Courage in Full Color

Southern politicians railed, sometimes from the halls of Congress itself, against integrating the armed forces. They had a powerful ally in Secretary of War Henry Stimson. While blacks went to war, the political hubbub kept them relegated to service jobs, at least in the beginning. Wanting to fight, they found themselves wielding frying pans.

"The nation cannot expect the colored people to feel that the U.S. is worth defending if they continue to be treated as they are now," first lady Eleanor Roosevelt said shortly after the outset of the war.

Against such a backdrop, racial strife erupted in various corners of America. Louis and Robinson's tour in 1943 gained publicity all right, but not always for reasons the Army intended. While on a base in Alabama, they refused to board a segregated bus. A scuffle with white military police officers erupted. While the two were not arrested, the fracas was picked up by the Negro press.

Also in 1943, a group of white shipyard workers making war materials refused to work alongside blacks. A fight broke out involving hammers and pieces of metal, and 11 blacks were hospitalized. Work eventually continued, but the black workers were kept at a distance from whites.

A white welder wrote a letter to the local Mobile (Ala.) Register expressing his dismay: "We realize the fact that they are human beings, [but] we don't any more want to work or want our women to work alongside a Negro than you would want to take one into your dining room and sit him down between your wife and mother to eat dinner, or for your wife to invite the cook in for a game of bridge, or take her to the movies."

In time, black war heroes emerged. One of the first was Dorie Miller, a mess attendant aboard the USS West Virginia during the attack at Pearl Harbor. Miller, who was forbidden to operate weapons, grabbed hold of an antiaircraft gun and brought down two Japanese planes.

"He was actually the first hero of World War II," says Gail Buckley, author of "American Patriots: The Story of Blacks in the Military From the Revolution to Desert Storm." "The military did not release his name to the public until March of 1942. They had looked for a white hero. There was outrage from the black press." Miller became the first black man to win the Navy Cross.

In addition to Miller, there would be others:

In Italy on Dec. 26, 1944, 1st Lt. John Fox -- a member of the 92nd -- was surrounded by Germans. He directed American forces to fire from their planes, even though they warned him he wouldn't be safe. Fox replied it was the only way to stop the German advance. His body was found along with the dead German soldiers.

In Germany on March 23, 1945, a wounded Staff Sgt. Edward Carter trudged alone across an enemy battlefield and delivered two prisoners of war.

"There was Vernon Baker, of course," says Joseph Stephenson.

Second Lt. Baker crawled to an enemy position in Italy on April 5 and 6, 1945. He single-handedly killed a dozen German soldiers.