It uses what we would now call colorblind language.

And so if you look at the language of the GI Bill, it never explicitly says that it's going to discriminate against Black troops. And Medgar Evers is one of thousands of black Americans playing this kind of on the ground role there. Without the work of these supply units, allied troops couldn't move, shoot, or eat. And so it really helped lay the groundwork for the kind of campaign that the frontline combat troops were able to make. They loaded them onto trucks called the Red Ball Express, which was a group of Black truck drivers who drove supplies all across Europe after D Day and truly what made it possible for the Allies to push into Germany in those months after the D Day invasion. His unit was in charge of unloading allied ships, taking off ammunition, other supplies, and then loading them onto trucks. And so the kind of work he was doing was indicative of the really important supply and logistical work that other Black troops did. They arrive in Normandy just days after the D Day invasion in June of 1944. He enlisted in 1943, and by 1944, his unit deploys to Normandy. So, he actually drops out of high school when he's 17 and volunteers for the Army. DELMONT: Medgar Evers’ story really encapsulates the much broader African American experience during the war. But it was the really vital work that helped to win the war. It's not the kind of stuff that shows up in Hollywood films.

And so they played really important roles behind the scenes in terms of loading and unloading ships, driving trucks, clearing jungles, building runways, a lot of the kind of grueling backbreaking labor that isn't glamorous. But generally speaking, the more than a million Black Americans who served in the military, in the Army, they were in supply and logistical roles. Later in the war, there were a number of Black units that participated in combat. Within the Army, by and large Black troops were not allowed to participate in combat for infantry units. That’s not until a couple years into the war that you get the Montford Point Marines, the first Black Marines in the Marine Corps. At the start of the war, the Marine Corps doesn't allow any Black men or women to serve at all. DELMONT: So, one thing that’s important to remember is the entire military is segregated in WWII.

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