President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered the Army Air Corps to form an all-Negro flying unit in 1940. The Air Corps opened a new training base
at the Tuskegee Institute in central Alabama in order to t
Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., was born December 18, 1912, in Washington, D. C. His father, Benjamin O. Davis, Sr., was one of two black combat officers in the US Army. Davis Senior’s career was badly
Just as was true of white Americans, black Americans fought on both sides during the Revolutionary War. Also true of both races was the fact that Tory (pro-British) sentiment was strong in Georgia. He
The First Rhode Island Regiment in August of 1778 was a nearly all-black unit made up largely of recently freed slaves. Commended for valor by commanders in its own day, and a frequent reference for a
JUDE HALL was born at Exeter, N. H., and was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, under General Poor. He served faithfully eight years, and fought in most all the battles, beginning at Bunker Hill. He
The American Revolution created opportunities for some enslaved Blacks to obtain freedom. Self-interested economic and military reasons prompted the British to declare free, all enslaved blacks in Ame
John Murray, fourth Earl of Dunmore, the last royal governor of Virginia, in April 1772 expressed his conviction to Lord Dartmouth, Bntish secretary of state for the colonies, that “in case of a
From the earliest days of the colonies, people of African decent answered the call of the sea. By the 1830’s, over 20% of the sailors who claimed the coastal cities of America as their homeport were
Unlike the Continental Army, the Navy recruited both free and enslaved blacks from the very start of the Revolutionary War — partly out of desperation for seamen of any color, and partly because
The famed 73rd U. S. C. T. was first organized in the Confederate service by Governor Moore of Louisiana as the 1st Louisiana Native Guards in May of 1861. After the surrender of New Orleans they offe
