What We’re Reading: Acts of Heroism

Medal of Honor Directed by James Moll The Medal of Honor is the highest and most prestigious honor that can be awarded to members of the U.S. military. Only about 3,500 people have earned it since its creation during the American Civil War. It’s also the subject of a Netflix docudrama detailing the gallant stories of eight of the medal’s recipients. Each episode combines interviews with historians and military experts with reenactments of the recipients’ battlefield feats. The entire series is well worth watching, but one episode in particular stood out to me, in part because it describes the little-known history of Black soldiers who served in World War II. In September 1941, at 25 years old, Edward Carter joined the U.S. military. Three years later, at the height of World War II, he was deployed to Europe, one of almost 5,000 Black soldiers serving in the conflict. He was initially assigned a supply role – at the time, the U.S. Army was segregated, meaning Black soldiers were not allowed to participate in combat. But as the casualties mounted, the military needed replacement troops and agreed to send Black soldiers into combat so long as they agreed to relinquish their […]