Portrait of Lieutenant James Europe (1919). Image from the cover of the sheet music for "Good Night Angeline" on Wikipedia.
As a machine-gun company commander, James Reese Europe was the first black American officer in World War I to lead troops into combat. He was also a popular music composer and conductor. He organized a regimental brass band for the Harlem Hellfighters that became one of the most celebrated musical organizations of the war.
A Life in Ragtime: A biography of James Reese Europe by See also under World War 1--Music in this guide.
William Henry Johnson distinguished himself as one of the first American soldiers to receive the Croix de Guerre with palm for valor from the French government for his brave actions against the Germans in World War 1.
Emmett Scott at a boat dock in New York (1909). Photo from the Library of Congress.
During World War 1, Emmett Scott served as Special Assistant to the U.S. Secretary of War in charge of Negro affairs. Scott served as the liaison between Black soldiers and the War Department. His book Scott's Official History of the American Negro in World War (1919) documents the African American experience both at home and abroad. He also wrote Negro Migration during the War (1920). Before the war, he worked as secretary for Booker T. Washington and for the Tuskegee Institute.
U.S. Navy recruiting poster (1943) featuring Dorie Miller and his Navy Cross. Office of War Information (OWI Poster Number 68) Artist: David Stone Martin. Image from Wikipedia; original source is the National Portrait Gallery.
Boxer and Navy cook Dorie Miller became one of the most heroic African American sailors of the Pacific campaign in World War 2.
"The Saga of Dorie Miller" in The African American Press in World War II by 
Official US Army portrait of Waverly Woodson. Photo from Wikipedia
Corporal Waverly Woodson treated at least 200 injured men on Omaha Beach during the D-Day invasion, despite being injured, himself.
We Were There: Voices of African American veterans from World War II to the war in Iraq by 
Gertrude Ivory Bertram from a group portrait of African American nurses in Liberia during World War 2. Original photo from the U.S. National Archives.
Gertrude Bertram was one of only 600 African American nurses accepted for service into the Army Nurse Corps. These nurses were largely restricted to serving only in hospitals and aid stations occupied by African American military men. Learn more about the nurses who served in Liberia.
We Were There: Voices of African American veterans from World War II to the war in Iraq by 
U.S. Medal of Honor recipient (posthumously): First Lieutenant John R. Fox distinguished himself by extraordinary heroism at the risk of his own life on 26 December 1944 in the vicinity of Sommocolonia, Italy.
The 366th Infantry Regiment Yearbook for 1941 (pubic domain)
Tuskegee Airman: The biography of Charles E. McGee, Air Force fighter combat record holder by 
Blood on German Snow: An African American Artilleryman in World War II and Beyond by