Franklin Williams

Photograph description: Sgt. Franklin Williams of the US Army 41st Engineers leads his platoon on a charge.
Fort Bragg, North Carolina,1942.

Photograph by Arthur Rothstein

Photo and narrative source: The Arthur Rothstein Legacy Project
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Arthur Rothstein arrived at Fort Bragg in 1942, on assignment for the US Office of War Information.

OWI needed photographs for a booklet to be titled “Negros and the War” that promoted enlistment into the Armed Forces and publicized President Roosevelt’s Executive Order 8802, banning racially discriminatory hiring practices in defense industries.

Despite facing prejudice and discrimination in civilian and military life, almost a million Black Americans contributed to the war effort by enlisting in the Army.

The overwhelming majority of the 900,000 African Americans that served in the Army, during the war, were limited to logistical jobs.

Eventually, Black troops served honorably in units that were employed in every theater and in almost every type of operation.

This included combat troops that fought in Northern Italy. The citizens of Tuscany have continued to hold Black soldiers in high esteem and have invited them to return to the region for commemorative celebration of their wartime role as liberators.