Integration of armed forces 60th anniversary
In an OpEd piece for the Richmond Times-Dispatch Charles Bryan, CEO of the Virginia Historical Society, writes about the 60th anniversary of of President Harry Truman’s order to integrate American armed forces: A common story was circulated then about a group of black army recruits who stopped at a roadside café in the South. They were […]
In an OpEd piece for the Richmond Times-Dispatch Charles Bryan, CEO of the Virginia Historical Society, writes about the 60th anniversary of of President Harry Truman’s order to integrate American armed forces:
A common story was circulated then about a group of black army recruits who stopped at a roadside café in the South. They were told to go to the back door to be served lunch while a group of German POWs was allowed to enter through the front and eat in the main dining room.
That story may be apocryphal, but it is symbolic of a profound paradox. While the United States threw all of its might into a war to defeat Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, it did so with large numbers of uniformed personnel who were denied the full fruits of American citizenship.
Click here to read the entire piece.
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