HOLYOKE — With black-and-white photographs clutched in one hand and his cap recognizing his membership in the 35th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Battalion Cacti Association, John Kennedy beamed about his time serving in the U.S. military on Saturday afternoon.
A native of Georgia, Kennedy served in the 35th Infantry Division for the Army National Guard for 27 years between his regular military service and his time as a reservist. Despite witnessing segregation firsthand during his time in Germany, Kennedy said he didn’t face any challenges being a Black soldier.
“I brought pictures, so you could see. We all got along together. No problems at all,” he said with the same toothy grin exposed in almost every photograph he hoisted in the air.
Kennedy was one of four panelists who shared their experiences in the military during an event at the Wistariahurst Museum.
Air Force veterans Marvin Dotson and James Odom, as well as Lenora Tiggle, widow of Sherman Tiggle, who served in the Army, also sat on the panel.
The panelists, representing military service from the late 1950s up until the 2000s, shared their perspective of being a GI, or “government issue,” as it related to housing, uniforms, jobs and other aspects of serving in various branches of the military. Tiggle shared her experience of being a military spouse.
Doug Griffin, an Army veteran, moderated the event.
The event, “I Was a Black GI: A Retrospective,” sought to provide a more complex perspective of military service that addresses the intersectionality of what it was like to be Black and serve in the military, according to Wistariahurst curator and city historian Penni Martorell.
“We wanted to give a voice to some different perspectives of what military service is,” she said. “This event came about from discussions with Doug Griffin.”
In addition to this event, the museum is featuring an exhibit that runs until Aug. 22, which displays the uniforms of veterans who have served in four branches of the country’s armed forces. The event was funded in part by a Holyoke Local Cultural Council grant, a Massachusetts State Historical Records Advisory Board Veterans Heritage Preservation Grant, and The Wistariahurst Foundation.
Griffin touched on a number of areas as it pertained to being Black in the military, but was sure to dissuade attendees from discussing combat experience, as he wanted to be mindful of those who struggled or continue to struggle with post-traumatic stress.
“The purpose of this discussion today is to give you an insight of what it was like being a person of color in the military. It doesn’t mean everything was bad and it doesn’t necessarily mean everything was good. But it’s an interpretation of what it felt like,” he said.
Griffin, who acknowledged facing challenges personally during his service with an individual who didn’t want to take orders from him simply because of his skin color, also asked panelists if they felt that they were treated differently than their white counterparts.
Odom touched upon an experience where he went out to eat alongside white people at a restaurant and no server would wait on him. When he returned to the same eatery in uniform, that changed.
Overall, panelists didn’t voice much upset over challenges they faced because of their skin color.
However, a few members in attendance painted a much different picture from their own perspective.
“All due respect to those who had no problems in the Army when you were there, but I wasn’t in that Army,” said Leon Givner, a native of Pittsburgh. “I was never in that Army. I’ve seen the military as it was as a Black man. It was obvious it was two militaries. It was never one military.”
Givner, who was only 16 years old when he joined the Army, said the first suit he ever wore was green. He shared a harrowing experience of traveling outside of a town where he was stationed in Missouri with a man of Spanish descent and a white guy, who lived there.
Givner said he realized when he arrived at his white friend’s house he was not welcome.
“His mom came out and asked me to leave,” he said. “I asked my friends where they were going to go and they told me the bowling alley, so I said I’d go too. But they told me, ‘You can’t bowl in our bowling alley.’ I’ll just sit there and wait until you’re done. ‘No you can’t even come inside. Besides, all N-words need to be off the street by 7 o’clock.’ There it was, almost sundown, and I left the town and started walking.”
When he arrived at a bus station along an empty dirt road, the vendors refused to sell him a ticket, despite being dressed in his soldier’s uniform. He found a payphone and called his mother crying when a carful of white men, who Givner said had been drinking, started eyeing him. Again, he started walking.
Givner said he walked up along the highway as the car followed behind him with the passengers throwing chains and bottles at him. As they got closer and the dust started to blur their sights, he ran down a hill and hid in a cornfield.
Director of the Department of Veterans Services Thomas M. Belton Sr. also shared a different story from the panelists as a Black Marine.
“I was born and raised in Springfield. I went into the Marine Corps from Springfield. Never knew what it was to be Black until I went in the Marine Corps. Because the Marine Corps, they got their own definition of what it means to be Black and they don’t use the letter ‘b’, they use the letter ‘n,’” he said. “Now sometimes, being up north, we get lulled into the fact that it’s ‘all good.’ When I was in Memphis, they let me know it ain’t all good. We don’t care if you’re in a uniform or not. You’re still a N-word.”
Emily Thurlow can be reached at ethurlow@gazettenet.com.
