 This is the surprisingly black history of the U.S. military. The first man who died in the Revolutionary War was a black man, Crispus Attics. But you wouldn't know that from your high school history class. Black people were just ghosted out of the conversation as if it was an Academy Award ceremony. But just because you can't see them in the textbook doesn't mean they weren't there. In the Civil War, African-Americans weren't just fighting someone else's war, they were fighting for their own freedom. But like most things in American history, integration didn't happen overnight. In fact, black men were barred from serving in the Union Army until a few years in. That's right, black people had to fight for their right to fight for their own freedom. And during the Civil War, an estimated 504 people were dying every single day. And it turns out that massive death is a great motivator for inclusion. So in 1863, the black presidents in the military went from zero to one in every 10. In fact, scholars argue that the fresh surge of blackness was exactly what was needed to change the tide for the Union to win the Civil War. Yes, they should have done that way earlier. That's like having Jordan on the bench until halftime. Well, a year after the war ended, Congress decided it was time for black Americans to enter the regular Army too. So they passed the Army Organization Act, which ultimately led to the formation of those buffalo soldiers that Bob Marley was talking about. And John was the reign in the lawlessness happening after the war. And they were also used to control the Indian populations against the Uprising and other attacks on the American frontier. So I think the African-American soldiers that were in the frontier may have had some empathy for the Native Americans that were out there and not part of American society. You can imagine how the combat operations were probably pretty brutal. Renault also shoot the poor buffalo that kept charging folks unannounced. These soldiers were often tasked to do this in below zero weather. Hence all the pictures of them looking like they just walked out of a PDD house party. Smash cut to World War II and the next frontier for black soldiers is to go from the land to the sky. And leading the way with the Tuskegee Airmen, the first black military aviators in U.S. Army Corps. These badasses escorted nearly twice as many U.S. bombers to safety as the average Air Force escort group, destroying the widely spread and widely stupid belief that black people couldn't learn to fly aircraft. I think a lot of African-Americans who served in World War II were looking to show the world, especially America, that they were American and that they would fight for their country and that they weren't cowards and that they weren't stupid and it worked. And although these men still face presidents on their return home, their excellence and their bravery is what led to Truman's executive order to finally desegregate the U.S. Armed Forces on July 26, 1948. What they did really did change America for a lot of people of color. Those are the people, the people that fought in World War II or Martin Luther King's generation and look at all they did for black people, for American people. I believe that when they came back, they weren't gonna sit in the back of the bus anymore. They weren't going to allow themselves to be treated like that anymore because of what they did for this country. Now black Americans make up about 17% of active duty men and about 30% of active duty women, which might not seem like a large number until you remember that the entire black population in the United States is only 13%. But we still have a long ways to go when it comes to equal and just treatment of black men and women in the military. Black women, for example, typically hold ranks lower than their white, male or female counterparts no matter how long they've been in service. But if history has taught us anything at all, it's that black men and women will continue to rise. From Trailblazer, Cathay Williams, who poses a man to become the first black woman to enlist in the U.S. military in 1844, to U.S. Army Specialist 6, Lawrence Joel, the first black man to receive a Medal of Honor since the Mexican-American War. And now you know why the surprising history of black soldiers should never have been a surprise in the first place.