African Americans in the U.S. Army

African-Americans in the U.S. Merchant Marine and U.S. Maritime Service

Alcan Highway - 95th Engineer Regiment - Colored

American women have participated in defense of this nation in both war and peacetime. Their contributions, however, have gone largely unrecognized and unrewarded. While women in the United States Armed Forces share a history of discrimination based on gender, black women have faced both race and gender discrimination. Initially barred from official military status, black women persistently pursued their right to serve.

America’s first black aviator did not fly for the country of his birth America, but for his adopted country of France. A country for which he was severely wounded and received many medals for valor.

One of the fiercest battles of the Civil War was fought in Milliken's Bend, Louisiana between Confederate troops and black regiments of the Union Army. Most of the Colored infantry had minimal training, were outnumbered and ill-equipped. Nevertheless, in close hand-to-hand combat, they routed the "Rebs" and won respect previously denied by both sides of the conflagration.