Most accounts of World War II that address the service of black soldiers were written by White officers, and often excluded, limited, or misreported African-American soldiers' contributions. This article chronicles an African-American elder's (William H. Thompson) memories of the war in his own words. We use the case of one “Buffalo Soldier” to explore core experiences of African American men during the Second World War and its aftermath. A key finding of our paper is that Mr. Thompson's narrative 1) reveals how elderly African-American veterans interpret and understand experiences of racism and war and, 2) acknowledges that DuBois' “double consciousness” persists as a function of self-protection and as a progressive Black masculinity.
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