From Alabama to Margraten: The Story of War Veteran Jefferson Wiggins in the Segregated US Army during World War II [Paperback]

With newly discovered archival material, and richly illustrated, this book gives a lively account of an undocumented story of WWII, Black American, and Dutch military history.Mieke Kirkels is an oral historian and the author of several acclaimed books on oral history and Dutch war history. She is also an Officer in the Order of Orange Nassau.Words by Jefferson Wiggins, Preface by Matthew Delmont, Preface to the second edition, Introduction by Janice Wiggins, Introduction to the second edition, Chapter 1: Houston County, Alabama, Chapter 2: A segregated crossing to Scotland, Chapter 3: Digging graves, Chapter 4: The fields of Margraten, Chapter 5: The Netherlands American Cemetery and Memorial, Chapter 6: American policy against racism in wartime, Chapter 7: Professional soldier or civilian, Chapter 8: A long career in education, Chapter 9: Lessons of Margraten, Chapter 10: Back to Margraten: A telephone call from the past, Chapter 11: Margraten 2009, Chapter 12: People should know!, Chapter 13: A follow-up oral history project, Chapter 14: People should know, the sequence, Epilogue by Jonathan Pieterse, AcknowledgementsWhen he returned to the Netherlands in 2009, decades after World War II, Jefferson Wiggins realized that no one he met knew about the segregated US Army during the war, nor did they know about the contribution of Black American soldiers to the liberation of the Netherlands. They were not mentioned anywhere in Dutch history books or in archives. Together with oral historian Mieke Kirkels, Wiggins sat down to record his memories. Wiggins passed away in 2013, and his widow, Janice Wiggins-Paterson, continued the project in his memory. With newly discovered archival material, and richly illustrated, this book gives a lively account of an undocumented story of WWII, Black American, and Dutch military history.
This book:
Is the first book ever published in the Netherlands about the participation of Black soldiers in the US Liberatil³0