As I observed activity on social media and coverage on television regarding the commemoration and remembrance of D-Day I noticed that something was missing and it was the faces of African-American GI’s who fought in World War II.

A quick google search of African-American GI’s and D-Day revealed one recent article from a French news station that was reporting on the work of a French scholar in African American literature by the name of Alice Mills in obtaining pictures of Black GI’s to be included in a billboard memorial of portraits in celebration of the 50th anniversary for D-Day in the city of Caen, France. The billboard, until Alice’s observation of the exclusion of African American GI’s and her work to rectify it, was one noticeably absent of Black faces. Even more troubling was the the reaccuring statements from White historians that stated that black troops had stood out in…