Fighting Germans and Jim Crow: Role of black troops on D-Day

By REBECCA SANTANA

Published June 04, 2019

World War II veteran Johnnie Jones, Sr. poses for a portrait at his home in Baton Rouge, La., Tuesday, May 28, 2019. Jones, who joined the military in 1943 out of Southern University in Baton Rouge, was a warrant officer in a unit responsible for unloading equipment and supplies onto Normandy. He remembers wading ashore and one incident when he and his fellow soldiers came under fire from a German sniper. He grabbed his weapon and returned fire along with the other soldiers. It's something that still haunts his memories. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Portrayals of the massive D-Day assault on Normandy often depict an all-white host of invaders, but in fact it also included many African Americans.

Roughly 2,000 African American troops are believed to have hit the shores of Normandy in various capacities on June 6, 1944. Serving in a U.S. military still-segregated by race, they encountered discrimination both in the service and when they came home.

But on Normandy, they faced the same danger as everyone else.

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