Thank you for enlightening me as to the extent of discrimination and abuse black Americans endured while serving our nation. Hearing excerpts of the letters of young men, young American soldiers in the military expressing their frustrations as they we're putting their lives on the line for a country and military that didn't even treat them as equals or with the dignity white soldiers received. They were indeed fighting the war on two fronts. Under such demoralizing conditions they persevered and we're apart of bringing victory to the United States. Wasn't taught any of this in the public education system growing up? I realize racism is a touchy subject and definitely an embarrassment to the way my fellow Americans were discriminated against because they had darker skin than folks like me. However we need to acknowledge it talk about it, that way hopefully it'll never happen again. Appreciate you opening my eyes to a part of American history that should be taught openly in the public school system.
Now living in the Detroit area, I went to the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, where one exhibit focused on the Tuskegee Airmen, one of whom just passed locally at the age of 100, Lt. Col. Henry T. Stuart, Jr. His book, Soaring to Glory, is on my list to read. His team won the air competition the year after the war ended and yet he was denied any commercial pilot job and told by the white male HR man to "imagine" the fear the white passengers would feel to see a black man flying their plane. We're back to that centering again with Trump. I mean literally. It's what Trump ACTUALLY intoned after the helicopter/plane crash in DC. We owe ourselves such a better reality.
Oh, and the air competition was subsequently cancelled.
I am reminded of the Ken Burns piece on the Holocaust and learning about how U.S. policies and actions influenced Hitler's. We can work to be better and not repeat sins of the past.
Dorie Miller, who was a Navy cook (most black Americans serving in the military were relegated to kitchen duties) aboard the USS West Virginia during the attack on Pearl Harbor took over a .50 caliber machine gun and began firing on the Japanese planes. Miller was the first African American to be awarded the Navy Cross. And we have the Tuskegee Airman and the 6888 (on Netflix) to name a few. They were celebrated as heroes in Europe but, sadly, went home to a segregated America.
Thank you Ken for sharing with us a piece of history that many of us were not taught in school. There is a wonderful movie on Netflix called “The Six Triple Eight” about World War II’s only Women’s Army Corps unit of color. The treatment these women endured was despicable. After the war, the African American veterans were not able to receive the same access to the GI benefits as their white counterparts either. Many were denied housing loans and/or the GI bill for education. https://www.history.com/news/gi-bill-black-wwii-veterans-benefits
And yet it continues, now with trumps Executive orders, they are whitewashing the military schools. Our next generation will not know about the achievements and sacrifices that our African American brothers and sisters made to make America great and prosperous. It is up to all of us to help educate our grandchildren and other children about the black experience in America.
I also recommend "The Six Triple Eight" - and they were mentioned in the exhibit here in New Orleans as well - It is another piece of history we are just learning about.
Thank you Ken...we NEED to be reminded! This why I support boycotting all retailers who have shuttered their DEI Programs. This is a travesty! I have many many dear friends of color and it just incenses me to think of what they and their ancestors have experienced...and this is definitely something we were NEVER taught in school!
Hochul MUST fire him! Every day she drags her feet, she loses the support of New Yorkers! It's very clear, .the man is a criminal and must not be running NYC.
Four NYC Deputy Mayors resign over Eric Adams cooperation with the Trump administration in exchange for the DOJ dropping the charges against Adams. Corruption pays in this administration. Former Senator Bob Menendez -D-NJ is buddying up to Trump in hopes that Trump will commute the senator's 11 year prison sentence for bribery and corruption. We'll see if kissing the ring also gets Menendez a Get Out of Jail Free card.
And obviously - corruption is well and alive in both Democrat and Republican parties!! Equal opportunity here. Menendez should have been convicted the first time - and wasnt he voted back in AFTER that? Sort of telling as to voters intelligence!
Thank you Ken, for sharing the research at the National WWII Museum regarding policies that reinforced racist ideology and racist practices in the military and also in our social, political and economic fabric. Too many people, including the highest "government" official are still under the influence of these ideas and practices, while current "leaders" do their best to gut services and scientific advances to middle and working class American citizens and beyond our borders. These so-called "leaders" specialize in evading taxes, and deplore efforts to protect and expand natural and scientific resources. Whose backs are these supposed superior people living off of?
The discrimination faced by the black soldiers is historical fact, yet the MAGAverse would call it critical race theory or DEI or some such nonsense, and seek to erase it completely. As angry as that makes me, I can’t even imagine how angry it makes Mr. Cooke feel. One thing is clear to me, we cannot count on this current “government” to right any wrongs.
Thank you for more about our absolutely horrific history, which, sadly, continues. So many things we just let happen?? How can you blame anyone who is not "white" for feeling betrayed?
Anyone making it through the night without waking up with horror about what is going on right now? Just the effort against DEI is such a growing piece of the current terrorizing for all of us about what is happening to the entire government, and to we, the people.
Thank you for sharing your Sunday symposium experience. Very enlightening! Experiences like these show the importance of observing Black History Month, at a time when there are those who would eliminate its observance.
For too long now, too much of our nation's history has not only been ignored. It has been repressed. Now we face a second threat: as more of our history is coming to light, there are movements to rewrite the history—“white”wash it, if you will.
Again, A. Lincoln said it well: “History is not history unless it is the truth.”
Thank you for enlightening me as to the extent of discrimination and abuse black Americans endured while serving our nation. Hearing excerpts of the letters of young men, young American soldiers in the military expressing their frustrations as they we're putting their lives on the line for a country and military that didn't even treat them as equals or with the dignity white soldiers received. They were indeed fighting the war on two fronts. Under such demoralizing conditions they persevered and we're apart of bringing victory to the United States. Wasn't taught any of this in the public education system growing up? I realize racism is a touchy subject and definitely an embarrassment to the way my fellow Americans were discriminated against because they had darker skin than folks like me. However we need to acknowledge it talk about it, that way hopefully it'll never happen again. Appreciate you opening my eyes to a part of American history that should be taught openly in the public school system.
I respect this so much.
It amazes me that poc would even want to fight for a country that demonized them.
This is happening now with the trans people who want to serve.
Brave indeed.
Now living in the Detroit area, I went to the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, where one exhibit focused on the Tuskegee Airmen, one of whom just passed locally at the age of 100, Lt. Col. Henry T. Stuart, Jr. His book, Soaring to Glory, is on my list to read. His team won the air competition the year after the war ended and yet he was denied any commercial pilot job and told by the white male HR man to "imagine" the fear the white passengers would feel to see a black man flying their plane. We're back to that centering again with Trump. I mean literally. It's what Trump ACTUALLY intoned after the helicopter/plane crash in DC. We owe ourselves such a better reality.
Oh, and the air competition was subsequently cancelled.
The Tuskegee Airmen Won the First Air Force 'Top Gun' Aerial Gunnery Competition
https://www.military.com/history/tuskegee-airmen-won-first-air-force-top-gun-aerial-gunnery-competition.html
Another great article Ken. Thought provoking and maddening all at the same time.
I am reminded of the Ken Burns piece on the Holocaust and learning about how U.S. policies and actions influenced Hitler's. We can work to be better and not repeat sins of the past.
Dorie Miller, who was a Navy cook (most black Americans serving in the military were relegated to kitchen duties) aboard the USS West Virginia during the attack on Pearl Harbor took over a .50 caliber machine gun and began firing on the Japanese planes. Miller was the first African American to be awarded the Navy Cross. And we have the Tuskegee Airman and the 6888 (on Netflix) to name a few. They were celebrated as heroes in Europe but, sadly, went home to a segregated America.
Thank you Ken for sharing with us a piece of history that many of us were not taught in school. There is a wonderful movie on Netflix called “The Six Triple Eight” about World War II’s only Women’s Army Corps unit of color. The treatment these women endured was despicable. After the war, the African American veterans were not able to receive the same access to the GI benefits as their white counterparts either. Many were denied housing loans and/or the GI bill for education. https://www.history.com/news/gi-bill-black-wwii-veterans-benefits
And yet it continues, now with trumps Executive orders, they are whitewashing the military schools. Our next generation will not know about the achievements and sacrifices that our African American brothers and sisters made to make America great and prosperous. It is up to all of us to help educate our grandchildren and other children about the black experience in America.
https://open.substack.com/pub/popularinformation/p/the-whitewashing-of-military-schools?r=85dg&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post
I also recommend "The Six Triple Eight" - and they were mentioned in the exhibit here in New Orleans as well - It is another piece of history we are just learning about.
Thank you Ken...we NEED to be reminded! This why I support boycotting all retailers who have shuttered their DEI Programs. This is a travesty! I have many many dear friends of color and it just incenses me to think of what they and their ancestors have experienced...and this is definitely something we were NEVER taught in school!
Hochul MUST fire him! Every day she drags her feet, she loses the support of New Yorkers! It's very clear, .the man is a criminal and must not be running NYC.
Can’t NYC have a recall election? It would be better if his removal came from the people of the city itself!
Four NYC Deputy Mayors resign over Eric Adams cooperation with the Trump administration in exchange for the DOJ dropping the charges against Adams. Corruption pays in this administration. Former Senator Bob Menendez -D-NJ is buddying up to Trump in hopes that Trump will commute the senator's 11 year prison sentence for bribery and corruption. We'll see if kissing the ring also gets Menendez a Get Out of Jail Free card.
And obviously - corruption is well and alive in both Democrat and Republican parties!! Equal opportunity here. Menendez should have been convicted the first time - and wasnt he voted back in AFTER that? Sort of telling as to voters intelligence!
Sorry - last sentence is sort of blindingly obvious in our present time, isnt it?
Thanks for this important read. While you are watching Oscar nominated films, check out Flow if you are able to.
It is on my list to stream.
We watched it and LOVED it!! A little bit trippy, but visually stunning and a darn good story!
Thank you Ken, for sharing the research at the National WWII Museum regarding policies that reinforced racist ideology and racist practices in the military and also in our social, political and economic fabric. Too many people, including the highest "government" official are still under the influence of these ideas and practices, while current "leaders" do their best to gut services and scientific advances to middle and working class American citizens and beyond our borders. These so-called "leaders" specialize in evading taxes, and deplore efforts to protect and expand natural and scientific resources. Whose backs are these supposed superior people living off of?
I believe its US, Beatriz?
The discrimination faced by the black soldiers is historical fact, yet the MAGAverse would call it critical race theory or DEI or some such nonsense, and seek to erase it completely. As angry as that makes me, I can’t even imagine how angry it makes Mr. Cooke feel. One thing is clear to me, we cannot count on this current “government” to right any wrongs.
Thank you for more about our absolutely horrific history, which, sadly, continues. So many things we just let happen?? How can you blame anyone who is not "white" for feeling betrayed?
Anyone making it through the night without waking up with horror about what is going on right now? Just the effort against DEI is such a growing piece of the current terrorizing for all of us about what is happening to the entire government, and to we, the people.
Same story, different war, Albany resident Henry Johnson, WWI hero:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Johnson_(World_War_I_soldier)
He is featured in exhibit.
Thank you for sharing your Sunday symposium experience. Very enlightening! Experiences like these show the importance of observing Black History Month, at a time when there are those who would eliminate its observance.
For too long now, too much of our nation's history has not only been ignored. It has been repressed. Now we face a second threat: as more of our history is coming to light, there are movements to rewrite the history—“white”wash it, if you will.
Again, A. Lincoln said it well: “History is not history unless it is the truth.”