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On March 21, 2007, Congress along with President George W. Bush awarded the Tuskegee Airmen the Congressional Gold Medal. Former Secretary of State and retired General Colin Powell claimed that without the heroics of the Tuskegee Airmen, he would not have achieved his respective titles. The president expressed hope that the medal would stand as an apology for the mistreatment committed by the government they so valiantly served. Dr. Roscoe Brown, a former commander of the 100th Fighter Squadron, 332nd Fighter Group, proclaimed that "because of our great record and our persistence, we inspired revolutionary reform which led to integration in the armed forces in 1948."' The participation of black men in the armed services, risking their lives for the security of America, has often been credited for attenuating racial tensions. As seen from the sentiments expressed at the Congressional Gold Medal ceremony, it is widely acknowledged that the contradictions of fighting European racist fascism during World War II while simultaneously upholding racial prejudice at home accelerated civil rights reforms.2 But military service did not always lead to greater freedom.
Three decades before Dr. Brown and his fellow Tuskegee Airmen took to the skies, the 369th Infantry, an all black regiment from New York immortalized as the Harlem Hellfighters, firmly stood as the last line of defense between advancing German forces and Paris. Few African American soldiers in World War I had an opportunity to earn the battlefield commendations of the 369 , but the very things that set them apart make the 369th a useful window into the limitations of racial change in the era. No other African American regiment garnered as much attention or praise, and accordingly make the most appropriate corollary to the celebrated Tuskegee Airmen. Though the 369th left France as the most decorated unit in the war, unlike the Tuskegee Airmen they would not see their sacrifices lead to racial progress. In fact, with the end of World War I the United States experienced a sharp rise in racial violence and a dramatic resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan. Understanding the failure of the United States to make the world safe for democracy both at home and in Europe brings us face to face with racial violence, the great tragedy...