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Posts tagged as “military history”

Historian and Author John Morrow Is 1st African American to Win Prestigious Award for Military Writing

By goodblacknews on November 21, 2019
Dr. John H. Morrow, Jr., recipient of the 2019 Pritzker Military Museum & Library Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing (photo via prnewswire.com)

via pritzkermilitary.org

Military historian and author Dr. John H. Morrow, Jr. is the 13th recipient of the Pritzker Military Museum & Library Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing. Morrow is the first African American to receive the award.

The Pritzker Literature Award—which includes a gold medallion, citation, and $100,000 honorarium—recognizes and honors the contributions of a living author for a body of work dedicated to enriching the understanding of military history and affairs. Morrow received the award at a ceremony in Chicago earlier this month.

“I am truly honored to accept the 2019 Pritzker Military Museum & Library Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing,” said Morrow. “Receiving the award after nearly fifty years of historical writing, teaching, and consulting constitutes the ultimate affirmation of my career as a scholar of the history of modern war and society.”

Author or co-author of 8 publications, Morrow is an accomplished military historian and respected professor. His work includes The Great War: An Imperial History, The Great War in the Air, Harlem’s Rattlers and the Great War (co-authored with Jeffrey T. Sammons) and German Airpower in World War I, among others. He has gained recognition for his ability to demonstrate how the past and the present intertwine inextricably.

Professor Morrow is a 1966 graduate of Swarthmore College, where he majored in history. He earned a Ph.D. in modern European history from the University of Pennsylvania.

In 1971 Morrow became the first African American faculty member in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He joined the faculty of the University of Georgia in 1988 as Franklin Professor, and in 1991 was named chair of the history department.

In addition to serving as the Franklin Professor and Chair of the History Department at University of Georgia, Morrow has also taught at the National War College, the Air War College, and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

He has most recently served on the History Advisory Committee of the Department of the Army, the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission’s Legacy Committee, and theFirst Flight Centennial Federal Advisory Board.

The Pritzker Literature Award is sponsored by the Pritzker Military Foundation. To learn more, visit www.pritzkermilitary.org.

African-American Civil War Soldiers Finally Recognized at Cleveland Site

By goodblacknews on February 13, 2013
Photo caption: Image - Mortar Practice Grouping - of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument on Cleveland’s Public

Photo caption: Image – Mortar Practice Grouping – of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument on Cleveland’s Public

It was in 2010 that researchers verified the service of around 140 black soldiers from the area who fought in the Civil War but were omitted from the tablets. The commission overseeing the monument said it will honor these men, mostly like by inscribing their names on the tablets, and others they uncover through additional research.

Black History Month: Remembering African-American Women who Have Served

By goodblacknews on February 6, 2013

When outgoing defense secretary Leon Panetta lifted the military ban against women serving in combat, a common phrase heard in response to his decision was this: women have been serving for decades in combat zones indirectly, and risking their lives. The lifting of the ban was merely a formality that in many ways acknowledged the bravery and sacrifices women in the military have been making for decades.
New York’s Daily News has published an essay with a similar theme in honor of black women to commemorate Black History Month. Much as women in general have been contributing without appreciation for their level of service, the significant participation of African-American women in the military has been largely overlooked — perhaps to an even greater extent.
“According to the Indiana-based Buffalo Soldiers Research Museum, African-American women have played a role in every war effort in United States history,” writes Jay Mwamba of the Daily News. “And black women participated in spite of the twin evils of racial and gender discrimination.”
Nwamba goes on to recount the heroic feats of black women who fought for the American way in creative, mind-blowing ways, pushing themselves to the limit to enhance various military efforts. Harriet Tubman, who acted as a spy, nurse and scout during the Civil War. Cathay Williams, who, after being freed from a plantation by a Union contingent, pretended to be a man so that she could enlist in a peacetime army.
“For two years — until she fell ill and her ruse was discovered — Williams served as a Buffalo Soldier with the 38th U.S. Infantry Regiment,” Mwamba relates.
Now that is truth being stranger than fiction.
But we don’t have to go back to 1866, the year Williams enlisted, to find African-American sheroes engaging in daring feats. As recently as 2009, U.S. Navy Vice Admiral Michelle Janine Howard used military might to wrestle with forces of darkness. The first black woman to command a Navy combat ship, Howard made headlines when her vessel tangled with Somali pirates in the process of rescuing the captain of a merchant ship from captivity.

Highway Marker in Kentucky Honors First African-American Civil War Recruits

By goodblacknews on February 4, 2013

Colored Re-Enactment RegimenThe First U.S. Colored Troops Recruits at Camp Nelson in Danville, Kentucky were honored at a dedication ceremony Monday. A historical highway marker was unveiled by re-enactors from the 12th U.S. Colored Heavy Artillery Regiment from Camp Nelson for the men.

On May 23, 1864, nearly 150 African-American men, mostly slaves, left Boyle County to march to Jessamine County to enlist in the Union Army. On the way, people from Danville threw stones, and shot pistols at the recruits. When they reached Camp Nelson, they were initially turned away by Union Col. Andew Clark because there was no policy for the recruitment of slaves. 

The men were accepted into the Army, which prompted a Union policy change allowing able-bodied African American men into the service. More than 5,000 U.S. colored troops were eventually recruited at Camp Nelson.  To see a video of the dedication, click the link below:
http://www.clipsyndicate.com/video/play/3927877?wpid=11176

'African Americans in World War II' Exhibit opens at Museum in Michigan

By goodblacknews on January 24, 2013

WWII African american exhib.jpg
Howard Lynch and Zack Skiles look at photographs at the Kalamazoo Valley Museum’s exhibit “African Americans in World War II”Nicholas Grenke | MLive

KALAMAZOO, MI – A mentor for Big Brothers Big Sisters  of Greater Kalamazoo pointed to a black and white photograph of U.S. Army General George S. Patton pinning a Silver Star Medal on an African American soldier during World War II.
“Thank God you’ll never have to see a war like that,” Howard Lynch said to the Little Brother he mentors, Zack Skiles.
The “African Americans in World War II” exhibit at theKalamazoo Valley Museum opened on January 12, displaying 40 photographs of how life was for men and women during the most widespread war in human history.
“It’s interesting we’re finally starting to feature African Americans in military history,” Lynch said. “It’s nice to see them get their day in the sun.”
The exhibit on the first floor gallery is on loan from The National Museum of Nuclear Science and History. On the walls are photographs of famous soldiers such as heavyweight boxer Joe Louis and Benjamin O. Davis, the first African American General Officer in military history, and also unknown privates engaging in everyday military life.