Black Americans in the US Military from the American Revolution to the Korean War:
Introduction

Every war in American history has involved Black soldiers. In most conflicts they thought that their valiant efforts might gain them support, but political concerns seemed to always undermine them. The Black population has always been a minority in numbers, but their contributions have been equally important, though not equally recognized. The first fully integrated use of Black and White soldiers occurred in World War II, only by accident, as the reader will see below. Although Black soldiers had been renowned by fellow White soldiers in every conflict, the first large show of support for these men came in France at the end of World War I. The ratio of Blacks to the total U.S. military has twice been higher than the ratio of Blacks to the total U.S. population: World War I and the Vietnam War. Even this over-representation has just started to gain respect. In the Korean War, the U.S. forces were completely integrated for the first time. Only in World War II had the forces been integrated, only in the face of manpower shortages, following the Ardennes counteroffensive.

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