Edward Theodore Taylor Oral History Interview

Source catalog description

This description refers to material held by Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Visual details below describe the original material.

The oral history consists of 2016.129.6.1a and 2016.129.6.2a: two versions (unedited, and edited) of a single digital video recording. Edward Taylor was interviewed as part of the NMAAHC Donor Oral History Collection. Mr. Taylor donated a photograph of himself that was taken in Korea during the Korean War to the National Museum of African American History and Culture. He was 19 years old at the time the photograph was taken. Edward Taylor vividly recounts his childhood in the segregated world of Maryland’s eastern shore, including a particularly tragic incident involving racial violence. He continues on to tell the story of his experience as a combat infantryman during the Korean War, after the US military had been recently integrated. This story includes the tale of how he earned two Purple Hearts. Later, after he returns to the United States, he recounts a racial incident that lead him to discard his Purple Hearts in the Chesapeake Bay.

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