Soldiers of Freedom An Illustrated History of African Americans in the Armed Forces

by Wright, Kai

• ISBN13: 9781579122539
• ISBN10: 1579122531
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-09-09
• Publisher: Black Dog & Leventhal

Summary

Spanning from the American Revolution to the war in Afghanistan, this long-overdue, comprehensive history covers the full scope of African Americans' involvement in the armed forces during war and peacetime. Accompanying the informative text are 300 photographs and illustrations, most of them rare, some never before published. Highlights include accounts of: - The Rhode Island 1st Regiment, the first all-black regiment in the U.S. Army. - The New Orleans Battalion of Free Men of Color. - The Battle for Richmond, which resulted in the largest loss of black life in the Civil War. - The 1863 New York City Draft Riot. - The 1919 lynchings of black war vets. - The Navy's reluctant integration during World War II. - The dramatic story of the Tuskegee Airmen. - The war against terrorism in Afghanistan, and much more. The book also features portraits of famous and lesser-known soldiers, including Crispus Attucks, Salem Poor, John Brown, Sergeant William Carney, Dorie Miller and Colin Powell. This dramatic visual history is a moving tribute to the essential and often unsung contributions of African-American soldiers through every generation. AUTHORBIO: KAI WRIGHT is a freelance journalist based in Washington, D.C. His work on social and political issues relevant to communities of color around the world has appeared in the Chicago Tribune, The Village Voice and The Progressive, among other publications. He is the author of The African-American Archive: The History of the Black Experience Through documents.

Author Biography

Kai Wright is a journalist based in Washington, D.C. His work on social and political issues relevant to communities of color around the world has appeared in the Chicago Tribune, the Village Voice, and the Progressive, among other publications

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. vi
Introduction	p. vii
Choosing Sides: The Revolutionary War Era	p. 1
Wars of a Young Nation: Slave Uprisings and the War of 1812	p. 31
"If We Make Him a Soldier, We Concede the Whole Question" The Civil War	p. 55
Buffalo Soldiers: Westward Expansion and Empire Building	p. 93
Soldiers in Search of an Army: The World War I Era	p. 121
"Eleanor's Niggers" World War II	p. 153
"The Highest Standards of Democracy" Korea and the Cold War	p. 195
"I Ain't Got No Quarrel with Them Vietcong" Vietnam and Its Aftermath	p. 225
A New Beginning: The Modern Military	p. 255
Bibliography	p. 289
Photo Credits	p. 290
Index	p. 291
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