The USS Mason (DE-529) was an Evarts-class destroyer escort and was the second ship of the U.S. Navy to be named Mason. The USS Mason was one of the two U.S. Navy ships during World War II with a mostly African American crew. The other … Read MoreThe USS Mason (DE-529) (1943-1945)
Tuskegee Airman Rudolph “Val” Archer was born in Woodlawn, a South Side neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois on April 13, 1929 to Osborn Archer, railroad laborer, and artist and homemaker Ruth Luella Seay. Ruth Archer passed away when Rudolph was twelve, and he began to deliver … Read MoreRudolph “Val” Archer (1929-2020)
In 1941 the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), the construction agent for the War Department, maintained construction battalions that were deemed less valuable than units in other Army branches. Coupling this practice with the racial beliefs dominant in the Jim Crow South, it … Read MoreThe 97th Engineering Regiment (1941-1948)
With a small cadre of white officers and Black NCOs, the segregated 93rd Engineer Battalion (600 men) was activated on February 10, 1941 and quartered in an undesirable mud-filled rear corner of Camp Livingston, Louisiana. Most of the enlisted men were from Mississippi and Louisiana. … Read MoreThe 93rd Engineer Regiment (1941-1945)
Prezell Russell Robinson, longtime President of St. Augustine’s College (later University) was born in Batesburg, South Carolina, on August 22, 1920, to Clarence Robinson and Annie Foulks Robinson. He is the eighth of nine children. Robinson’s early education began at Leesville Colored Primary School in … Read MorePrezell Russell Robinson (1920- )
Conductor, clarinetist, and composer W. Rudolph Dunbar was born on November 26, 1907, in Nabaclis, Guyana. At the age of nine, his musical genius apparent, he was invited to serve as a clarinetist in the British Guiana Militia Band. After a brief apprenticeship for stellar … Read MoreW. Rudolph Dunbar (1907-1988)
Frank Calvin Mann was an engineer and designer who worked with entrepreneur and industrialist Howard R. Hughes on projects that included the Spruce Goose, at the time the largest airplane ever built. Mann was born on November 22, 1908 in Houston, Texas. Mann first displayed … Read MoreFrank Calvin Mann (1908-1992)
In their latest book on the Black soldiers who helped build the Alcan Highway during World War II, authors Christine and Dennis McClure encountered a story of injustice in the frigid north. See a description of their new book, A Different Race, to get a … Read MoreInjustice in Alaska Territory: The World War II Court-martial of Ten Black Soldiers Who Helped Build the ALCAN Highway
George Watson was a United States Army private who during World War II was responsible for rescuing several soldiers from drowning at sea near Porlock, Harbor, New Guinea. Watson was born in 1915 in Birmingham, Alabama. He attended Colorado A&M University (now Colorado State University) … Read MoreGeorge Watson (1915-1943)
Ruben Rivers was a United States Army staff sergeant who served as a tank company platoon leader during World War II. Rivers was born in 1921 to Willie and Lillian Rivers in Tecumseh, Oklahoma. He grew up nearby Hotulka, Oklahoma where he and his eleven … Read MoreRuben Rivers (1921-1944)
