Half American : the epic story of African Americans fighting World War II at home and abroad

Author

Matthew F Delmont

Call Number

• 940.5403 D359 (CEN, OSH)

Browse similar titles by call number

Publication Information

[New York, New York] : Viking, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, [2022]

Physical Description

xxi, 374 pages ; 24 cm

Summary

"The definitive history of World War II from the African American perspective, written by civil rights expert and Dartmouth history professor Matthew Delmont. Over one million Black men and women served in World War II. Black troops were at Normandy, Iwo Jima, and the Battle of the Bulge, serving in segregated units and performing unheralded but vital support jobs, only to be denied housing and educational opportunities on their return home. Without their crucial contributions to the war effort, the United States could not have won the war. And yet the stories of these Black veterans have long been ignored, cast aside in favor of the myth of the 'Good War' fought by the 'Greatest Generation.' Half American is American history as you've likely never read it before. In these pages are stories of Black heroes such as Thurgood Marshall, the chief lawyer for the NAACP, who investigated and publicized violence against Black troops and veterans; Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., leader of the Tuskegee Airmen, who was at the forefront of the years-long fight to open the Air Force to Black pilots; Ella Baker, the civil rights leader who advocated on the home front for Black soldiers, veterans, and their families; James Thompson, the 26-year-old whose letter to a newspaper laying bare the hypocrisy of fighting against fascism abroad when racism still reigned at home set in motion the Double Victory campaign; and poet Langston Hughes, who worked as a war correspondent for the Black press. Their bravery and patriotism in the face of unfathomable racism is both inspiring and galvanizing. In a time when the questions World War II raised regarding race and democracy in America remain troublingly relevant and still unanswered, this meticulously researched retelling makes for urgently necessary reading"--

Contents

• Black Americans fighting fascism in Spain
• Fighting for a chance to fight
• March on Washington
• At war down south
• Remember Pearl Harbor, remember Sikeston too
• Double victory
• Dirty work in distant lands
• Tuskegee takes flight
• War work
• Riot
• Combat
• Civil rights battlefronts at home
• Mutiny
• D-Day and the miracle of supply
• Victory in Europe
• Victory in the Pacific
• Homecoming
• We return fighting.