I'm watching the History Channel's "A Distant Shore: African Americans of D-Day" and it made me feel some kinda way and my heart is heavy. It's the story of the 761st battallion, the first African American battallion.
Some of the African American soldiers from DDay are on the History Channel talking about the racism that they experienced in the military AND when they got back to America. They didn't get the hero's welcome at home and they were treated like crap in the military.
The former soldiers on the show talked about how they don't feel bitter but they've forgiven, although they don't forget what they experienced. When asked why they fought for their country despite how the country treated them, the men said that back then they knew that this IS their country and they are glad they fought for it. At the end, they read the names of the 761st battallion men.
Background on how the 761st battalion came to be:
Woodrow Wilson had wanted blacks excluded from combat because of their supposed intellectual and moral inferiority. He received a lot of support from Congress and the military that was run by many proud members of the Segregated South.
Fast forward: FDR's wife was a champion of human/civil rights and felt that "colored people" can't feel the nation is worth defending if this nation mistreats "colored people" and doesn't let them fight in combat. So she, the NAACP, and the black press were pushing for the desegregation of the military. FDR allowed the Tuskegee Airmen and other black soldiers to fight, known as the 761st. They were unfortunately called "Eleanor Roosevelt's N******" because it was felt that they were a political move from FDR to appease his wife.
For more info on this piece of American history:
http://www.761st.com/
http://www.history.army.mil/topics/afam/761TkBn-2.htm
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