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Military Veterans: Black Veteran Ebooks and Streaming Videos
A resource guide on military veterans. Compiled by J. Harris MA '21. Edited by Dr. S. Gomez and Prof. S. Pham. Revised by Prof. S. Pham, 11/2023.
Veteran Ebooks and Streaming Videos
Black Veteran Ebooks and Streaming Videos
Women Veterans Ebooks and Streaming Videos
Black Veterans: Ebooks and Streaming Videos
Torchbearers of Democracy
by
Chad L. Williams
ISBN: 9780807899359
Publication Date: 2010-09-20
For the 380,000 African American soldiers who fought in World War I, Woodrow Wilson's charge to make the world "safe for democracy" carried life-or-death meaning. Chad L. Williams reveals the central role of African American soldiers in the global conflict and how they, along with race activists and ordinary citizens, committed to fighting for democracy at home and beyond. Using a diverse range of sources, Torchbearers of Democracy reclaims the legacy of African American soldiers and veterans and connects their history to issues such as the obligations of citizenship, combat and labor, diaspora and internationalism, homecoming and racial violence, "New Negro" militancy, and African American memories of the war.
For Their Own Cause
by
Kelly D. Mezurek
ISBN: 9781631012228
Publication Date: 2016-10-25
The 27th United States Colored Troops (USCT), composed largely of free black Ohio men, served in the Union army from April 1864 to September 1865 in Virginia and North Carolina. It was the first time most members of the unit had traveled so far from home. The men faced daily battles against racism and against inferior treatment, training, and supplies. They suffered from the physical difficulties of military life, the horrors of warfare, and homesickness and worried about loved ones left at home without financial support. Yet their contributions provided a tool that allowed blacks with little military experience, and their families, to demand social acceptance and acknowledgment of their citizenship. Their service did not end when their enlistment was over. After the men of the 27th returned to Ohio, they and their families sought full access to the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments and compensatory citizenship rights for their collective sacrifice. Despite their constant battle against racism, this public behavior benefited the men and their families. It also meant that the African American role in the Union victory remained part of local community remembrance and commemoration. As a result, the experiences of these men from the 27th USCT gave the late-nineteenth-century Ohio black community legitimate hopes for access to equal civil and social rights for all. For Their Own Cause is the first comprehensive history of the 27th USCT. By including rich details culled from private letters and pension files, Mezurek provides more than a typical regimental study; she demonstrates that the lives of the men of the 27th USCT help to explain why in the wars that followed, despite the disappointments and increasingly difficult struggle for African American equality that continued for far too many decades after the promise of the three Civil War-era constitutional amendments, blacks in the United States continued to offer their martial support in the front lines and the back.
Sacrificing Soldiers on the National Mall
by
Kristin Ann Hass
ISBN: 9780520954755
Publication Date: 2013-03-22
For the city's first two hundred years, the story told at Washington DC's symbolic center, the National Mall, was about triumphant American leaders. Since 1982, when the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was dedicated, the narrative has shifted to emphasize the memory of American wars. In the last thirty years, five significant war memorials have been built on, or very nearly on, the Mall. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the Korean War Veterans Memorial, the Women in Military Service for America Memorial, The National Japanese American Memorial to Patriotism During WWII, and the National World War II Memorial have not only transformed the physical space of the Mall but have also dramatically rewritten ideas about U.S. nationalism expressed there. In Sacrificing Soldiers on the National Mall, Kristin Ann Hass examines this war memorial boom, the debates about war and race and gender and patriotism that shaped the memorials, and the new narratives about the nature of American citizenship that they spawned. Sacrificing Soldiers on the National Mall explores the meanings we have made in exchange for the lives of our soldiers and asks if we have made good on our enormous responsibility to them.
The Marines of Montford Point
by
Melton A. McLaurin
ISBN: 9781469605227
Publication Date: 2009-11-05
With an executive order from President Franklin Roosevelt in 1941, the United States Marine Corps--the last all-white branch of the U.S. military--was forced to begin recruiting and enlisting African Americans. The first black recruits received basic training at the segregated Camp Montford Point, adjacent to Camp Lejeune, near Jacksonville, North Carolina. Between 1942 and 1949 (when the base was closed as a result of President Truman's 1948 order fully desegregating all military forces) more than 20,000 men trained at Montford Point, most of them going on to serve in the Pacific Theatre in World War II as members of support units. This book, in conjunction with the documentary film of the same name, tells the story of these Marines for the first time. Drawing from interviews with 60 veterans, The Marines of Montford Point relates the experiences of these pioneers in their own words. From their stories, we learn about their reasons for enlisting; their arrival at Montford Point and the training they received there; their lives in a segregated military and in the Jim Crow South; their experiences of combat and service in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam; and their legacy. The Marines speak with flashes of anger and humor, sometimes with sorrow, sometimes with great wisdom, and always with a pride fostered by incredible accomplishment in the face of adversity. This book serves to recognize and to honor the men who desegregated the Marine Corps and loyally served their country in three major wars.
Freedom Journey
by
Edythe Ann Quinn
ISBN: 9781438455396
Publication Date: 2015-01-31
The story of thirty-six African American men who drew upon their shared community of The Hills for support as they fought in the Civil War.
Fighting for Hope
by
Robert F. Jefferson
ISBN: 9781421403090
Publication Date: 2008-11-24
This fascinating history shows how African-American military men and women seized their dignity through barracks culture and community politics during and after World War II. Drawing on oral testimony, unpublished correspondence, archival records, memoirs, and diaries, Robert F. Jefferson explores the curious contradiction of war-effort idealism and entrenched discrimination through the experiences of the 93rd Infantry Division. Led by white officers and presumably unable to fight--and with the army taking great pains to regulate contact between black soldiers and local women--the division was largely relegated to support roles during the advance on the Philippines, seeing action only later in the war when U.S. officials found it unavoidable. Jefferson discusses racial policy within the War Department, examines the lives and morale of black GIs and their families, documents the debate over the deployment of black troops, and focuses on how the soldiers' wartime experiences reshaped their perspectives on race and citizenship in America. He finds in these men and their families incredible resilience in the face of racism at war and at home and shows how their hopes for the future provided a blueprint for America's postwar civil rights struggles. Integrating social history and civil rights movement studies, Fighting for Hope examines the ways in which political meaning and identity were reflected in the aspirations of these black GIs and their role in transforming the face of America.
African Americans and the Gettysburg Campaign
by
James M. Paradis
ISBN: 9780810883376
Publication Date: 2023-06-14
The Sesquicentennial edition of African Americans and the Gettysburg Campaign updates the original 2006 edition, as James M. Paradis introduces readers to the African-American role in this famous Civil War battle. In addition to documenting their contribution to the war effort, it explores the members of the black community in and around the town of Gettysburg and the Underground Railroad activity in the area.
Disposable Heroes
by
Benjamin Fleury-Steiner
ISBN: 9781442217874
Publication Date: 2012-10-01
For many soldiers, the end of military service signals a cruel and new beginning. Disposable Heroes illuminates the challenges facing many veterans, particularly African Americans. Rather than finding military service to be a path to equality and upward mobility, these veterans fight just to survive. The book draws on in-depth interviews and national survey data to show the ways America is failing many black veterans today. Author Benjamin Fleury-Steiner shares the remarkable stories of 30 veterans from Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan. Their words illustrate the ongoing impact of explicit racial oppression such as Jim Crow segregation, white backlash against integration, and racially targeted criminal justice policies. The book traces the persistent role of racial inequalities in African American veterans' lives before service, during active duty, and particularly after military life. Taken together, the stories in Disposable Heroes paint a compelling story of hope, struggle, and survival. Disposable Heroes makes a powerful case for ending America's longstanding "war at home"--enduring unemployment, deficient health care, and substandard housing--that continue to plague many urban African American communities in the United States today, with particular attention to challenges of African American veterans.
Connecticut's Black Soldiers, 1775-1783
by
David O. White
ISBN: 0871061198
Publication Date: 2017-12-01
Black soldiers of the American Revolution? Not a credible statement in light of what most Americans have read about the Revolutionary War. We have heard of Casimir Pulaski the Pole, Marquis de Lafayette the Frenchman, and Baron von Steuben the German, but not black participants. Yet, close to 5,000 blacks did fight in the war against the British, and others served as laborers, spies, and guides. The absence in our general histories of their activities in this struggle lies with the misconception that the Afro-American has contributed little or nothing towards the creation of the United States and its subsequent development, for in most studies made of the Revolutionary era, there has been little impulse to search for evidences of service by blacks, except perhaps to note the existence of slavery. Histories of Connecticut have generally treated the Revolution in a similar manner. Few of them have acknowledged the contributions of the black soldier. This is partially true because the story of Connecticut's black participant is one about the regular foot soldier in the Revolution and not about the men who led him into battle or the political leaders who guided the nation. And it is these men who most often fill the pages of our history books. As one phase of the Bicentennial observation, The American Revolution Bicentennial Commission of Connecticut has authorized scholars in a wide range of study to write a series of monographs on the broadly defined Revolutionary Era of 1763 to 1787. These monographs appeared] yearly beginning in 1973 through 1980. Emphasis is placed upon the birth of the nation, rather than on the winning of independence on the field of battle.
American's Black Warriors
From the Revolutionary War to the Spanish-American War, black soldiers had fought under the Stars and Stripes. During the early decades of the 20th century, however, racism in the military saw them relegated to noncombat roles as their commanders grew to believe that black soldiers were unfit to fight. It was not until the demands of World War II necessitated the deployment of black soldiers on the battlefield that the ignorance and shortsightedness of those who had conspired to keep them out of the firing line became apparent. In this A&E Special, black World War II veterans speak with brutal honesty about the prejudice they encountered and the battles they fought. The program also illustrates how the advances made in the Second World War paved the way for the armed forces to become a model of successful integration for the rest of America.
Black Soldier Blues
When America established its Pacific supply base in Australia during World War II, Australia's Prime Minister warmly welcomed the estimated one million American servicemen and women stationed and passing through. The exception: black GIs. Because of the racist White Australia Policy the black troops were initially forbidden to be stationed on Australian shores. Between 1942 and 1945, Australia reluctantly agreed to let African American personnel enter, as long as they were separated from the rest of the population. The US high command embraced the policy and African Americans were stationed in strictly segregated zones where they were subjected to atrocious conditions, harsh treatment, racial hatred and even murder. The 96th Battalion rioted out of sheer desperation. In contrast to this official resistance, white Australians welcomed the black American soldiers who found they were often treated better by Australians than by their own countrymen. This acceptance infuriated some of the white soldiers and riots broke out in the streets of Brisbane between white and black American soldiers. The film is told by the American and Australian veterans who were there, now speaking sixty years after the war. The black Americans discuss growing up in a segregated society, joining a segregated army, and fighting for a freedom that they themselves did not yet possess.
Tuskegee Airmen: Still Flying High
Still flying high after 60 years, the Tuskegee Airmen and their story stand as one of the most illustrious chapters in American military history. As a testament to this courageous group of patriots, the U. S. Senate recently passed a bill to honor the Tuskegee Airmen with a Congressional Gold Medal.
Journal: Veterans Day: African American Vets
This segment of Sunday Morning is about African American veterans. It looks at African-Americans past and future involvement in the United States military.
For Love of Liberty! For Love of Liberty, the Story of America's Black Patriots
If prevalent and accepted accounts of American history—both scholarly and those portrayed by Hollywood—are to be believed, the face of the U.S. armed services has always been white. For Love of Liberty: The Story of America’s Black Patriots finally, and for the first time, sets the record straight with an all-star cast who read from a collection of letters, diaries, speeches, and military records that document and acknowledge the sacrifices and accomplishments of African-Americans across four centuries of warfare. This acclaimed series has generated intense support from scholars, students, and parents and has been endorsed by all of the major African-American veterans groups and civil rights organizations as well as by prominent senators and congressional representatives. A viewable/printable episode guide is available online. 6-part series, 45–131 minutes each.
FedFlix: African-Americans in World War II: Legacy of Patriotism and Valor
This documentary contains extensive film footage of African-Americans fighting in World War II in D-Day invasion of Europe, the Battle of the Bulge, Italy, and the Pacific. It features numerous interviews with veterans including Congressional Medal of Honor winners
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