✍🏾 Closing Reflection of The African-American Valor Series
ROUTES: A Guide to African-American Culture
✨ Valor Series Wrap-Up
A Legacy in Uniform
The African-American Valor Series began as a tribute — and became a journey.
Through portraits, stories, and reflection, we honored those who carried freedom on their backs — even when denied its full weight in return.
🎖️ The Valerians
• Crispus Attucks – The First to Fall
• Harriet Tubman – Soldier, Spy, and Hero of the Combahee River Raid
• Robert Smalls – Enslaved Helmsman Turned Naval Hero and Congressman
• Lt. Henry O. Flipper – First Black West Point Graduate
• General Benjamin O. Davis Sr. – First Black U.S. Army General
• General Benjamin O. Davis Jr. – Commander of the Tuskegee Airmen
• Dorie Miller – Navy Cross Recipient at Pearl Harbor
• The Tuskegee Airmen – Breaking Barriers in the Skies
• The Montford Point Marines – First Black Marines in U.S. History
• Josephine Baker – Entertainer, French Resistance Agent, Bronze Cross of War
• Sgt. Henry Johnson – The ‘One-Man Army’ of World War I
• The Harlem Hellfighters – 369th Infantry Regiment, WWI Heroes
• African Americans in Vietnam – Fighting a War on Two Fronts
• Colin Powell – First Black Joint Chiefs Chairman and Secretary of State
• General CQ Brown – First African-American Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Through every post, portrait, and remembrance, ROUTES lifted the voices of African-American soldiers who weren’t always in the history books — but were always in history. From the Revolutionary War to modern command posts, these Valerians showed what it meant to serve, lead, resist, and remember.
They fought for a country that didn’t always fight for them. They wore the uniform before the Constitution wore their names. And still, they stood — at sea, in the sky, on the front lines, and in the pages of memory.
This series doesn’t just close with a salute — it closes with a challenge: to teach these names, carry these legacies, and honor this history with the respect it has always deserved.
These are more than stories. They are blueprints for courage.
This is African-American military history.
This is American history.
This is The Valor Series.
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