A black World War II veteran who was denied status as a U.S. Army officer because of his race finally received his commission 75 years later.
John Edward James, Jr., 98, was commissioned as a second lieutenant on Friday during a ceremony at the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
From Johnstown, James was drafted into the military in 1941. He spent his time serving in the war as a corporal, working as a typist with a quartermaster battalion supplying front-line combat units in North Africa and Italy for three years. After the war, he married and worked for the U.S. Postal service until his retirement in 1976.
He attended officer candidate school at Fort Benning in Georgia, but the day before he was supposed to be commissioned, he was told he wouldn’t be made an officer and was being transferred.
It was common during World War II for black soldiers to be denied commissions if they were to be assigned to a predominantly white unit. At the time, it was against Army regulations for white soldiers to be subordinate to blacks. – READ MORE
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