Double Exposure: Fighting for Freedom

The fifth volume in the Double Exposure series from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African-American History and Culture is a short yet powerful pictorial history of black men and women who served in the United States Armed Forces, from the Civil War to today. It features the work of Anthony Barboza, Henry Clay Anderson, Robert Scurlock, Teenie Harris, and numerous uncredited photographers. As Bunch, founding director of the museum, writes in his moving foreword, the book’s 62 predominately black-and-white photographs, selected from over 20,000 images in the museum’s collection, “demonstrate the willingness of a people to stand up and be counted, even when they were not always fully recognized in the legal and social systems of the day.” The introductory essays by Bolden, the 12th administrator of NASA, and Buckley (The Black Calhouns) provide the perfect literary counterpoint to these enduring images. Some of the many noteworthy photos include the following: a picture of Union Medal of Honor recipient Sgt. William Carney proudly holding an American flag; an extended, gatefold 1919 photo of the 372nd Infantry on their return from France; a historic WWII shot of Benjamin Davis Jr. and heavyweight champ Joe Louis; a photo of the legendary Tuskegee Airmen; a snapshot of two brothers in Vietnam giving each other the DAP (dignity and pride) hand greeting; and a picture of the women of the 6888th Central Postal Directory from 1944. Though only 80 pages long, this wonderful work beams with a racial pride that radiates out well beyond its diminutive dimensions. Photos. (May)