FROM VIETNAM TO THE BLACK PANTHERS

African Americans comprised 23 per cent of all US combat troops during the Vietnam War, despite numbering just 11 per cent of the United States’ population. Although 22 Black soldiers received the Medal of Honor for extreme courage during the conflict, they fought at a time when the USA was consumed by the Civil Rights Movement. These soldiers not only contended with the enemy but also the endemic racism in their own country. One of those who fought was Dedan Kimathi Ji Jaga, a teenage volunteer in the US Marine Corps, who began his military service with dedicated enthusiasm. He describes how he became disillusioned with the war before becoming a civil rights activist, and how he continues the fight for the rights of his fellow African-American veterans.

Born in 1948, Dedan Kimathi Ji Jaga was raised in Virginia and North Carolina, “There was a lot of prejudice. However, our parents and community largely shielded us and stood their ground. There were instances of concern such as the Night Riders, who were marauding bands of white racists that would victimise Black communities. I would ask my mother, ‘Why do people want to hurt us?’ but she would say, ‘That’s the nature of society at this time’.”

Ji Jaga also looked up to his uncle who was a US Marine, “We grew up in Danville, Virginia, and one day I had lunch with him when he was on leave. He had his uniform on and looked like his body had been chipped out of granite. He was exactly what you would expect a Marine to look like – except he was Black. When I walked down the street with him other Black people acknowledged and almost bowed to him and it was the same with white people. They affirmed his presence in a way that they didn’t for other people. I was mesmerised by this and never forgot that image.”

Ji Jaga was so inspired that he volunteered for the US Marine Corps immediately after leaving high school aged 18 in 1967. However, his uncle was upset when he heard about his nephew’s enlistment, “I was trying to step into his shoes and be the Marine that he was. He was upset when he found out I had volunteered and we didn’t talk of our common experience for years. When we finally did he told me hadn’t wanted me to experience the rampant racism that he had faced in the Marines.”

Ji Jaga