Of Black America: The Black Soldier

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.

A documentary film with the title "The Black Soldier," from the television series Of Black America. It consists of a single reel of black-and-white 16mm acetate film with optical sound. The third segment of a seven-part docu-series on CBS, The Black Soldier aired during the summer of 1968. This short documentary is narrated by Bill Cosby and tells the history of Black soldiers serving in the military. Beginning with the Revolutionary War, the film explains the critical role that Black soldiers played in fighting the British despite enslavement, discrimination, and segregation. The documentary goes on to discuss the participation of Black Soldiers in the Spanish American War, WWI, and WWII and the fight to end segregation within the military. At the end of the film, the narration states that the purpose of the documentary is to dispute the claim that Black soldiers in the US military did not exist prior to the Vietnam War.

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