The Integration of the American Military
Hoping to court Black voters in the 1948 Presidential election, President Harry Truman issued Executive Order 9981, an act that significantly changed the armed forces and the Black experience in America.
Hoping to court Black voters in the 1948 Presidential election, President Harry Truman issued Executive Order 9981, an act that significantly changed the armed forces and the Black experience in America.
Without images of African Americans, depictions of important military moments are incomplete.
Some Black soldiers chose not to go home after the war, remaining in North Korea and China—behind the “bamboo curtain”—to escape racism in the United States.
Enslaved refugees sought freedom in Union contraband camps during the American Civil War.
From daring Civil War hero to Reconstruction-era political pioneer, the life of former slave Robert Smalls was as amazing as it was significant.
Despite systemic racism, Black soldiers forced their way into parachute training and took one major step toward integration.
Initially written off as “crazy,” the New Orleans Sniper’s ideas reflected a more widely held sentiment of rage among Black youth.
Galvanized by new electoral laws after the Civil War, thousands of Black men ran for public office both locally and nationally.
Josiah T. Walls was one of them.
“Buffalo Soldiers”—The 92nd Infantry Division—in Italy, 1944-45
Black Women and the Winning of World War II
© 2021–2024 This project is a collaboration of Getty Images and Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective.
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