A Dream No Longer Deferred

The Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military award, is a gold medallion hung from a sky-blue ribbon. It signifies “uncommon valor,” and fewer than 3,500 Americans among the millions who have served in the military have received it.

Now seven more men have been so honored, and none more deservedly. They fought America’s enemies in World War II and helped then, and now again, to conquer another foe, racism in the armed services. The seven men are the first African American servicemen to be awarded the Medal of Honor for action in that war.

In Korea, Vietnam, the Persian Gulf and Somalia, black soldiers, men and women, fought in integrated U.S. military units and a number won the Medal of Honor. In 1991, President George Bush awarded the medal to a black World War I veteran.

But the America of World War II was another time, one characterized by all-out commitment to victory but also by a shameful decision to segregate the fighting units. More shameful yet was the failure, until now, to honor black soldiers who performed with uncommon valor in that war.

Monday, at the White House, President Clinton awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously to six black soldiers, including Staff Sgt. Edward Allen Carter Jr. of Los Angeles, and in person to former 2nd Lt. Joseph V. Baker, 77, who destroyed four German machine-gun posts in Italy in April 1945, drawing fire that allowed his comrades to scramble to safety. “I was a soldier and I had a job to do,” Baker explained. He and the others have done much more than that.