Wandering the Web: African American Vietnam Veterans

Abstract

African Americans fought in every United States conflict. For example, Crippus Attucks was shot in 1770 fighting against the British. In 1864, African American troops fought valiantly for the Union Army at Battle of Chaffin's Farm, Virginia. Fourteen African American soldiers receive a Medal of Honor due to their courage at this battle. 1 Unfortunately, these facts are not widely known. Just as unfortunate, many African American veterans are more likely to be incarcerated and homeless compared to their white counterparts. The following Websites provide information of the contributions of and resources for African American veterans who served in Vietnam.-ARN African-Americans in Combat-PBS-http://www.pbs.org/opb/ historydetectives/feature/african-americans-in-combat/-PBS aired a program on African Americans in Combat. This program details the history of African Americans in United States wars. Although the Website details the history of various United States wars and African American veterans' participation in them, the Vietnam War changed African Americans' involvement in the military. According to PBS, "the Vietnam War saw the highest proportion of African-Americans ever to serve in an American war. There was a marked turnaround from the attitude in previous wars that black men were not fit for combat-in the Vietnam War African Americans faced a much greater chance of being on the frontlines and consequently much higher casualty rate." African American Heroes-http://www.goarmy.com/black-history/ medal-of-honor.html-The Army of the United States military featured a Website in which it highlighted African Americans who received the Medal of Honor. GoArmy.com listed those servicemen who served and received the MOH from the Civil War to the Vietnam War. These campaigns include the Indian and Spanish American wars. Under each war, a MOH recipient's picture, rank, unit, citation for the circumstances in which the soldier received MOH and the significance of African Americans serving in the military is mentioned. national Association for Black veterans (nABvETS)-www. nabvets.org/index.php/about-nabvets/-provides information concerning military related health and homeless issues, as well as information for imprisoned African American veterans. The nABvET's mission states in part "the national Association for Black veterans, Inc. will provide strategic advocacy on behalf of its membership with Congress, the Federal Administration, state administrations and other agencies and organizations." NABVET.org includes articles of African American veterans and their struggles in and out of the military. The vietnam Center and Archive Celebrates Black History Month-http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/exhibits/blackhistorymonth/-One of Texas Tech University's archive focused on Vietnam veterans. In order to celebrate Black History Month, the Vietnam Center and Archive highlighted the contributions of African Americans in the Vietnam War. Some of the featured veterans are General Daniel "Chappie" James, who became the first African American ...