Author Interview with Matthew Delmont about “Half American: The Epic Story of African Americans Fighting World War II at Home and Abroad”

The official start of the US involvement in World War II against the Axis Powers was after the attack on the Naval fleet at Pearl Harbor by the empire of Japan in December of 1941.

When images of that time of war are conjured, the pictures of “The Greatest Generation” are most likely to come to mind…

…troops storming the beaches of Normandy on D-Day…

…or the raising of the American flag at Iwo Jima.

But those snapshot are just that…curated moments in time.  They don’t fully represent the breadth of the kinds of people who wore military uniforms back then.

First off, all of the faces that come to minds most are probably white faces. But it turns out that that isn’t only inaccurate, but it’s a deliberate mis-telling of the history.

Not only did the military service include Black Americans, but they served in racially segregated regiments that had to fight the powers on the home front to be able to fight the war abroad…

Distinguished Professor of History at Dartmouth College, Dr. Matthew Delmont, has researched and penned his fifth book, “Half American”. There, he brings light to the purposely hidden history of much of the Black American struggle at home for the opportunity to fully participate in the Second World War, the struggle while prosecuting that same war, and how that two front fight led to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s in the US.

Now, a One on One discussion with author Matthew Delmont about his book “Half American: The Epic Story of African Americans Fighting World War II at Home and Abroad” is next.