- Secretary Denis McDonough
VA is celebrating Black Veterans and encouraging all Veterans to tell their stories. Veterans are encouraged to visit (https://rly.pt/BlackHistoryMonth) to learn more or share their experiences with the Veterans History Project run by the Library of Congress (https://rly.pt/VeteransHistoryProject).
We invite you to attend:
» VA’s Center for Minority Veterans - Black History Month Program on February 1, 2024: Events Calendar - Center for Minority Veterans (https://rly.pt/CMVCalendar).
» Black History Month Virtual Outreach Symposium on February 8, 2024: Outreach and Events - Black History Month Virtual Outreach Symposium (https://rly.pt/BlackHistoryMonthOutreach).
With RallyPoint, we’ve previously partnered to answer Veteran questions in February 2023 with the VetXL: Minority Veterans Together event in honor of Black History Month. Some of the questions included:
“There is a great need for a panel to investigate the disparity in how disability cases are handled and awarded. There is a huge disparity between male and female ratings and between white and other races. So, if I am an AA female I am at the bottom. The state of Florida would be a good place to start.”
“I am African American disabled veteran residing in the state of Alabama. I and several other African American veterans in my state have been denied several times or delayed when trying to get disability benefits. I trained myself to do and help other veterans obtain disability benefits. I noticed that veterans that I help that are not African Americans get their benefits faster and with no problems. Some have not served any time other than training while on active duty. I truly understand systematic racism. My question is what can you or are you doing to help African American veterans in the southern states other than talk about the problems?”
What can we do, as a veteran community, to help promote these programs to minority veterans? How can we help?
We invite you to comment on these and the many more questions and feedback or ask new questions! Ask or comment here: VetXL: Minority Veterans Together Q&A (https://rly.pt/MinorityVetXLQA).
Get the benefits and services you’ve earned:
If you have any questions about how to access your VA benefits, please call us at 1-800-MyVA411 or visit us at VA.gov. You may also be interested in VA’s Center for Minority Veterans (https://rly.pt/VACMV).
Spread the word:
Please use these outreach kits to share Veteran resources with your networks.
The outreach kit includes flyers, social media graphics and suggested corresponding language, radio public service announcements (PSA), newsletter content and a sample blog post to help you spread the word.
» What can VA health care do for you? (https://rly.pt/VAHealthcareOutreachKit)
» What can VA disability compensation do for you? (https://rly.pt/VADisabilityCompensation)
“Once let the black man get upon his person the brass letter, U.S., let him get an eagle on his button, and a musket on his shoulder and bullets in his pocket, there is no power on earth that can deny he has earned the right to citizenship.”
U.S. Army Veteran
12 1/2 years Honorable Service ODS Vet : Support Garrison OEF/OIF Vet : Deployed to Theatre
No Political Affiliation
He Served His Country. In Return, His Country Sent Him Into Exile
The military relies on noncitizens to fill its ranks. No one is sure how many are later banished from the country they fought for.
I posted about the deportation of American Service members, previously here on Rally Point. Refresher :
"This ain't a brown thing, it's an American thing!"
Black Deported Veterans of America (BDVA) is a support group for those that served in the United States military, and were subsequently deported to the countries where they were born.
The predominant make up of the group is by those that identify as Black or African American...but support is open for ALL Deported Veterans.
This website is geared towards raising awareness of the plight of the Black Deported Veterans; bios and updates on select individual Black Deported Veterans; updates on changes in U.S. policy; and avenues for public and private support.
SOURCE : https://www.bdva.us
Black Deported Veterans of America -
Black Deported Veterans of America -
No Man Left Behind
I WILL NEVER LEAVE A FALLEN
COMRADE
1.) DHS, VA Launch New Online Services for Noncitizen Service Members, Veterans, and Their Families
“Veterans qualify for VA benefits based on their service to our country and never on their immigration status,” said Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough. “We are proud to work with our partners at DHS and DoD to honor the service of immigrant and noncitizen Veterans by ensuring that they have access to information about the care and services available to them.”
The new one-stop resource center will consolidate resources and forms from DHS, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the Department of Defense (DoD), and other agencies so noncitizen service members, veterans, and their families are able to easily find any needed forms and resources.
SOURCE : https://www.dhs.gov/news/2022/02/07/dhs-va-launch-new-online-services-noncitizen-service-members-veterans-and-their
2.) DHS, VA Announce Initiative to Support Noncitizen Service Members, Veterans, and Immediate Family Members
“Together with our partner the Department of Veterans Affairs, we are committed to bringing back military service members, veterans, and their immediate family members who were unjustly removed and ensuring they receive the benefits to which they may be entitled. Today we are taking important steps to make that a reality.”
“It’s our responsibility to serve all veterans as well as they have served us – no matter who they are, where they are from, or the status of their citizenship,” said Secretary McDonough. “Keeping that promise means ensuring that noncitizen service members, veterans, and their families are guaranteed a place in the country they swore an oath – and in many cases fought – to defend. We at VA are proud to work alongside DHS as to make that happen.”
SOURCE : https://www.dhs.gov/news/2021/07/02/dhs-va-announce-initiative-support-noncitizen-service-members-veterans-and-immediate
3.) Home
* Secretary's Priorities
* The Immigrant Military Members and Veterans Initiative, and how VA supports immigrant Veterans
The Immigrant Military Members and Veterans Initiative (IMMVI) launched in July 2021 when VA partnered with the Department of Homeland Security to consolidate relevant federal resources for noncitizen service members, Veterans and their families, caregivers and survivors. The Initiative also launched a portal for Veterans who need assistance in applying to return to the United States and for accessing VA benefits to which they may be entitled.
Late last month, as the VA lead for IMMVI, I joined the DHS team to visit deported Veterans, stakeholders and recently repatriated Veterans to promote
the new online tools that would help them. The trip included stops in California, Texas, and Tijuana, Mexico.
SOURCE : https://news.va.gov/102866/the-immigrant-military-members-and-veterans-initiative-and-how-va-supports-immigrant-veterans/
* Who is eligible for benefits?
All eligible Veterans are entitled to VA benefits regardless of their immigrant status. The same applies to those who live abroad.
Unfortunately, identifying these Veterans – especially deported Veterans – has been challenging.
VA has worked closely with LULAC, Repatriate our Patriots, American GI Forum and the American Legion for assistance, and with DHS to identify Veterans who have been deported and those who have been repatriated.
DHS, VA Launch New Online Services for Noncitizen Service Members, Veterans, and Their Families |...
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in partnership with the Departmentsof Veterans Affairsand Defense,launched two new resources tosupport ournation’s noncitizen service members, veterans, and their families.Through its Immigrant Military Members and Veterans Initiative (IMMVI), DHS will host a one-stop online center to consolidaterelevantfederalresources.
Yet White TRAITORS/White Domestic Terrorist both Active Duty & Former Military Personnel … that have murdered or caused the deaths of others … wasn’t hung/lynched.
All (3) of my Grandfathers served HONORABLE in the Army under these type of conditions from WAR II/Korea War. They shared their experiences with me.
Uncles :
(1) Marines * Vietnam Wars
(1) Navy * Vietnam War
(4) Army (2) * Vietnam War
None of the 3 of my Grandfathers wanted me to join the “white man army”, not because they didn’t enjoy the military … they didn’t enjoy the racist and racism during their service and didn’t want myself to experience it.
Yet here I am.
——————————————
The little-known mass hanging of black soldiers in Texas in 1917
Mildred Europa Taylor March 22, 2019 at 06:22 am
SOURCE :
https://face2faceafrica.com/article/the-little-known-mass-hanging-of-black-soldiers-in-texas-in-1917
A lynching kept out of sight
Pvt. Felix Hall died in the only known murder of its kind on a U.S. military base. How hard did the government try to find his killers?
Story by Alexa Mills
Published on September 2, 2016
SOURCE :
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/2016/09/02/the-story-of-the-only-known-lynching-on-a-u-s-military-base/
Remembering the black soldiers executed after Houston's 1917 race riot
February 01, 2018 · 4:00 PM EST
By James Jeffrey
SOURCE :
https://www.pri.org/stories/2018-02-01/remembering-black-soldiers-executed-after-houstons-1917-race-riot
*** Lynching has ALWAYS been a special message sent.
CENTER FOR CIVIL AND HUMAN RIGHTS: LYNCHING POSTCARDS OF INHUMANITY EXHIBIT: JANUARY, 2011
https://kathmanduk2.wordpress.com/2008/12/24/center-for-civil-and-human-rights-lynching-postcards-of-inhumanity-exhibit-january-2011/
NSFW: AMERICAN TERRORISM … LYNCHING POSTCARDS : In
the past century on American soil – the estimated 3,436 lynchings of black American men and women between 1882 and 1950
https://cvltnation.com/nsfw-american-terrorism-lynching-postcards/
http://www.cvltnation.com/nsfw-american-terrorism-lynching-postcards/
https://www.amazon.com/Without-Sanctuary-Lynching-Photography-America/dp/ [login to see]
http://www.gettyimages.com/photos/lynching?excludenudity=true&sort=mostpopular&mediatype=photography&phrase=lynching
http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/projects/2001/06/lynching/page1.shtml
The little-known mass hanging of black soldiers in Texas in 1917 -
The little-known mass hanging of black soldiers in Texas in 1917.Thirteen black soldiers were secretly hanged at dawn at a military camp outside San Antonio
American Serviceman Defends Muslim Worker
From the show "What Would You Do" an American soldier instinctively defends a Muslim deli worker being harassed.Jim On History Episodes: https://www.youtube....
To ALL RALLY POINT :
Integrity :
* INTEGRITY
Do what’s right, legally and morally. Integrity is a quality you develop by adhering to moral principles. It requires that you do and say nothing that deceives others. As your integrity grows, so does the trust others place in you. The more choices you make based on integrity, the more this highly prized value will affect your relationships with family and friends, and, finally, the fundamental acceptance of yourself.
https://youtu.be/bG6omxJJrw4
The Creed
* I am an American Soldier.
* I am a warrior and a member of a team.
* I serve the people of the United States and live the Army Values.
* I will always place the mission first.
* I will never accept defeat.
* I will never quit.
* I will never leave a fallen comrade.
* I am disciplined, physically and mentally tough, trained, and proficient in my warrior tasks and drills.
* I always maintain my arms, my equipment, and myself.
* I am an expert and I am a professional.
* I stand ready to deploy, engage, and destroy, the enemies of the United States of America in close combat.
* I am a guardian of freedom and the American way of life.
* I am an American Soldier.
SOURCE : https://www.odu.edu/armyrotc/about/creed#:~:text=everything%20you%20do.-,Integrity,say%20nothing%20that%20deceives%20others.
Warrior Ethos
What is it'
The Army Warrior Ethos states, "I will always place the mission first, I will never accept defeat, I will never quit, and I will never leave a fallen comrade."
The Warrior Ethos is a set of principles by which every Soldier lives. In a broader sense, the Warrior Ethos is a way of life that applies to our personal and professional lives as well. It defines who we are and who we aspire to become.
SOURCE : https://www.army.mil/article/50082/warrior_ethos#:~:text=The%20Army%20Warrior%20Ethos%20states,by%20which%20every%20Soldier%20lives.
By only retailing the familiar comfortable stories of the ( “African Americans/Black People/Colored/Negro/The African/The Blacks/The Coloreds/The “N-Word”/Mulatto) soldier experience … you’ve left them behind and they are forgotten.
You disgrace their service and contribution by only telling the part of their experience and sacrifices that’s palpable for self-comfort.
My postings are not about shaming, it’s about accountability and growing from these FACTS.
It’s your platform
V/R
U.S. Army Combat Veteran
12 1/2 years Honorable Service
ODS Vet : Support Garrison
OEF/OIF Vet : Deployed to Theatre
No Political Affiliation
*** Disclaimer : This a repost from myself, because people are tooooo comfortable with the status quo. ***
“I will not apologize for telling the FACTS, in a world that worship the lies”.
LIBRARY
OF CONGRESS
RESEARCH GUIDES
American Minority Groups in the Vietnam War: A Resource
Guide
American minority groups served in all branches of the military during the Vietnam War. This guide comprises Library of Congress digital resources and print materials related to the topic.
SOURCE : https://guides.loc.gov/racial-ethnic-and-religious-minorities-in-the-vietnam-war
2.) Serving without 'equal opportunity': Vietnam veterans faced racism at home and abroad
During the civil rights movement, Ohio veterans Joseph Jennings and Edward Morast risked their lives for a country that denied them basic freedoms.
SOURCE : https://www.dispatch.com/in-depth/news/2020/12/03/black-vietnam-veterans-systemic-racism-military/ [login to see] /
Research Guides: Racial, Ethnic, and Religious Minorities in the Vietnam War: A Resource Guide:...
American minority groups served in all branches of the military during the Vietnam War. This guide comprises Library of Congress digital resources and print materials related to the topic. American minority groups served in all branches of the military during the Vietnam War. This guide comprises Library of Congress digital resources and print materials related to the topic.
PVT. Booker T. Spicely's 1944 murder case revisited
Your source for breaking news and live streaming video online.https://abc11.com/murder-pvt-booker-t-spicely-durham-racial-violence-white-bus-driver/13811229/...
V2 : https://youtu.be/ox_rKFBooqo?si=uiv9yPRQAIX41NOl
1.) Fighting the Double Front: The Military Rights Movement of the World War II Era
On July 6, 1863, Frederick Douglass said, "Once let the black man get upon his person the brass letters US, let him get an eagle on his button, and a musket on his shoulder, and bullets in his pocket, and there is no power on earth or under the earth which can deny that he has earned the right of citizenship in the United States." '
For most of history, military service has been directly linked to citizenship and the rights that come with it.
Although African Americans have been involved in every American conflict since the Revolutionary War, they were particularly limited to support units because of the connection between fighting in military combat and civilian rights.
During the First World War, there was hope that honorable service of African Americans in Europe would help secure more rights in the military.
This would not be the case. African Americans learned during World War I that "you don't do your duty and hope for reward. You make your demand, strike your bargain, and then go fight."?
The Second World War would see active, organized resistance to the racial discrimination faced by those African Americans seeking to participate in the war effort.
While some historians have pointed to this time as the foundation of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s, others have attributed this time to disillusionment and futile struggle, brushing aside words like "watershed" and "turning point" to place emphasis on the later Civil Rights Movement.
The Second World War would see active, organized resistance to the racial discrimination faced by those African Americans seeking to participate in the war effort.
While some historians have pointed to this time as the foundation of the Civil Rights Movement of the This view, however, fails to recognize the impact the World War II experience had on African American society, the U.S. military, and American society as a whole.
To view this time exclusively in the shadow of the larger, more overt movement of the 1960s is to take away the very tangible effect these efforts had. By changing the lens through which we view the struggle of African Americans in the World War Il Era, we can see it not as a lead in to the Civil Rights Movement but as a stand-alone conflict with strategic and organized efforts to change the African American's place in the military and war industries.
Though undoubtedly linked to later movements, this unnamed fight of the 1940s is not simply the prelude to a bigger, better story.
This struggle of the 1940s can be identified as a Military Rights Movement with its own agenda, tactics, and palpable results, including the integration of American troops by President Truman in the years immediately following the conflict.
SOURCE : https://openspaces.unk.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1024&context=undergraduate-research-journal
2.) Pvt. Booker T. Spicely
Location: Durham County, North Carolina
Age: 34
Year: 1944
Pvt. Booker T. Spicely, 34, was a U.S. Army private on active duty who was killed in Durham County, North Carolina, in 1944.
On July 8 1944, Spicely, originally from Philadelphia and serving at Camp Butner, boarded a bus and sat in the second-to-last row. When more white passengers boarded, the bus driver, Herman Lee Council, ordered Spicely to sit further back. Jim Crow seating segregation was still enforced in North Carolina at the time.
The private initially protested, but eventually moved to the rear of the vehicle.
Council was employed by the Duke Power Company, who owned and operated the local buses.
When Spicely got off the bus, Council shot him twice, alleging that Spicely had started an argument and advanced on him.
Military police brought Spicely to Watts Hospital, where on account of his race he was refused care; he later died at Duke Hospital.
Council was arrested and charged with first-degree murder. The Duke Power Company paid his $2,500 bail. Council was permitted to drive his bus until the trial.
At trial, an all-white jury acquitted him after only 28 minutes of deliberation. The power company continued to employ Council, but switched his route.
For more information, search CRRJ’s archive.
SOURCE : https://crrj.org/efforts/booker-spicely/
3.) HISTORY
Black soldier killed during Jim Crow era now honored with historical marker in N.C.
DECEMBER 13, 20235:11 AM ET
HEARD ON MORNING EDITION
FROM
AMERICAN HOMEFRONT PROJECT
In 1944, the city of Durham, N.C., was riveted by the killing of a Black soldier – and the trial of the white bus driver who shot him. The soldier is now being honored with a historical marker.
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
In 1944, the city of Durham, N.C., was riveted by the killing of a young Black soldier and the trial of the white bus driver accused of shooting him. Now a group of activists has revived that soldier's story, and the state has unveiled a historical marker on the place he was shot. WUNC's Jay Price reports.
JAY PRICE, BYLINE: Private Booker T. Spicely was a 34-year-old cook from Philadelphia. He was stationed at Camp Butner, not far from Durham.
It was a July Saturday, and he had come into the city on a weekend pass to spend time in Hayti, the thriving community that had become known as the Black Wall Street.
But when some white soldiers boarded a city bus he was riding, Spicely fell afoul of one of the most notorious of the Jim Crow laws enforcing racial segregation in the South.
SOURCE : https://www.npr.org/2023/12/13/ [login to see] /black-soldier-killed-during-jim-crow-era-now-honored-with-historical-marker-in-n
4.) Discovery About Lynchings: Military Veterans Often Were Targets
As they returned home from war, proud of their service, black veterans in the south often encountered suspicion, resentment, and - in some cases - brutal violence.
"The military has always enjoyed a kind of deference and respect and honor," he said.
"And it was hard to navigate that for white Southerners when they were dealing with black veterans coming back home."
And many white southerners were willing to use violence to suppress it.
Like the 1946 killing of J.C. Farmer of Nash County, N.C., who was shot by a mob after a law officer apparently attacked him for laughing at a bus stop.
Some white southerners even considered it a provocation if a black man wore his military uniform in public, Stevenson said.
"Many of them would be asked to take off their uniforms and walk home in their underwear, naked, in some optic of humiliation," he said. "And they would resist and there would be conflict, there would be violence.
"Victory at war, victory at home"
World War II in particular was a turning point for African Americans, in part because so many served. At the beginning of the war, there were fewer than 4,000 black troops. By the end, there were more than 1.2 million.
Many had enlisted in hopes of better lives, gaining more respect. Instead, they were viewed with suspicion and resentment upon their return.
During World War II, black leaders in the U.S. began promoting what they called the "Double V" campaign. One V represented victory over fascism in the war, while the second called for victory over racism at home.
"Victory at home meant getting the right to vote you go fight for your nation and come back home and you're not allowed to vote because of your color," Stevenson said.
But the right to vote wasn't one that many white Southerners wanted to yield, and that may have played a role in one of the more notorious lynchings of the post-World War II era -- one that amateur actors and activists now reenact annually in Georgia.
A veteran named George Dorsey was killed, along with his wife and another couple, near a bridge at a rural area called Moore's Ford. Their killings came in 1946, during the heated atmosphere of the first election after the U.S. Supreme Court blocked white-only primaries.
A leading candidate was campaigning on a pledge to prevent black voters from casting ballots in primaries.
The two couples were dragged from a car near a rural bridge and shot dozens of times.
The fact that Dorsey had served during the war likely contributed to the reasons he was killed -- and amplified the injustice, said Cassandra Greene, a minister who directed the reenactment.
"You go in another land, and you literally were risking your life for this country, and then you come back and you end up dead in a field, for what?" Greene said. "He was a vet, he served this nation, but it doesn't matter what we do, we are always second-class to a certain element of our country."
SOURCE : https://www.wunc.org/military/2018-09-24/a-shocking-discovery-about-lynchings-military-veterans-often-were-targets?_amp=true
A decisive moment for the civil rights movement
The Moore's Ford killings, as they are now called, were so horrific that they all but overshadowed another lynching of a veteran just days earlier and a few counties away.
The Ku Klux Klan had threatened violence against African Americans who dared to vote, but Maceo Snipes ignored the threats and became the first black voter in Taylor County, Ga.
A day later, four white men drove up to his house, called him out on the porch, and shot him after a brief altercation. Snipes lingered in the hospital for two days, but the doctor claimed not to have any "black blood" for transfusions.
When he died, many of his family members fled to Ohio. He was buried in an unmarked grave after the black undertaker received death threats.
For years, Snipes' great niece, Raynita Alexander, has collected records and stories from family members to illuminate his life and death.
She said stubbornness was a family trait, and that from all she has learned, she has no doubt that his service fighting in the Pacific in World War II affected his decision to vote.
"I think it made him say he had a right," she said. "I really think that's what went through his mind. 'Why would you keep me from voting if I served my country?'"
openly accepting ldentity Politics and so many are afraid to
challenge it. Whether it be Color, Race, Sex, or Religion, all are
irrelevant while in "UNIFORM." Just think of that word. Two root
words from Latin that ultimately means "ONE FORM" The only
things that should ever matter to any one in the Military is Duty,
Purpose, Courage, Honor, and Oath to God and
Brothers/Country. For ultimately a Country is your Kin, your
Family to one degree or another. Instead of these multiple
'adjectives" the Uniform and Common Standards for all,
irrespective of their origins, race, color, or gender, should be
uniting factors in pursuit of those goals above all else. It is a
shame that we have forgot the most important lessons of the
past, not just our Country's History, but those Republics before
us that we modeled ourselves after.
Melvin Hill Tribute by Bonnie Cooper
SFC Hill as a member of MACV-SOG RT Florida made the first combat HALO jump in Army history 28 November 1970.Pictured with friends Cliff Newman, Jim "Wild Ca...
Don't forget to celebrate, honor, and remember my good friend and Brother in Arms, Master Sergeant Melvin Hill. One of the finest soldiers I ever served with!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McQ8hzmJ3YU