“A
Tribute to Those Who Also Served”
This coming June, France
will be staging a unique historical celebration for the 60th
anniversary of the landing of Allied Forces on the coasts of Normandy, France.
Nearly a quarter of a million spectators are expected.
Sixty years later, thousands
will be crossing the Channel again, this time in peace. For a few days, they
will return to French places of battle, where their sacrifice helped change the
course of history. The youngest veterans are pushing
80 and so this year’s celebrations will be particularly poignant.
If past celebrations are any
indication, a void will be felt at receptions, in the ranks and on the
photographs: that of the African-American veterans who served their country
alongside their “other” brothers in arms.
Myself
a mixed-race French-American born, raised and educated in Normandy, I have
always been surprised at the gaping lack of information and the overall
disinterest in the African-American contribution to the war effort. In France,
few know that the majority of Blacks served in segregated supply and engineering
units and that they were not sent into combat.
Here
in the United States, it takes devoted research to find the facts on the feats
of black soldiers in any of the wars and particularly in the D-Day chapter.
As
a documentary photographer and a Norman, I wish to help fill the historical gaps
on this subject.
I propose to record, in
photographs and audio recordings, the historical experience of the last living
African-American D-Day veterans; I would like to witness and let them reminisce,
in the name of those already passed, of the pain and pride, of the battle
moments lived and of the harsh reality of the racial component in their wartime
experience.
For this project, I need contacts to:
black veterans who were in or passed through Normandy in 1944.
(black) veterans going to the celebrations in France this coming June
associations organizing trips to Normandy this coming June
people involved in historical research on WWII African American veterans
possible financial
and/or logistical sponsors for letters of support, endorsement of the
project, financial aid, publicity support.
PLEASE CONTACT ME SOON!
Samuel Wooten
swoot@earthlink.net or (415)2419421 in San Francisco
Through my work, I wish to imprint in the minds of all, the figures of the last African-American D-Day veterans who served their country and whose participation in one of history’s greatest war moments would otherwise disappear hardly leaving a trace…this is meant to be
“a tribute to those who also served”!
RETURN TO WORLD WAR II