In 1943 Black American soldiers faced off with white American military police during World War II on British soil.
Black American soldiers had to fight their own white American soldiers while in England where they were fighting the world war.
Why? Because the town, Bamber Bridge in Lancashire, was not segregated so they treated the black soldiers like all other races, but back in America segregation still existed so essentially the American army went to someone else’s country and demanded they adopt their racist practices
When the American military police found out that their own black soldiers were drinking at the same pubs as white people, they went in to arrest them. The people in the town got mad about that treatment and decided to then turn their pubs into “BLACKS ONLY DRINKING PUBS”
This pissed off the American military so guns went blazing and when word spread back at camp that black soldiers had been shot, scores of men formed a crowd, some carrying rifles and by midnight more American military police arrived with a machine gun-equipped vehicle.
The black soldiers also had no choice but to get rifles from British stores while others barricaded themselves back on base, so now it was American white soldiers verses American black soldiers This led to the death of one solider, the injury of seven, and 32 convictions.
Back in America the battle was hushed up because they didn’t want the country to find out that they were fighting their own soldiers which would anger the black population and weaken the morale in the country.
To prevent similar incidents happening again, he combined the trucking units into a single special command. The ranks of that command were purged of inexperienced or racist officers, and the MP patrols were racially integrated. Morale among black troops stationed in England improved, and the rates of courts-martial fell.
Although there were several more racial incidents between black and white American troops in Britain during the war, none was on the scale of that of Bamber Bridge
3 comments:
Amarika has always been racist, and it remains so today.
While progress has been made, something DEI was intended to further facilitate, under the Musk/FOTUS administration racism receives a wink and a nod.
As the racist Musk/FOTUS team attempt to delete equality, diversity, equity, and inclusion in Amerikan society.
Two of the least awakened or enlightened "men" in Amerikan society attempting to bring back the acceptance of racism and bigotry.
Thank you Shaw for highlighting this moment in history. It's a new one to me - and to an amateur historian something one hasn't read yet is an absolute treasure.
There is a moment in the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou where one of the characters - don't remember who specifically and my DVD player is in storage at the moment - tries to rile up the crowd against our heroes using racism and violence only for the violence to be turned against themselves with the crowd in turn running the racist out of town.
See, those who wish to dismantle our agencies and systems believe they are doing us great damage, and yeah, to the individual they are causing great harm. I can't tell you how many pleas I've heard from MAGA folks horrified that the face eating leopard they supported and voted for is, in fact, eating their face here/now. I'd laugh but the pathos is soul wrenching. We tried to tell them, they didn't listen.
My point is that government in and of itself is a tool - like a tomato cage helps a tomato plant rise up from the ground, protecting the fruit from ground crawlers and letting in light where there would be only darkness.
Right now all the FOTUS admin is doing is slashing at the decades of overgrowth but they've yet to do harm to the tomato cage itself. They've yet to reach the heart of ourselves, our constitution.
If they do reach our center, well that's a conversation for another day. As my family taught me, do not borrow trouble from tomorrow when there is plenty to go around here/now.
The resistance is alive and well, existing underground by necessity. There are splashes in the news, moments where our fellow citizens show the content of their character in spectacular ways. Every person who resists is a hero in my book - whether you make the news or not.
Final point? Even though it APPEARS everyone accepts the bullies way of thinking history proves if one voice cries out against the injustice of it all others will join. Be the light in the darkness. I know I'm letting my light shine.
The Musk/Trump Regime is erasing Black History Month from federal organizations, so we have to keep it alive.
The Musk/Trump Regime would have Americans believe that if these histories were taught in American schools, children would "hate" their country.
In fact, it would be the opposite. Children would see that, even though it took a century, America lived up to its promise of equal protection under the law (although there's been what some would call "slippage" and "backsliding" in many parts of the country) and that would make our children proud of their country and love their country even more.
You never heard of this shameful history (neither did I) because certain elements in our country didn't want us to see ourselves as we were and are.
Those are the folks who lie to themselves about "America the Beautiful" and don't want to work toward a "more perfect union."
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