Learning Commons | Cardinal Cushing Library

Black History Month: African Americans in Times of War

Crispus Attucks (1723-1770)
A widely lauded American hero, Crispus Attucks was the first person killed during the Boston Massacre and, in many historians eyes, the first American casualty of the Revolutionary War (Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d.).

• Boston Massacre / Crispus Attucks Monument
• Crispus Attucks Online Museum

Robert Smalls (1839-1915)
During the Civil War, Robert Smalls, a slave on the Confederate warship CSS Planter, commandeered the ship and sailed it to Union lines. He later became a U.S. Representative for South Carolina. (Lineberry, 2017).

• Robert Smalls in the House of Representatives

Benjamin O. Davis Sr. (1877-1970)
Davis was the first African American general in the United States Army, retiring in 1948 after 50 years of military service (Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d.).

• Benjamin Oliver Davis, Sr. at the U.S. Army Center of Military History

Charity Adams Earley (1918-2002)
Earley was the first African American officer in the Women's Auxillary Army Corps in World War II, leading the first battalion of African American women to serve overseas (Goldstein, 2002).

Colin Powell (1937- 2021)
Four-star general Colin Powell was the first African American secretary of state as well as the first African American chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d.).

• Colin Powell at the Joint Chiefs of Staff

Michelle Howard (1960- )
Howard was the first four-star Admiral in the United States Navy, and the first African American woman to captain a U.S. naval ship (Rafferty, n.d.).
 

1st Rhode Island Regiment
During the Revolutionary War, Rhode Island passed a law promising freedom to any slave who enlisted in the Union army. Though the law was later repealed, more than 100 now-former slaves enlisted, all of whom were placed in the 1st Rhode Island Regiment. Of the 225 men in the regiment, 140 were African Americans (Partin, n.d.).

54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment
The 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment was "the first military unit consisting of black soldiers to be raised in the North during the Civil War." They are most remembered for their participation in the assault on Fort Wagner in 1863 (Massachusetts Historical Society, n.d.).

Buffalo Soldiers
Following the conclusion of the American Civil War, recruitment began for the 9th and 10th Cavalry units. These two units, comprised entirely of African Americans, became world-renowned for their exploits in the American West (Hill, 1998).

• Buffalo Soldiers at Yosemite National Park

Montford Point Marines
In World War II, African Americans served in the United States Marines for the first time. Recruits were trained in Montford Point, North Carolina from 1942 to 1949 (Butler, n.d.). The image to the right, from Wikimedia Commons, shows Cpl. Arvin L. Ghazlo demonstrating a technique to disarm the enemy (Lance Cpl. Paul Peterson, 1942). 

• The Montford Point Marines at the University of North Carolina Wilmington Library

Tuskegee Airmen
The Tuskegee Airmen is a name given to a large group of African American military pilots and engineers from the 99th Pursuit Squadron, the 332nd Fighter Group, and the 477th Bombardment Group who fought in World War II, all trained at the Tuskegee Army Air Field (Tuskegee Airmen National Historical Museum, 2015).

• Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site
• Tuskegee Airmen at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum

• Experiencing War: African American Veterans Fighting Two Battles
  This Library of Congress collection features first-hand stories from African American Veterans of the Vietnam War, Korean War, and World War II.
• Fighting for Freedom: African Americans and the War of 1812
  This collection of articles from the National Parks Service covers the story of African American participation in the War of 1812.
• Gladstone Collection of African American Photographs
  "The William A. Gladstone Collection of African American Photographs provides almost 350 images showing African Americans and related military and social history. The Civil War era is the primary time period covered, with scattered examples through 1945." From the Library of Congress.
• New York Public Library: African Americans in World War I
  This NYPL online exhibit details the history of African American participation in World War I, including picture and video materials.
• Pictures of African Americans During World War II
  Hundreds of freely accessible audiovisual records from the National Archives.
• Selected Online Works by Civil War Era African American Women
  An extensive collection of free online primary source materials by and about Civil War era African American women from the Library of Congress.
• Stories from the Revolution: African Americans In The Revolutionary Period
  Part of the National Parks Service's Stories from the Revolution series, this essay details the lives of African Americans during the revolutionary period.
• The African American Odyssey: A Quest for Full Citizenship
  A showcase of the African American collections of the Library of Congress. This collection—which covers the Civil War, World War I, and World War II—includes " books, government documents, manuscripts, maps, musical scores, plays, films, and recordings."
• The American Veterans Center Celebrates Black History Month
  Audio material related to the "numerous stories of black patriots, many of whose stories have historically been overlooked" from the American Revolution to today.
• The Veterans History Project
  Browse digitized audio and video interviews of American Veterans.

• Center for Minority Veterans (CMV)
  Division of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
• National Association for Black Veterans
  The National Association for Black Veterans, Inc. (NABVETS) provides "strategic advocacy on behalf of its membership with Congress and the federal administration; state administrations; county and city legislators; and other agencies and organizations."