african Americans in the military

By DAN GOLDBERG 05/25/2020 Commander Daniel W. Armstrong, a tall, handsome, aristocratic-looking man with an upright gait and an immaculate uniform, looked the 16 black men over. He was the white officer in charge of the black camp, a man whose willingness to work with African American enlistees earned praise from the higher-ups in Washington. “Do you…

Read More The Golden Thirteen: The Forgotten Story of How 13 Black Men Broke the Navy’s Toughest Color Barrier

By Precious Fondren For most of her life, Debra Willett had a vague idea about who her grandfather was. She knew he had fought in France in World War I at some point. But she didn’t grasp the importance of what her grandfather, who died in 1956, had accomplished until she began doing some genealogy research…

Read More Honoring the Forgotten Harlem Hellfighters: An Exceptional Unit of Black Soldiers

Military.com | By Bethanne Kelly Patrick The opportunity for African-Americans to enlist and serve in the Marine Corps came in 1942 as the Corps began to recruit qualified African-American men. The men who enlisted in response completed recruit training at Montford Point, North Carolina during a time and place where racism and segregation were a part of everyday…

Read More The Montford Point Marines

On October 25, 1940, Benjamin O. Davis Sr. was appointed Brigadier General in the United States Army by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, becoming the first African American general in the history of the United States Military. Since then nearly 400 other African American women and men have been appointed to that rank. The highest rank…

Read More THE COMMANDERS: ADMIRALS AND GENERALS IN THE UNITED STATES MILITARY, 1940