Black Soldiers

I enjoyed Lee May’s Column One “Gains From the Pain of Images Past” (Feb. 26) concerning a growing awareness of the contributions of black Americans to our country’s founding and growth.

May writes, “The 1989 movie (‘Glory’) about the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, like Alex Haley’s blockbuster book ‘Roots,’ is a source of inspiration to those who advocate a more thorough investigation of black American history.” Interestingly, publicity about this marvelous movie has contributed to some degree of confusion about what black Americans have done for our country.

Despite TriStar Pictures’ accurate characterization of the 54th Massachusetts as “the first black fighting unit raised in the North in the Civil War,” the electronic and print media including The Times have mistakenly repeatedly referred to the 54th Massachusetts as the “first black American regiment.” This outstanding unit was one of the first of some 149 black regiments, roughly one-tenth of the Union Army.

Moreover, there were segregated as well as integrated American regiments that fought in the Revolutionary War and black regiments that fought in the War of 1812. There were black Minuteman at Concord and Lexington, and black Americans crossed the Delaware. Other black Americans fought as sailors on U.S. vessels, some as captains and navigators, in the Revolution War, the War of 1812 and the Civil War. The claim can be made with some validity that a black American was the first to die in each of our three earliest major wars.

Black American history always has been and always will be a vital part of American history.

DAVID K. CARLISLE

Los Angeles