Author Robert Child will deliver a presentation based on his recent book, Immortal Valor: The Black Medal of Honor Recipients of World War II, in this Zoom webinar.

Learn the remarkable story of the seven African American soldiers ultimately awarded the World War II Medal of Honor, and the 50-year campaign to deny them their recognition. In 1945, when Congress began reviewing the record of the most conspicuous acts of courage by American soldiers during World War II, they recommended awarding the Medal of Honor to 432 recipients. Despite the fact that more than one million African-Americans served, not a single black soldier received the Medal of Honor. The omission remained on the record for over four decades. But recent historical investigations have brought to light some of the extraordinary acts of valor performed by black soldiers during the war. Ultimately, in 1993 a US Army commission determined that seven men had been denied the Army’s highest award simply due to racial discrimination. In 1997, more than 50 years after the war, President Clinton finally awarded the Medal of Honor to these seven heroes, sadly all but one of them posthumously. Author Robert Child will share their stories.

Robert Child is a military history writer, director, and published author. Child has garnered more than 26 writing and directing awards including an Emmy nomination and is one of only a handful of writer/directors whose work has screened in the United States Congress. His film, "The Wereth Eleven," was nominated for an Emmy and won the highest honor at the G.I. Film Festival in Washington DC, the Founders Choice Award. In 2011, the survivor's association of the World War II aircraft carrier, USS Franklin, singled Child out for Honorary Crew Membership aboard the most decorated vessel in U.S. Naval history. He lives in Atlanta, Georgia.

Presented in partnership with the Tewksbury Public Library and other area libraries.

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