The February 2 Museumgoer story in the New Orleans Advocate | The Times-Picayune (read it here) previews a free February 15 symposium at the National WWII Museum addressing African American experiences in World War II. The interview subject there is John H. Morrow. The symposium’s composition reaches back to World War I and beyond World War II to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s, in which many participants were WWII veterans.
“There is this sense on the part of many that, ‘We’ve done a very good job. We fought this war. We should get more equal treatment,’” Morrow says in the story. “It is a moment in history in which you’ve done your service, you’ve served your country in many different ways, on the home front and fighting on the front lines. When you come home to segregation and racist subordination, you are less inclined to accept it, particularly if you have been in combat.”
The symposium will also be offered virtually. Register for in-person or online attendance at nationalww2museum.org.
The new Museumgoer Podcast (listen here) visits the special exhibit at the museum, “Fighting for the Right to Fight: African American Experiences in World War II” with curator and restoration manager Cory Graff. An earlier panel session at the museum featuring both Morrow and Graff is here. An earlier Times-Picayune story about the exhibit is here. The exhibit is on view through July 27, then will travel. Accompanying the podcast, a few images from the exhibit are below.
Special thanks to Morrow and Graff, and to you for reading and maybe listening.
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Questions, comments, corrections: dwalkertp@gmail.com