Part I: The Dayton Boys Go To War, By Wayne D. Robinson, 761st Tank Battalion Historian Buddie V. Branch was inducted on August 9, 1943 in Cincinnati, Ohio. He was drafted along with Dayton childhood chums Odell Williams, Clarence Copeland, and Henry Middlebrooks. Another friend, Jovan Council, had been drafted a year earlier and sent […]

Staff Sgt. Ruben Rivers was part of Company A, attached to the 104th Infantry in the attack and capture of Vic-sur-Seille. The next day, the force took Chateau-Salins in a four-hour fight in the season's first snowstorm, then continued east toward Morville-les-Vic. The battalion commander was wounded and evacuated, and a 104th task-force commander had […]

On July 6, 1944, one of the 761st's few black officers, Lieutenant Jackie Robinson, was riding a civilian bus from Camp Hood to the nearby town of Belton. He refused to move to the back of the bus when told to do so by the driver. Court-martial charges ensued but could not proceed because the […]

Army Magazine, January 1992By Lt. Col. Philip W. Latimer U.S. Army Reserve retired He stood in the back of a half-track as he spoke to us. He was an imposing figure, and his voice rang out loud and clear: Men, you're the first Negro tankers to ever fight in the American Army. I would never […]

COLOR BARRIER BROKEN African-American tank battalions proved themselves in WWII Background information and quotes from E.G. McConnell were taken from Joe W. Wilson Jr.’s The 761st “Black Panther” Tank Battalion in World War II. By JOHN NEVILLE/Turret Staff Writer Sixteen-year-old E. G. McConnell took a train from New York to Fort Knox in 1941. Several […]

Re-published from the December 2004 issue of On Point magazine with the permission (2011) of the Army Historical Foundation (Click here to open/download an Adobe pdf file of this article.) Unit History-- 761ST TANK BATTALIONBy LTC Roger Cunningham. USA-Ret. In January 1941, the War Department announced that it intended to have African American units in […]