfathers actions
may have indirectly impacted on his son's mission to bring about
equality.