Lisa Daniels: Black World War II veterans have largely been left out of historical accounts, but one historian is attempting to change that
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- A few years ago, historian Lisa Daniels discovered a fascinating morsel of buried history in her own family.
Daniels learned that her grandmother, Rita Hernandez, was a civilian riveter and blueprint reader during World War II, serving on the USS Franklin Roosevelt in the Brooklyn shipyard. Odessa Taylor-Marshall served as a medical technician with the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, which delivered backlogged mail to the troops in Europe from 1942-1945.
As a Black woman, Hernandez’ visage would never be immortalized in posters like “Rosie the Riveter.” She rarely talked with her family about her wartime service, in part because it had never garnered much recognition from anyone else.
The discovery of her grandmother’s service to America led Daniels to ask a couple of big questions: How many other Blacks have served the armed forces and what are their stories?
Currently a master’s student in social history at California State University-Sacramento, Daniels launched the Unsung Heroes Living History Project to answer those questions. The quest has led her to collect the oral histories of more than 280 Black veterans. She is chronicling the histories so they may be catalogued at the Library of Congress.
“For so many decades, historians have ignored the achievements of African-Americans, especially in the military capacity,” says Daniels.
“Even in 2006, [the Clint Eastwood movie] ‘Flags of our Fathers’ had no African-American soldiers, but I know they were there,” she says. “That’s heartbreaking, that in the 21st century, African-Americans are ignored in history.”
Read entire article at http://www.diverseeducation.com
Daniels learned that her grandmother, Rita Hernandez, was a civilian riveter and blueprint reader during World War II, serving on the USS Franklin Roosevelt in the Brooklyn shipyard. Odessa Taylor-Marshall served as a medical technician with the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, which delivered backlogged mail to the troops in Europe from 1942-1945.
As a Black woman, Hernandez’ visage would never be immortalized in posters like “Rosie the Riveter.” She rarely talked with her family about her wartime service, in part because it had never garnered much recognition from anyone else.
The discovery of her grandmother’s service to America led Daniels to ask a couple of big questions: How many other Blacks have served the armed forces and what are their stories?
Currently a master’s student in social history at California State University-Sacramento, Daniels launched the Unsung Heroes Living History Project to answer those questions. The quest has led her to collect the oral histories of more than 280 Black veterans. She is chronicling the histories so they may be catalogued at the Library of Congress.
“For so many decades, historians have ignored the achievements of African-Americans, especially in the military capacity,” says Daniels.
“Even in 2006, [the Clint Eastwood movie] ‘Flags of our Fathers’ had no African-American soldiers, but I know they were there,” she says. “That’s heartbreaking, that in the 21st century, African-Americans are ignored in history.”