Courage has No Color

The reader drops into Courage has No Color, just as thousands of soldiers dropped out of airplanes and into Europe and the Pacific region during World War II. The author carries us through the jump, from plane to ground, via both a written and visual narrative. But the ground upon which we land is not behind enemy lines in Occupied Europe or on a remote Pacific Island, but solidly in the segregated United States, where the US Army’s 555^th Parachute Infantry Division, the “Triple Nickels,” was forced to remain for the duration of the war. The painful history of the Army’s first black paratrooper unit is shared with the general public for the first time in this beautiful work of nonfiction, which documents the tremendous challenges and institutional racism African-American patriots faced as enlisted soldiers during World War II, as well as the strength, tenacity, courage, and skills of the soldiers who comprised the 555^th. Stone’s extensive original research over a decade includes numerous interviews and conversations with members of the Triple Nickels, now in their late 80s and early 90s. The text is supported throughout with a broad range of archival photographs and documents.  Courage has No Color can deepen curricular explorations of World War II on the Homefront and overseas, provide another perspective on the ever-changing roles filled by African-Americans in 20^thcentury American culture, and shape how students understand our all-volunteer military’s current civil rights shifts, such as permitting women to serve in combat, ideally without fear of sexual aggression and abuse, and allowing openly gay soldiers to continue to perform their duties without fear of prejudice and court martial.