This past Memorial Day, I wrote an article about Henry Lincoln Johnson, the diminutive Albany native whose courage on the killing fields of France during World War I earned him the Croix de Guerre with Golden Palm (France’s highest award). He belonged to New York’s 369th Infantry Regiment, an all-black unit which collectively received the Croix de Guerre. The unit was under fire continuously for an American record 191 days! Sadly, neither Johnson nor any of his fellow “Harlem Hellfighters” received even one medal from their own government.

In addition to being subjected to incessant acts of discrimination, Johnson and the others never received disability pay or pensions. He died at 38, broke and alone in New York City – an alcoholic and in constant pain from the residual effects of the 21 wounds he received in combat.

This year, after decades of campaigning by his advocates, Johnson was awarded posthumously the Medal of Honor.

At the outbreak of World War II, one would have thought that in this self-proclaimed land of liberty and justice for all, our government would have come to terms with its blatant racism and offered African-Americans equal status with whites in the military. In reality things were worse. For example, of the more than 160,000 men who hit the beaches of France on D-Day, there was but one combat battalion of African Americans-the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion. Its unique mission was to raise hydrogen-filled balloons armed with bombs over the beaches to protect troops and materiel from German dive-bombers.

Another example is Waverly Woodson, World War II’s equivalent of H.L. Johnson. As described by Linda Hervieux in her book “Forgotten: The Untold Story of D-Day’s Black Heroes,” Woodson, a 20-year-old pre-med student at Pennsylvania’s Lincoln University, quit school and enlisted in the Army at the end of 1942. His reason was fraught with irony, “To defeat the Nazis and their brutally racist worldview.”

On June 6, 1944 he was one of five medics of the 320th aboard a landing craft tank (LCTs were the largest boats landing on the beaches that day). By the time it reached sand, his craft had been blown apart and most of its occupants were dead. Waverly survived but not unscathed. His buttocks and inner thigh had been ripped open by shrapnel. After making it ashore, he, along with fellow medics Gene Worthy and Alfred Bell, set up a crude medical station and went to work. Fighting the rising tide and German snipers, they performed their miracles for 30 straight hours. Wounded twice more, Woodson “pulled out bullets, patched gaping wounds, dispensed blood plasma and amputated a right foot.” And oh yeah, he resuscitated four drowning men.

SSgt. Woodson died on Aug. 12, 2005. Despite being nominated for the Medal of Honor, his stone in Arlington tells passersby that he received a Bronze Star and Purple Heart for his heroism. Like Johnson and his brothers, no African-Americans were awarded the Medal of Honor during World War II. And as with Johnson, a half century after the fact, seven African Americans were awarded the medal following an Army study recommending such. Woodson was not among them. As Hervieux writes, “For the second time in his long life, Waverly Woodson was forgotten.”

Later in his life while reflecting on his experiences on Omaha Beach and the fact that a black man was saving white men’s lives, Woodson stated, “at that time they didn’t care what color my skin was.” Too bad that wouldn’t be the case after he came marching home. Thanks to all our veterans who served our country – especially those of color who sacrificed so much for so little.

RJ Lenarcic is professor emeritus of history at Herkimer College.