Muncie Times, Muncie, Delaware County, 9 January 1997 — Page 8

The Muncie Times, January 9, 1997, Page 8

TO BE EQUAL

Black soldiers finally getting recognition for military exploits

In the United States of today, millions readily cheer an African American general whose stellar record in wartime and adroit maneuvering of the corridors of civilian power in Washington have propelled him to the status of potential future contender for our nation’s presidency. But when we pay special homage to the service those in the military have given and the sacrifices they’ve made it is well to remember that for nearly two centuries little honor was accorded those Americans of African descent who had pledged their lives to defend the United States. Certainly, to many of them, the lyrics of the songs celebrating the freedom American society declared it stood for had an ironic—some would say, mocking-ring. The wrenching truth was that to Black America such words offered the description of not a reality but an ideal: African Americans intent on serving in the military often had to fight America’s military establishment for the honor of fighting for their country before they could actually fight the nation’s foes. That has changed in the last three decades, thanks to a vigorous affirmative effort by the nation’s armed services to integrate their ranks-right up to the very top. That new openness and commitment is one reason the efforts of African Americans to reveal and examine and memorialize the military service of their forefathers—and foremothers, who served as nurses and in other positions women were then limited to~have mushroomed in recent years. For example, more Americans now know of the World War Two exploits

of the Tuskegee Airmen, the first black fliers to serve in combat. Trained as a segregated unit at Tuskegee Institute (now University) in Alabama, they braved the scorn of a good part of the American military command as well as Luftwaffe bullets to complete an extraordinary record in the skies over Europe. Its fighter pilots, the 332nd Fighter Group, flew hundreds of missions escorting the heavy bombers sent to pound Nazi Germany into submission— and never lost a bomber to the enemy. More than 996 African American men became pilots through the Tuskegee program between 1942 and 1946, and about 450 saw action in the war; 66 were killed, and 33 were taken prisoner but later rescued. And many of those who returned went on to become pillars of their communities throughout the

country.

“We were aware of the burden we were carrying,” said veteran Lemuel Custis, during the group’s 25th annual national convention in Seattle.2 months ago, “but we were oh-so-determined to succeed. It was tough at times, but we had to proved to people we could do anything. All we wanted was an opportunity. When we finally got it, we

took it.”

Getting the opportunity was much more difficult in the 1770’s, when more than 5,000 enslaved and free African Americans, including one of my ancestors, joined the Continental Army to help the breakaway colony become a new nation, according to Wayne Smith, president of the Black Patriots Memorial Foundation. Nearly an equal number joined the British forces, who promised freedom for their help. After the war’s end, the

British kept their promise, expatriating their black allies to Canada and parts of

the Caribbean.

The Foundation, based in Washington, D.C., last month secured congressional and presidential approval for the minting of a Black Patriots Commemorative Coin. The coin will i be struck in 1998, the 275th anniversary of Crispus Attucks, a black Bostonian killed at the Boston Massacre in 1775, the first to die in the rupture between Britain and its American colonies. Part of the proceeds from it will go to building the Black Patriots Memorial on a site just east of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington. And 2 month ago the Civil War Memorial Freedom Foundation dedicated its memorial to the 178,000 black soldiers, 19,000 black sailors, and their 7,000 white officers who fought for the Union in the Civil War at a site in one of Washington’s historic black

neighborhoods. The memorial, also supported vigorously by today’s military, is in part an act of atonement: At the war’s end in 1865, Gen. William T. Sherman refused the black troops permission to march in the grand review, the celebratory parade in Washington. But these and other like activities look back with pride, not anger. And thus, they are a commemoration of a pledge made and a faith redeemed, of honor and sacrifice, finally, honored. This is the historical foundation, the real history of the Unites States of America, which can enable all of us to sing with unencumbered fervor:

My country tis of thee/Sweet land of liberty/Of thee I sing.

We salute the legacy left by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. ogether Each

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