“Medal For A Gallant Man: The Vernon Baker Story” Black Heroes Slighted Prejudice Kept African-Americans From Medal Of Honor Recognition

Black veterans have missed receiving the Medal of Honor in only one major conflict since the award was created in 1861.

When World War II ended in 1945, soldiers, civic leaders, congressmen and historians began questioning why 433 Americans received the medal and not a single black was included.

“I think that there was a determination by the military command that no blacks would receive the Medal of Honor,” says Jehu Hunter, historian for an all-black infantry division that fought in Italy. “They could not bring themselves to recognize that any black soldier would work hard enough or put himself at risk enough to merit the Medal of Honor.”

Army officials didn’t want to re-examine the honor rolls. Trying to set the record straight would cause “greater errors and dissatisfaction,” wrote Robert Patterson, then Army chief of staff.

Still, Patterson left a small opening for history to right the wrong. “Where corrective action is found possible and meritorious, you may be sure it will be taken,” he wrote.

Nothing happened until 1990 when acting Army Secretary John Shannon asked the service to look again.

Daniel K. Gibran, a Shaw University professor, put together what he calls “the dream team” of soldier-historians. They examined records to try to locate any unprocessed Medal of Honor nominations for black soldiers.

There was not a single official piece of paperwork indicating a black World War II veteran ever was nominated.

A soldier is nominated for the Medal of Honor by a battlefield commander and it requires two eyewitness accounts. Nearly every level of command gets to comment. But the War Department is supposed to have the final say.

That policy often was ignored.

For example, once Gen. Douglas MacArthur received his Medal of Honor, he pocketed every recommendation for a medal for anyone else in his command, Gibran says.

MacArthur didn’t even qualify for the Medal of Honor because he never actually was in combat in World War II - one of the major criteria, Gibran says.

Six months into its search, the Shaw team learned that, in World War I and World War II, the Army had reviewed the acts of valor of Distinguished Service Cross recipients. In many cases, the cross was upgraded to the Medal of Honor, Gibran says, but only for whites.

The Army agreed that the Shaw team should conduct such a review for black World War II veterans and provided a list of five names. The researchers turned up four more black Distinguished Service Cross winners from World War II, missing from Army records.

The task was arduous because of missing military records and hostile veterans, Gibran says. “We had a lot of flak from a lot of people; from a lot of white commanders. Very few of them were remorseful.”

Black veterans likewise were sometimes distrustful and unfriendly.

Eventually, the Shaw team came up with a list of 10 deserving men and a bleak picture of Army life for black World War II veterans.

“Our conclusion is the white leadership was so prejudiced about blacks they weren’t capable of making objective evaluation about their performance in combat,” says Elliot V. Converse, one of the researchers.

Vernon Baker’s situation makes the case. The only soldier in Baker’s division recommended for a Medal of Honor was his white company commander, Capt. John F. Runyon.

Baker received the Distinguished Service Cross for the same battle.

“The principal and telling difference between the two, however, was that Lt. Baker had repeatedly engaged in close combat with the enemy while Runyon had not,” Converse says.

“It is abundantly clear that Baker had met a higher standard of merit for his Distinguished Service Cross than Runyon had for his Medal of Honor recommendation.” Runyon eventually received the Distinguished Service Cross.

An Army board reviewed the Shaw team’s list and decided seven black veterans should receive the Medal of Honor.

Congress waived the 1952 deadline for World War II medals.

President Bill Clinton will present the medals Jan. 13 in a White House ceremony. Six will be awarded posthumously.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Graphic: Other black World War II Medal of Honor winners