AdvertisementSubmit a letter:Email us letters@nybooks.comReviewed:Half American: The Epic Story of African Americans Fighting World War II at Home and Abroadby Matthew F. DelmontViking, 374 pp., $30.00In the summer of 1944 First Sergeant Jefferson Wiggins was just outside the French town of St.-Lô, on his way to help liberate the Netherlands, when a woman offered him a bottle of calvados. “You don’t understand how it is to have your freedom, to lose it and then to regain it,” she told him. Wiggins, an African American soldier from Dothan, Alabama, was in his late teens. He did not speak...…AdvertisementSubmit a letter:Email us letters@nybooks.comReviewed:Half American: The Epic Story of African Americans Fighting World War II at Home and Abroadby Matthew F. DelmontViking, 374 pp., $30.00In the summer of 1944 First Sergeant Jefferson Wiggins was just outside the French town of St.-Lô, on his way to help liberate the Netherlands, when a woman offered him a bottle of calvados. “You don’t understand how it is to have your freedom, to lose it and then to regain it,” she told him. Wiggins, an African American soldier from Dothan, Alabama, was in his late teens. He did not speak...WW…

How Republicans applied old school racism to new demographics, and lostby Last modified on Wed 20 Jan 2021 22.18 ESTJohn Lewis, then just 25 years old, led the way. “I can’t count the number of marches I have participated in in my lifetime, but there was something peculiar about this one,” he wrote in his memoir, Walking With the Wind. “It was more than disciplined. It was somber and subdued, almost like a funeral procession.”When they reached the crest of the bridge, they were faced with the full force of Alabama’s police. After a brief standoff, the troopers charged. Lewis recalled “the...…How Republicans applied old school racism to new demographics, and lostby Last modified on Wed 20 Jan 2021 22.18 ESTJohn Lewis, then just 25 years old, led the way. “I can’t count the number of marches I have participated in in my lifetime, but there was something peculiar about this one,” he wrote in his memoir, Walking With the Wind. “It was more than disciplined. It was somber and subdued, almost like a funeral procession.”When they reached the crest of the bridge, they were faced with the full force of Alabama’s police. After a brief standoff, the troopers charged. Lewis recalled “the...WW…

Many have attempted to claim that ‘things are better here’ for black people than in the US. This ignores both Europe’s colonial past and its own racist present. By Gary Youngeby Last modified on Mon 22 Jun 2020 07.45 EDTThe news moved Petts, who was white and British, deeply. “Naturally, as a father, I was horrified by the death of the children,” , in a recording archived by London’s Imperial War Museum. “As a craftsman in a meticulous craft, I was horrified by the smashing of all those [stained-glass] windows. And I thought to myself, my word, what can we do about this?”Petts decided to...…Many have attempted to claim that ‘things are better here’ for black people than in the US. This ignores both Europe’s colonial past and its own racist present. By Gary Youngeby Last modified on Mon 22 Jun 2020 07.45 EDTThe news moved Petts, who was white and British, deeply. “Naturally, as a father, I was horrified by the death of the children,” , in a recording archived by London’s Imperial War Museum. “As a craftsman in a meticulous craft, I was horrified by the smashing of all those [stained-glass] windows. And I thought to myself, my word, what can we do about this?”Petts decided to...WW…