Gen Charles Young, USA

[Melvin Loh]

Some of you may remember my posts on the previous board about Col Charles Young, the highest-ranking black officer in the US Army at the start of WWI, who was eligible to become the 1st black general, but was railroaded by the bigoted white establishment into retirement on the supposed basis of a failed medical exam (which he himself refuted by riding from his home in Ohio to D.C., which although enabling him to resume his fulltime status in the Army, prevented him from seeing active service on the Western Front). Based on my post in the previous board's 'Create a Person' thread, what are other ppl's views on how much of a difference could Charles Young have made as an African-American high-ranking military leader at a time of extreme racial prejudice and unrest during time of war in 1917-18 ?

[Brilliantlight]

Originally Posted by Melvin Loh

Some of you may remember my posts on the previous board about Col Charles Young, the highest-ranking black officer in the US Army at the start of WWI, who was eligible to become the 1st black general, but was railroaded by the bigoted white establishment into retirement on the supposed basis of a failed medical exam (which he himself refuted by riding from his home in Ohio to D.C., which although enabling him to resume his fulltime status in the Army, prevented him from seeing active service on the Western Front). Based on my post in the previous board's 'Create a Person' thread, what are other ppl's views on how much of a difference could Charles Young have made as an African-American high-ranking military leader at a time of extreme racial prejudice and unrest during time of war in 1917-18 ?

Marginal as he would be one man going against the tide.If he did a good job in WWI it might have strengthened Black "Radicals" (that is radical for the time) somewhat. WWII was the begining of the end for institutional racism because the Nazis made it so extreme it slowly became less popular.