With the spectacular success of the Air Force’s Tuskegee Airmen, President Roosevelt ordered the formation of an all-black Army paratrooper unit, the 555th Parachute Infantry Company, nicknamed the Triple Nickles. “How does one survive and outlast the racism that was our daily fare at that time?” asks artist Ashley Bryan in the foreword to this fine work about the treatment of black soldiers during World War II. Middle School, High School Candlewick 148 pp. Back matter includes an author’s note, an appendix, a time line, source notes, a bibliography, and an index.Courage Has No Color, the True Story of the Triple Nickles: America’s First Black Paratroopers Yet right here at home, people with white skin have rights that people with black skin do not. What is courage? What is strength? Perhaps it is being ready to fight for your nation even when your nation isn’t ready to fight for you. Front matter includes a foreword by Ashley Bryan. Americans are overseas fighting World War II to help keep the world safe from Adolf Hitler’s tyranny, safe from injustice, safe from discrimination. What did it take to be a paratrooper in World War II? Specialized training, extreme physical fitness, courage, and - until the 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion (the Triple Nickles) was formed - white skin. It is 1943.

The 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion, in the words of Morris, “proved that the color of a man had nothing to do with his ability.” Morris knows that for his men to be treated like soldiers, they have to train and act like them, but would the military elite and politicians recognize the potential of these men as well as their passion for serving their country? Tanya Lee Stone examines the role of African Americans in the military through the history of the Triple Nickles, America’s first black paratroopers, who fought in a little-known attack on the American West by the Japanese. At Fort Benning, Georgia, First Sergeant Walter Morris’s men serve as guards at The Parachute School, while the white soldiers prepare to be paratroopers.

Enlisted black men are segregated from white soldiers and regularly relegated to service duties.

Back on the home front, the injustice of discrimination against African Americans plays out as much on Main Street as in the military. World War II is raging, and thousands of American soldiers are fighting overseas against the injustices brought on by Hitler. Why was their story never told? Sibert Medalist Tanya Lee Stone reveals the history of the Triple Nickles during World War II. They became America’s first black paratroopers.

Courage Has No Color by Tanya Lee Stone