Linda Hervieux, a writer, journalist and world traveler – is anxious to get her message out.
She’ll appear via Zoom at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Concord Public Library. She’ll discuss her book, an old story – discriminatory behavior aimed at Black soldiers during World War II – focusing on the segregated 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion.
Written in 2015, “Forgotten: The Untold Story of D-Day’s Black Heroes,” tells stories and shows photos of Black men who stormed beaches and climbed cliffs and lost friends during World War II, then returned home – or didn’t – to a somewhat ungrateful nation.
But history remains, if not much else, right?
“They’ve been written out of history,” Hervieux said on her website about her book. “Movies don’t show them. Most books don’t mention them. But they were there.”
So Hervieux took over, nudging John Wayne and Gary Cooper aside, illustrating that Black Americans took part in the landing invasion of Europe on June 6, 1944, known as D-Day. They faced the machine-gun fire and shrapnel and mortar explosions.
Hervieux, who lives in Europe, had only a few minutes to speak Monday. She was an editor at the NY Daily News, a freelancer for the NY Times and a teacher and speaker, living in New York City and Paris.
In fact, she’s been living in Paris for 17 years, and her Zoom presentation Monday night will start at midnight, Paris time.
She’ll Zoom into Concord and present a thorough history lesson about appreciation long overdue.
On her website promoting the book, Hervieux calls it “a story that pays tribute to the valor of an all-black battalion whose crucial contributions at D-Day have gone unrecognized to this day.”
The time for these thoughts, of course, is now. In the teeth of an ongoing societal change.
To the south, the Aviation Museum of New Hampshire in Londonderry, as part of Black History Month, features the African American contribution to the air war during World War II.
A pilot during the war, Howard Carter, was forced to follow what was called “an unwritten law,” said Jeff Raspis, the executive director of the Aviation Museum.
“He couldn’t get a job after the war,” Rapsis said. “This was a time of segregation, and it really wasn’t too long ago.”
Reached by phone in Boston, Carter, 93, took the high road all the way. No bitterness. No sense that gratitude had unfairly bypassed him, despite the fact that African Americans fought the Nazis in Europe and the Japanese in the Pacific Theater.
“I didn’t think about those other things at the time,” Carter said. “We just did what we had to do.”
The Zoom presentation through the Concord Library will highlight the exhaustive amount of work Hervieux has done concerning this issue. Those interested in participating can register at the library’s website.
Her site introduces Black soldiers who deserved special recognition and never got it. A video shows photos of African Americans, each picture accompanied with a few words to succinctly capture the moment.
“They didn’t ask to be soldiers,” reads one. “They didn’t ask to be heroes. But they were there.”
The movie shows grainy images of the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion, running across the sand of Normandy, France. An all-Black outfit, they were responsible for sending up huge balloons – explosive, hard to detect – to deter the strafing that the Luftwaffe was unleashing on the Americans on the beach.
A message appears on the black screen: “A wounded medic named Waverly Woodson worked for 30 hours before collapsing.”
Woodson’s photo appears. He’s baby-faced and handsome.
Then more words followed
“He was nominated for the Medal of Honor.
“He did not get it.
“No African Americans did during World War II.”