ABSTRACT
African Americans have attempted in a number of ways to achieve the rights of full citizenship, including the right to bear arms in the service of their country. Nonetheless, what has been recognized as patriotic duty for white citizens has been looked upon with circumspection if not outright hostility when Black Americans have volunteered for military service that would place lethal weapons in their hands. “In the early history of New England, Blacks could not serve in the militias as combatants . . . the black military hero Peter Salem had to beg his master’s permission to serve during the American Revolution.”1 In every subsequent conflict Blacks have demonstrated their patriotism by enlisting (or attempting to enlist) in every branch of the armed services, regardless of the military’s official policy of segregation and the ubiquitous presence of discrimination. They have performed exemplary service, often without official acknowledgment of their presence or their contributions. Although disappointed again and again, African Americans have assumed that their service abroad would lead to freedom and equality at home. This chapter looks at the works of African-American documentarians who have chosen to contest the history that has made African Americans in arms invisible Americans by providing a powerful record of their achievements.
