Robert Wallace, one of the nation's last ‘Buffalo Soldiers,’ dies at 91
http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/robert-wallace-one-of-the-nation-s-last-buffalo-soldiers/article_3ce0d62e-59c4-11e1-bcf8-001871e3ce6c.html
Robert Wallace and other black soldiers endured racial bigotry during World War II, and after they helped defeat the Axis forces, they lived through more discrimination at home. "He said 'We loved our country, but we didn't feel like our country loved us sometimes,'" said his son, Robert D. Wallace. "He felt betrayed by it."
But he never grew bitter, and he never stopped fighting for justice, even after he encountered more discrimination as a civilian in Madison, said family and friends as they prepared for his funeral services Saturday.
Wallace died on Feb. 9 at the age of 91, one of the last of the nation's Buffalo Soldiers, the term for African-Americans who served in racially segregated military units from the 1860s through 1948, when President Harry Truman ordered the armed services to integrate.
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After the U.S. joined the war, Wallace said, his regiment deployed to Italy as part of the 92nd Infantry Division, where they were placed in lightly armored tanks and sent out to draw enemy fire, so enemy positions could be spotted and taken out by Allied artillery.
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