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Contact information: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/mss.contact
Catalog Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/mm2018086243
Collection material in English
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the LC Catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically.
The African American Soldiers in World War II Collection was given to the Library of Congress by Maggi M. Morehouse in 2018.
The African American Soldiers in World War II Collection was arranged and described by Connie L. Cartledge in 2018. Digital files were processed in 2021 by Rachel Telford, with the assistance of Kimberly Owens.
Digital files were received as part of the African American Soldiers in World War II Collection on a variety of storage media, each of which was assigned a unique digital ID number. Use the digital ID number to request access copies of the files associated with each media. A description of the standard processes taken on all born digital records can be found in the Processing History Note: Born Digital Collection Material at https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/eadmss.digital.
Audiotapes and videotapes have been transferred to the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division where they are identified as part of the African American Soldiers in World War II Collection.
Related collections in the Manuscript Division include the papers of Eugene E. Johnston and the records of the United States Army 92nd Infantry Division Collection (see https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/eadmss.ms008096).
The donor dedicates to the public domain such intellectual property as the donor may own in the African American Soldiers in World War II Collection.
The African American Soldiers in World War II Collection is open to research. Researchers are advised to contact the Manuscript Reading Room prior to visiting. Many collections are stored off-site and advance notice is needed to retrieve these items for research use.
Some interview recordings were received by the Library without documentation granting release of the interview. Access may be limited as a result. Researchers are advised to contact the Manuscript Reading Room for more information.
Digital files were created in a Windows operating system, version is unknown. The content is primarily audio files in .wav format and moving image files in .VOB format.
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Container or digital ID number, African American Soldiers in World War II Collection, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
The 92nd Infantry Division and the 93rd Infantry Division were racially segregated units of the United States Army during World War I and World War II. Nicknamed the "Buffalo Soldier Division," the 92nd was the only African American division in World War II to see combat in Europe as part of the Fifth Army. The 93rd Division, known as the "Blue Helmet" Division, acquired that sobriquet when the division fought in France in World War I. The 93rd Division served in combat in the Pacific Theater during World War II.
The African American Soldiers in World War II Collection spans the years 1918-2018, with the bulk of the collection dating from 1997 to 2010. It consists of correspondence, memoranda, oral history interview transcripts, reports, government documents, books, notes, photographs, articles, maps, a scrapbook, newspaper clippings, printed matter, digital files, and other material utilized by Maggi M. Morehouse to document the service primarily of two African American combat divisions in World War II, the 92nd and 93rd Infantry Divisions of the United States Army. The 92nd Infantry Division saw heavy combat during the Italian campaign from 1944 to 1945. The 93rd Division was reactivated in 1942 at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, and served in the Pacific Theater chiefly in construction work and in combat support positions. The collection is in English and is arranged into four groups: interviews and related material, Maggi M. Morehouse's personal file, subject files, and digital files.
Morehouse began researching the service of Black soldiers in World War II in 1995 for a graduate history seminar. She continued to study the topic for her master's thesis and dissertation which later became a book titled
Almost one half the collection is comprised of interviews by Morehouse with World War II veterans. The interview files include transcripts, correspondence, government documents, notes, photographs, unit histories, newspaper articles, and other material relating to the individual interviewed. Although both the 92nd and 93rd divisions were trained for battle, many of the men were assigned non-combat duties. Some of the training locales mentioned are Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Fort Benning, Georgia, and Fort Huachuca, Arizona. In the interviews the soldiers describe what it was like to serve in a segregated army and the racial attitudes they encountered at home and abroad. They describe life before and after the army. Serving in the military allowed the soldiers to experience the world outside their segregated communities and to obtain an education using the G. I. Bill. As a result many became part of the middle class and were active in the civil rights movement during the 1950s and 1960s.
Represented in the interviews are two women veterans, Susan Adams, who served in Germany in the Army Dental Corps, and Madine Davis Lane, who served as a nurse at Fort Huachuca, and in the China Burma India Theater, Egypt, Europe, and Okinawa. Some interviews include the participation of a soldier's spouse, and a few interviews consist solely of children discussing their father's military service. Filed at the beginning of the interviews are alphabetical lists of the soldiers interviewed by Morehouse. The lists also include a brief synopsis of the interview. One of the lists noted that there was an interview of Morehouse's father in the interview files. The Library, however, did not receive it. Quarterman's interview file does contain extensive military papers about his service and some original photographs of him. Additional interviewees include Hattie Mae Settles Allen, William S. M. Banks, Ogelsby B. Barrett, J. Herman Blake, Albert Burke, Leonard Cunningham, Roland Dix, Ruth Earl, Howard Fletcher, Arthur Goodwin, Felix Goodwin, Allen E. Green, Anna Hairston, Joseph Hairston, Charles Hanson, Dennette Arthur Harrod, Arnett Hartsfield, Cleather Hathcock, Howard Hickerson, Levi Hill, Reuben Horner, Jehu Callis Hunter, Fred L. Hurns, Ezell Jackson, Niani Kilkenny, Lawrence Johnson, Charles Lancaster, Robert P. Madison, Mick Marshall, John B. Mathews, William C. McCullough, Dorothy McIver, I. P. McIver, Thomas McKinney, Cullen McKissock, Donald McNeil, Harold Montgomery, Helen Montgomery, Spencer Moore, Susie Moore, William H. Payne, Nelson Peery, A. William Perry, Matthew J. Perry, Alex Pitcher, Edward Price, Joseph L. Stephenson, Thomas P. Stoney, Allen Thompson, W. E. ("Burg") Turner, Woodrow Walton, Fred Watt, Charles Wesly, Edgar Whitley, Clyde Whitted, Henry L. ("Hank") Williams, and Jim Williams.
Morehouse's personal file features her correspondence with veterans and research institutions pertaining to her research, her presentations, and writings about African Americans' participation in World War II, particularly her dissertation and book, and her work on an exhibit and book project entitled
The subject files provide further documentation of Morehouse's research and include files about African American history, military units, and the integration of the armed forces. Subject files featured are the 93rd Infantry Division and Fort Huachuca, Arizona, and the Buffalo Soldiers (92nd Infantry Division). The nickname Buffalo Soldiers was given by Native Americans to African American cavalrymen who served in the American West in the nineteenth century. The most comprehensive files are those about Fort Huachuca and the Buffalo Soldiers. Most of the photographs are copies from the 1940s. Photographs from the 1990s and 2000s mainly document reunions of the veterans.
The digital files mainly consist of audio and video files of interviews conducted by Morehouse with veterans. In some cases, recordings are incomplete or include distorted audio. Also included in the digital files are materials relating to the subject file and Morehouse's writings.
This collection is arranged alphabetically by type of material and therein alphabetically.