Twice Forgotten

Journalists began to call theKorean War'theForgotten War'even before it ended. Without a doubt, the most neglected story of this already neglected war is that ofAfrican Americanswhoserved justtwo years after Harry S. Truman ordered the desegregation of the military.Twice Forgotten draws on oral histories ofBlack Korean Warveteransto recoverthe story oftheir contributions to the fight, the reality that the militarydesegregatedin fits and starts,and howveterans'service fitsinto the long history of theBlack freedom struggle.This collection of seventy oral histories, drawn from across the country, features interviews conducted by the author and his colleagues for their American Radio Works documentary, Korea: The UnfinishedWar,which examines the conflict as experienced by theapproximately600,000 Black men and women who served.It also includes narratives from other sources, including theLibrary of Congress'svisionary Veterans History Project.In their own voices, soldiers and sailors and flyers tell the story of what it meant, how it felt, and what it cost them to fight for the freedom abroad thatwastoo oftendenied them at home.