Black members of the military served in every war, conflict and military engagement between 1861 and 1948. Beyond serving only as enlisted soldiers and non-commissioned officers, many also served as commissioned officers in positions of leadership and authority. This book offers the first complete and conclusive work to specifically examine the history of black commissioned officers.
The U.S. Armed Forces started integrating its services in 1948, and with that push, more African Americans started rising through the ranks to become officers, although the number of black officers has always been much lower than African Americans' total percentage in the military. Astonishingly, the experiences of these unknown reformers have largely gone unexamined and unreported, until now. The Black Officer Corps traces segments of the African American officers' experience from 1946-1973. From generals who served in the Pentagon and Vietnam, to enlisted servicemen and officers' wives, Isaac Hampton has conducted over seventy-five oral history interviews with African American officers. Through their voices, this book illuminates what they dealt with on a day to day basis, including cultural differences, racist attitudes, unfair promotion standards, the civil rights movement, Black Power, and the experience of being in ROTC at Historically Black Colleges. Hampton provides a nuanced study of the people whose service reshaped race relations in the U.S. Armed Forces, ending with how the military attempted to control racism with the creation of the Defense Race Relations Institute of 1971. The Black Officer Corps gives us a much fuller picture of the experience of black officers, and a place to start asking further questions.
Using a masterful combination of artistry and accuracy, Don Troiani has dedicated his career to transforming our understanding of the military soldier. Don now turns his talents to capturing the under-recognized African-American soldiers as they fought in the French and Indian War, the War of Independence, the War of 1812, and the American Civil War. Don’s battle paintings, figure studies, and artifact collection are teamed with historian John Rees’s insightful text. This long-needed work combines Troiani’s magnificent art—the dramatic battle paintings and authentically illustrated uniformed soldier studies—with Rees’s introductory chapters on the four wars. Using primary sources, Rees gives a true picture of the contributions of the many Black soldiers over the 100-year history. Together Troiani and Rees provide the most comprehensive, authoritative, and well-researched study of the Black soldier in early America.
This important work by the Army recognizes and highlights the contributions of African Americans to the military history of the United States. This is accomplished by providing a historic context on the African American military experience for use by Department of Defense (DoD) cultural resource managers. Managers can use this historic context, to recognize significant sites, buildings, and objects on DoD property related to African American military history by nominating them for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places. In this manner, civilian and military personnel currently serving in all major services will be made aware of the contributions of African Americans to our military heritage. While the focus of this work is on all-black military units, significant individuals will be recognized also. Chapter 1 - Introduction * By Steven D. Smith * Background * Objective * Historic Context Research Design * Project Scope * Methods * Report Organization * Summary * Chapter 2 - African American Soldiers Before the Civil War * By Elizabeth Arnett Fields * Early Colonial Conflicts * Service in Non-English Colonies * American Revolution * Blacks in the Armed Forces, 1783-1812 * War of 1812 * Black Soldiers in the Antebellum Period * Summary * Chapter 3 - African Americans in the Civil War * By Keith Krawczynski and Steven D. Smith * Introduction * Northern Attitudes Toward Arming the Black Man * Service in the Union Navy * Blacks in the Confederate Army * Blacks in the Union Army * Confederate Response to the Union Enlistment of African Americans * Black Soldiers Life and Labor * The Martial Spirit * Summary * Chapter 4 - The West 1865-1897 * By Elizabeth Arnett Fields * Introduction * The Creation of Black Regiments * Origin of the Term "Buffalo Soldier" * Cavalry Regiments * Infantry Regiments * Seminole Negro-Indian Scouts * Service in Other Branches of the Army * First Black Cadets at West Point * Problems Faced by the Black Troops In the West * Qualities of the Buffalo Soldiers * Summary * Chapter 5 - The Spanish American War and Aftermath * By Keith Krawczynski * Spanish American War * African American Attitudes Towards War with Spain * Black Regular Army Cavalry and Infantry Units * State Volunteer Units In the War * Immune Regiments * The Philippines * Reactions to Increased Racial Discrimination * Punitive Expedition * African Americans in the National Guard * Naval Service, 1865-1917 * Summary * Chapter 6 - World War I * By Keith Krawczynski * Declaration of War * African American Call to Arms * Recruitment * Appeasement of African Americans * Creation of Black Units * Demands for African American Officers * Training in the United States * Labor Battalions Overseas * Combat in France * Postwar 1918-1940 * Summary * Chapter 7 - African American Navy, Marine, Women's Reserves, and Coast Guard Service During World War II * By Keith Krawczynski * Introduction * Dorie Miller * U.S. Navy * Marine Corps * Coast Guard * Merchant Marine * Women's Reserve Corps * Summary * Chapter 8 - African Americans in the U.S. Army During World War II * By Robert F. Jefferson * Introduction * Quotas: Linkages of Black Intelligence and Combat Efficiency and Discrimination, 1920-1941 * Black Response to War and War Department Intransigence * The Stateside Employment and Training of Black Personnel and Units at Regular Army Facilities: 1941-1944 * Race, Labor, and War: The Employment of Black Troops in the African, Pacific, and European Theaters * Summary * Chapter 9 - Victory and Context: Recognition of African American Contributions to American Military History * By Steven D. Smith, Keith Krawczynski, and Robert F. Jefferson * The Integration of the Armed Forces 1946-1954 * Historic Context: Themes and Sites * Installation Survey * Summary
Aristotle accurately characterized humans as political animals. Whether through birth or from choice, people naturally cluster into groups for protection, advancement, and the pursuit of well-being. But Aristotle’s description does not hint at the powerful binary tension within this human tendency. Leaders enhance a social group’s sense of identity by appealing to the members’ commitments and shared traditions, to their hopes, strengths, sacrifices, and fears. Often, however, they cultivate not only an awareness of difference but even a sense of superiority, since for every social group there are those outsider, the “them”. Maintaining a group’s solidarity can too easily lead to the righteousness of intolerance towards those who are excluded. The reinforcement of group-identity in this way runs so deep in human nature that holding up a mirror to ourselves inevitably reveals a split image: the people we want to see and the people we’re glad we’re not. Intolerance: Political Animals and Their Prey presents stark examples of how the “us” have treated the “them”. The papers in this volume hold up various unflattering mirrors of intolerance from the areas of History, Law, Philosophy, Political Science, and Religion. The authors of these scholarly studies do not condemn. Rather, their research compels us to look at ourselves as the political animals we are. Intolerance: Political Animals and Their Prey is the product of a year-long multi-disciplinary collaboration between faculty members of Bard College and the United States Military Academy at West Point. The project involved parallel seminar courses at both institutions along with Joint Sessions, all focused on the central theme of intolerance, and culminated in a three-day academic Conference at Bard in the Spring of 2015. This volume inaugurates a new series being published by Hamilton Books under the general title, Dialogues on Social Issues: Bard College and West Point.
Collective Amnesia: American Apartheid is a comprehensive study of the treatment African Americans have encountered since their arrival in Virginia in 1619, a saga of racism and white supremacy. It is actual history, not the popular mythology about the Civil War and its aftermath taught in our schools. Numerous tables, photographs, maps, and charts make the study easy to read. The topic is extremely pertinent due to the four hundredth anniversary of African Americans’ presence in North America in 2019 and encouragement of racism from the White House. Chapters cover white supremacy and racism, slavery, the service of US Colored Troops in the Civil War, devastation of the South, evolution of emancipation, and Reconstruction and the Freedman’s Bureau. Other chapters address “redemption” and the “lost cause,” Jim Crow, blacks’ significant military contributions in the two world wars, the Great Migration, the civil rights movement, and the backlash that continues today. The book also addresses contemporary issues, including white supremacy, Confederate statuary, and evaluates the status of blacks compared to other groups in society. Note is taken of Professor James Whitman’s observation that Hitler admired Jim Crow and antimiscegenation laws, as well as Richard Rothstein’s study of federal and local housing law, documenting whites’ responsibility for creating inner-city ghettos.
