![]() “Having dealt with direct discrimination myself by integrating the school system in North Carolina, and the racial injustice that my parents faced, I would love an investigation,” she said.Īaron Snipe, the spokesman for the U.S. The family later changed the spelling of its last name.Īdkins, of Upper Marlboro, Maryland, wants to know more about what happened. Nancy Croslan Adkins, the daughter of one of William’s brothers, said she was never told about the circumstances of her uncle’s death. Officers said they believed he had been caught in cross-fire between two groups of Black soldiers. Court martial evidence said only that he was found gravely wounded, with a bullet near his heart. That progress was too late for Crossland, a former railroad worker who was 25 when he died. Lloyd Austin, a Black man and retired four-star general in the Army, is now secretary of defense. President Harry Truman in 1948 ordered the end of segregation in the military, though that took years to fully achieve. “It was one of a number of incidents in the Black’s and America’s continuing crusade for freedom.” ![]() “The Bamber Bridge affair was more than just a minor incident in World War II,” Werrell wrote. Many of the officers commanding Black units were replaced and the army deployed more racially mixed police patrols. “They deserved the respect of the uniform that they were wearing.''īut the broader story is that senior generals, focused on improving morale and performance, quickly ordered changes in the treatment of Black troops. ![]() “It’s a sense of pride that there was no bigotry towards (the soldiers),” said Valerie Fell, who was just 2 in 1943 but whose family ran Ye Olde Hob Inn, the 400-year-old thatched-roof pub where the conflict started. The community has chosen to focus on its stand against segregation as it commemorates the 80th anniversary of what’s now known as the Battle of Bamber Bridge and America reassesses its past treatment of Black men and women in the armed forces. When Crossland’s niece learned about the circumstances of her uncle’s death, she called for a new investigation to uncover how he died. Private William Crossland was killed and dozens of soldiers from the truck regiment faced court martial. Ignoring pressure from British and American authorities, pubs welcomed the GIs, local women chatted and danced with them, and English soldiers drank alongside men they saw as allies in the war.īut simmering tensions between Black soldiers and white military police exploded on June 24, 1943, when a dispute outside a pub escalated into a night of gunfire. When an all-Black truck regiment was stationed there, residents refused to accept the segregation ingrained in the U.S. BAMBER BRIDGE, England - The village of Bamber Bridge in northwestern England is proud of the blow it struck against racism in the U.S.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |