Flying Home and Other Stories

“Flying Home” takes place during World War II, during which more than one million African American men and women served in the military. They battled not only fascism overseas but also racism within the United States and its military. The US Army, Navy, and Marine Corps all segregated Black Americans into separate units because of the belief that they were not as capable as white service members.

The military believed that Black soldiers were unsuited to be officers, so most Black servicemembers were assigned to labor-intensive service positions instead of active combat roles; for example, they worked as cooks and mechanics, built roads, and unloaded supplies from airplanes and trucks. On the Alaska Highway project, the military took steps to position African American troops away from towns and cities to appease locals. (White locals routinely harassed the Black soldiers.)

In the rare occasion that Black soldiers were officers, they were only permitted to lead other Black men. Segregation was rampant in almost every facet of military life—there were separate hospitals, barracks, blood banks, and more for Black and white soldiers. This segregation remained until 1948, when President Harry Truman signed Executive Order 9981, officially desegregating the military. Various accounts relate how German prisoners of war could enter facilities reserved for white Americans that Black servicemen could not patronize.