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Before World War II the armed services was racially segregated. Black soldiers were given aid duties and were considered not fit for combat. When America entered WWII in 1941 this attitude of blacks being inferior to white combat soldiers started out to change. The government put together all black combat units to test the abilities of the black soldiers. These African-American men not only showed their patriotism and willingness to die for their country but also displayed their courage and determination to win the war for democracy.
Over 2.5 million blacks signed up for the draft. The USMC started out enlisting black soldiers in June 1942. It was shortly after that all the armed services enlisted black soldiers into their ranks. Units of black soldiers from all the service segmentations were involved in combat. The 15th African-American P-51 fighter bomber group is one such unit that flew missions in the European front and the 24th Infantry Division unit that fought the Japanese for the duration of the war.
During the war there were numerous feats of bravado performed by these soldiers. Many of these acts of bravado may have gone unnoticed but there are those who received the Medal of Honor for their courage and defense of their country. People like First Lieutenant Vernon J. Baker who showed courage and leadership in Viareggio, Italy on April 5th and 6th, 1945. Staff Sargent Reuben Rivers who was killed in action on November 19th, 1944 received a citation for his bravado in battle. His tank was shelled by the Germans when he continued firing on their positions covering his tank division’s retreat. Private George Watson who was aboard a ship that was bombed by the enemy. He saved assorted soldiers who couldn’t swim by helping them get to the safety of a life raft. Private Watson lost his life as a result of his heroic actions. In all their were 7 African-Americans Medal of Honor recipients.
Celebrate these great American patriots and the brave men and women who serve in all our military branches, honor all the heroes of our armed forces. If you know any person that served their country for the duration of war or is a fellow member of the armed forces serving in the states show your appreciation for their devotion, their steadfast to stand with their country in defending it is freedoms. Visit Mall4Men and check out their the military clocks, military watches and men’s military rings that they offer at reasonable prices. They also have a Gifts4Her section for that particular lady in your life.
African American Heroes World War
The African-American contribution to winning World War II has never been celebrated as profoundly as in Fighting for America. In this inspirational and unambiguously personal tribute, the necessary percentage played by black servicemen and -women in that cataclysmic conflict is brought home.
Here are letters, photographs, oral histories, and rare documents, collected by historian Christopher Moore, the son of two black WWII veterans. Weaving his family history with that of his persons and nation, Moore has developed an unforgettable tapestry of sacrifice, fortitude, and courage. From the 1,800 black soldiers who landed at Normandy Beach on D-Day, and the legendary Tuskegee Airmen who won ninety-five Distinguished Flying Crosses, to the 761st Tank Battalion who, beneath General Patton, helped liberate Nazi death camps, the priceless crusade of black Americans to defend democracy is captured in word and image.
Readers will be introduced to some unheralded heroes who helped America win the war, including Dorie Miller, the messman who manned a machine gun and downed four Japanese planes; Robert Brooks, the primary American to die in armored battle; Lt. Jackie Robinson, the future baseball legend who faced court-martial for refusing to sit in the back of a military bus; an until now forgotten African-American philosopher who helped save some lives at a Japanese POW camp; even the author’s own parents: his mother, Kay, a WAC when she met his father, Bill, who was portion of the celebrated Red Ball Express.
Yet Fighting for America is more than a testimonial; it is also a troubling story of unfathomed contradictions, of a country still in the throes of segregation, of a domestic battleground where arrests and riots occurred simultaneously with alien service–and of how the war helped spotlight this disparity and galvanize the need for civil rights. Featuring a distinctive perspective on black soldiers, Fighting for America will move any reader: all who, like the author, owe their lives to those who served.
From the Hardcover edition.
From Publishers WeeklyThe Allied victory in WWII was a triumph of logistics as well as combat power. Moore (Jubilee: The Emergence of African American Culture) looks deeply and broadly into those attempts and comes up with a major addition to the literature. He finds African-American units building the lion’s share of the logistical infrastructure in Europe and the Pacific, as well as transporting everything from artillery pieces to bottles of plasma. Among combat units, the intimate Tuskegee Airmen and the Black Panthers of the 761st Tank Battalion are here, but so are the 93rd Infantry Division, which never fought as a unit in the Pacific, and the 92nd Infantry, much maligned for one failure in an other than as supposed or expected respectable record in Italy. African-American WACS saved the European theater’s mail system from total chaos. A great galore black Americans who served endured incidents of racial discrimination; Moore vividly depicts their coping strategies. The son of two WWII veterans who met in Europe, Moore contributes a somewhat rambling essay on the development of his own racial identity, but scores of letters and photographs counterbalance that minor deficiency.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From BooklistMoore’s painstaking exploration and personal history (his parents met while serving in the military in World War II) add enormously to this tribute to the contributions of black soldiers for the duration of that war. Moore focuses on the reluctance, and even resistance, to send black troops into military service, based on the myth of their incompetence and cowardice. Thus, black soldiers fought the war on two fronts–at home and abroad. When the war effort required the deployment of black troops, they were in the first place assigned only support roles of preparing roads and getting furnishes to advancing troops, but they proved themselves to be brave fighters as their roles evolved into combat. Moore highlights people who discerned themselves in the war, drawing on antecedently unpublished materials from person soldiers and black platoons. Moore chronicles the bravado of the troops as well as their struggles for equality at home, where they continued to be treated as second-class citizens. Photos, newspaper clippings, and letters add to the rich portrayal of the heroic service by black soldiers for the duration of World War II. Vernon Ford
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
ReviewPraise for Fighting for America
“A rare, thoughtful, and without apparent effort readable account of America’s invisible soldiers. This book speaks for the a great deal of thousands of men and women patriots whose stories stay untold.”
–JAMES MCBRIDE
Recollections from the author’s father and mother
“I think the initial man in my life ever to call me an American, and say it like I was as good as any American he was likely to find, was a Jewish man. We took our trucks to get them out of the concentration camps. I had just got out of the truck, and a Jewish man, who looked like a dead man walking, came right up to me. He called me ‘American,’ and he fell into my arms. He hugged me like not a single soul ever hugged me in my life. I would like to think this man liked me for being a good Christian, but I think he loved me for being an American.”
–S. Sgt. BILL MOORE, (3438th Quartermaster Corp, 1943—45)
“My four brothers already were serving and scattered abroad in the war– Charley was in the Philippines, Rick in Europe where he got a Purple Heart for injuries he suffered, Harry was in the Air Force, and Erskine was helping to build the Burma road where he got malaria. This was in all likelihood as much a reason as any that prompted me to think with regards to going into the service myself. There was patriotism in my decision too, because we were a patriotic people.”
–Pfc. NORMA KAY DEFREESE MOORE (U.S. Army, 1943—45)
From the Hardcover edition.
African American Heroes World War Pic
African American Heroes World War Pic
African American Heroes World War Photo
African American Heroes World War Pic
Most helpful client reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful.
 Nothing short of an splendid walk through history
By Memphis RAWSISTAZ
Chris Moore’s chronicle of black patriotism from Colonial times through World War II is not one thing short of an magnificent walk through history. As a history buff I found myself eager to turn each page. I would sit with highlighter in hand marking special passages as altho I was still a college student studying for an exam. Moore has a special way of transporting the reader back in time, permitting one to closely listen the voices of those who wrote the letters featured in the book. I never realized just how much we as a persons contributed to the early Colonial battles that set America as a country free.
Even though black Americans have fought and passed away in each war this country has faced, only the heroes of recent history get recognition. Yes, we grew up with a noesis of Crispus Attucks, but what with regards to heroes like Seaman Doris ‘Dorrie’ Miller and Pfc Robert H. Brooks. Miller was aboard the USS West Virginia, when she was attacked December 7, 1941 by the Japanese at Pearl Harbor. Miller, a naval messman, managed to save various lives when he shot down four enemy planes with a .50-caliber anti-aircraft gun he’d never been trained to use. Miller was later staged the Navy Cross for his efforts. I was never taught in school with regards to Pfc Robert H. Brooks was the firstborn soldier to die at Fort Stotenbugh in the Phillipines, when the Japanese attacked December 8, 1941.
There was also airmen Eugene Bullard, who was not permitted to fly combat missions for America. Bullard was however, welcomed by the French army and became an ace pilot for the duration of World War I. Bullard flew more than twenty missions versus the Germans and was credited with shooting down at least five enemy aircraft. Moore introduces us to black female heroes like pilot Willa Beatrice Brown. In 1941 Lieutenant Brown became the initial woman officer in the U.S. Civil Air Patrol. Throughout WWII Brown served as an instructor in the Civilian Pilot Training Program.
Moore’s exploration on the Red Ball Express, the 320th Barrage Ballon Brigade, the 161st Chemical Smoke Generating Company and the innumerable Engineer Aviation Battalions such as the 810th and the 811th paved the way for Allied victory. Moore allows the reader to feel the shear determination of black enlisted men and women who fought a duel war. One war was versus the Germans and Japanese and the other war was versus the prejudice they faced each and everyday from their fellow American service men and women. Although this book started out as a tribute to Moore’s parents S.Sgt. Bill Moore and Pfc Norma K. DeFreese Moore his four year traveling turned out to be so much more. Though not written as a text book, this book will have to be incorportated into the half written history books our children are taught from. It is a book that my family will read again and again.
Reviewed by Felecia R. Ellis Memphis RAWSISTAZ
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
AFRICAN AMERICAN HEROES!
By Grand-daughter of a Soldier
To any individual with any mutual sense, it ought to come as no surprise that African American soldiers carried the load, literally, for the duration of the Second World War. FIGHTING FOR AMERICA does a superb and meticulous occupation in detailing all of the some ways which black soldiers helped to win the war. It is plainly a national shame that most black soldiers who fought in WWII have gone to their graves without any acknowledgement for their bravado and heroism. This book is loaded with bonafide heroes who are worthy of our applause and any monument which may be erected in their honor. I commend this book highly.
5 of 6 humans found the following review helpful.
 Interesting
By Armchair Interviews
What an interesting subject, staged with historical perspective in Fighting for America, written by Moore to honor his GI Joe Mom and Dad.
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