War stories tell of progress
blacks have made since WWII

JERRY WOLKOWITZ Robert H. Yancey (left) leads a panel discussion last week at Spotswood High School about the role of African Americans in wars since World War II. With him are (from left), Richie Alexander, Okie Okanura and Martin Farricker, all of Woodbridge.

SPOTSWOOD — Seeing Colin Powell holding high office may make some Americans forget, but there was a time when black soldiers could not even fight alongside whites, let alone represent the American people.

During a Feb. 28 presentation at Spotswood High School, students from the History Club got a firsthand account of the internal military war African-Americans once had to fight. The event was hosted by the club in honor of "Black History Month" and featured both black and white soldiers who fought during the Korean War, which was America’s first desegregated war.

About 35 students listened to the veterans, who came dressed in their military uniforms.

"We fought a two-pronged war," said Robert Yancey, an African American who spent his career in the military. "One war was for American freedom, and one for our own freedom."

Yancey also spent time in World War II and Vietnam, and thus saw firsthand the progress blacks made in the military from the 1930s through the 1970s. During World War II, blacks were confined to their own regiments and were not allowed to fight alongside whites.

"With every war we fought in, things got a little better," he said.

"Our whole objective today was to carry on our legacy and remember the contributions that blacks have made to this great country," he said after his presentation. "Freedom is not free. Freedom comes with a price. The people we had here today are the people who paid that price."

Yancey said he started his military career when he was drafted at age 18 to fight in World War II. A Navy man during World War II, he fought as part of the Army’s 24th Regiment during the Korean War.

"I’m a Buffalo Soldier; it was an all-black regiment," he said. "It had black troops but white officers until 1951."

During the Korean War, President Harry Truman desegregated the military, and the 24th infantry became part of the 14th, which had been all-white. By that time, however, Yancey’s term was up, and he had headed back to the States.

Frank Yusko, a Spotswood High School history teacher and adviser to the History Club, said Truman’s desegregation of the military was very progressive for the time.

"In many respects, the military was ahead of the loop," he said. "In 1947, Truman desegregated it, but that took a while to implement."

He said the decision to desegregate was not a humanitarian move so much as it was an attempt to improve the American fighting machine.

During World War II, the performance level of some all-black units was poor because they got the worst equipment and leaders, he said.

"The only way to avoid that was to desegregate," Yusko said.

He said the military’s main concern was simply winning wars, and its chances improved with desegregation.

In addition, there was pressure from public figures like Eleanor Roosevelt, as well as the civil rights movement, which had been building for years even though many ignored it.

"There was also pressure from certain politicians, particularly Northern ones," he said.

Ironically, while the playing field was getting more level in the war zones, things at home were as repressive as always, Yancey said. That realization struck him as soon as he left Korea and was stationed in Georgia.

"Thank God, you survived the war, but you came home to the prejudice," he said. "I experienced the old Southern mentality, which I wasn’t used to because I was born and raised in Philadelphia."

"So when he stepped on the base, the stripes didn’t matter," Yusko said.

Yancey said the bases in Georgia still had dual facilities so that blacks and whites would not be together, despite Truman’s edict. He said the extra facilities were expensive to keep though, which is what led to their finally becoming desegregated in the 1960s.

Black soldiers made progress in the military because they showed they had as much fighting ability and responsibility as whites, he said.

"They were great fighters, carried responsibility and proved themselves," Yancey said. "Therefore, they could not be denied."

— Vince Todaro