African Soldiers in WWII

As soon as I saw this topic I knew it was something particularly interesting to me, my grandpa was in WWII and received a Purple Heart amongst other honors and I know how important that is to him. The thought of someone being willing to risk their life yet not be rewarded with the same honors because of skin color is appalling to me.

African-American soldiers played a significant role in World War II with more than half a million serving in Europe. However, even though the numbers were high there was still discrimination. Just because the numbers say that black were a part of WWII it doesnt mean that they were out on the front lines of combat. They were mostly given support duties, and were not allowed in units with white soldiers, I know that this had been a widely known fact but just actually researching and reading about it blows my mind. War seems to be such a primal to me, its always over essentially some product or land and the winner is whoever does more damage; I just dont understand how even in such a do or die situation people were still influenced by racial and social stereotypes. So its okay to blow eachother's heads off but heaven forbid I stand next to a black guy?? COME ON!...
That changed in 1941, when pressure from African-American civil rights leaders convinced the government to set up all-black combat units, as experiments. They were designed to see if African-American soldiers could perform military tasks on the same level as white soldiers.
A man named Woodrow Crockett was a part of that experiment. He was a Tuskegee Airman, and flew 149 missions between 1944 and 1945, protecting harbors in Italy and American bombers from German fighter planes. I can only imagine the pressure these men had weighing on them, not only were they fighting for their lives but they also had to try to prove their abilities to their fellow countrymen--something that Im sure alot of white soldiers took for granted! One of the most amazing things that I read about this group was that in 200 missions they never lost a bomber to enemy fire.

Now of course, even despite all of the accomplishments Ive mentioned (in addition to many more Im sure) no African American soldier was ever awarded the Medal of Honor during World War II. In fact it wasn't even until 1993 that the Army did some research to prepare a study "to determine if there was a racial disparity in the way Medal of Honor recipients were selected." Eventually the research team agreed that there was disparity and recommended the Army consider a group of 10 soldiers for the Medal of Honor. Of those 10, seven were recommended to receive the award. In October of 1996 Congress passed the necessary legislation which allowed President Clinton to award these Medals of Honor since the statutory limit for presentation had expired. The Medals of Honor were presented January 13, 1997 and of all seven, Vernon Baker was the only recipient still living and present to receive his award...sad.

I guess all we can do now is be thankful that we no longer live in world like that, even though these medals and awards are just material possessions what they represent is so much more than that. To risk one's life and get no recognition for it (AND be doubted the whole time), these men really were and are heroes...