Many conservatives have taken up the mantle of raging against today’s culture wars to maintain the status quo. One, in particular, is banning schools from teaching Black history and African American studies; this moment in our present-day society presented an immense door of opportunity for Academy Award-winning actor Morgan Freeman to introduce the 761st Tank Battalion: The Original Black Panthers, a riveting documentary about the first Black tank unit to serve in combat during WWII, debuting this Sunday on the History channel, which he executive produced through his production company Revelations Entertainment. The hour-and-a-half-long broadcast recounts the battles the soldiers faced in the United States, their home country – against racism, segregation, and inequality and across enemy lines to defeat fascism, according to A+E Networks press release.
Established on April 1, 1942, American forces formed the 761st unit who trained at Camp Claiborne in Louisiana for two years under the instruction of racist White Southern Army brigade generals. Many commanding officers in headquarters, such as Major Charles M. Wingo Jr., the acting battalion commander, derisively remarked, “When the shooting starts, those N-words will run like hell.” Ironically, when the enemy fire peppered the American soldiers, Wingo left his tank, hopped in a jeep, and hightailed back to the end of the line to safety. In contrast, the 761st continued into the battle for 183 days, becoming the most “accomplished tank battalions in U.S. military history.”
Initially, there was significant pushback for Black soldiers to enter the military because they were deemed as “lazy, shiftless, unintelligent, not able to follow command,” and were not “physically or psychologically” fit for battle and according to a 1925 Army War College Study composed by Colonel Bishop, Major Drain, and Major Somervell. Yet, these men proved by every shadow of doubt they were adept, valiant, and quick-thinking under pressure, as documented by journalist Trezzvant W. Andreson in his book “Come Out Fighting: The Epic Tale of the 761st Tank Battalion 1942-1945.” who was in the trenches with the soldiers and other sources. The 761st “played a significant role in military operations during the war against Nazi Germany,” dispelling all the erroneous ideologies placed on them.
Eleanor Roosevelt, the wife of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and members of the Black media aggressively lobbied for FDR to permit Black soldiers to serve in the war, as described in the documentary. The desire of Black men to serve their country was rooted in the hope that White America would see their loyalty and feel “that they are deserving of full citizenship,” Traci Parker, Associate Afro-American Studies of the University of Massachusetts, says in the film.
Freeman came across the story of the 761st Battalion when a screenwriter pitched a script to his production company about making a film about the forgotten soldiers. “Right after Band of Brothers came out, I took it to Steven Spielberg and complained about my absence from Saving Private Ryan. He agreed to help us, and he was going to be an executive producer as we developed the story,” recalls the venerable actor. “I don’t know what happened, but it died; when you have these corporate shake-ups, things change, scripts get thrown out, and we had to sit on it, and then eventually along comes Phil Bertelsen and James Younger, who revived it and thought, what we have to do is make ourselves a documentary, a better idea than trying to make a movie. Now, I don’t want to make a movie. I want to extend this into a 10-part series because that’s the only way I think we can tell the real story of the 761st.”
His love of movies as a teenager compelled Freeman to to tell the history of this unknown all-Black military unit. Yet he says despised the portrayal of the image of Black men as one “shuffling and ducking and having to be funny” which was often depicted on screen. He grew up wanting more realistic representation and drew inspiration from the film The Red Ball Express, a convoy operation devised by the United States Army Transportation Corps in 1944. It was operated mainly by African-American soldiers who supplied the U.S. military and Allied forces with supplies to help them defeat the Nazis.
“As far as my inspiration – when Morgan Freeman asked you if you want to make a film, you don’t say no. It was a story that I knew very little about. So for me, every opportunity to make another documentary about a little-known story is a great opportunity to educate myself and enlighten audiences [it doesn’t] get any better than this in that regard,” says Emmy and Peabody award-winning producer and director Phil Bertelsen.
Freeman’s goal in telling the 761st story to the American people considering how conservative Republicans are suppressing the history and achievements of Black Americans from being taught, Freeman affirms, “The main thing about doing anything like this is to open the doors of American history as part of who we are as a people. Believe us when we tell you, there was nothing anybody, any group, has done that we weren’t involved in making this country – this country. It’s a Black story, and it’s your story, and if it needs telling, nobody else is gonna tell your story. They tell their own story. So if you want yours told, you got to tell it yourself. So here we are.”
Bertelsen adds, “As Morgan often says, there’s no American history without Black history. Therefore, it’s all American history. The fact that we fought in every war since there were wars on this stolen land of ours is often overlooked and little told. So the idea of shaping the American narrative without the purchase of Black people is one that we’re working very hard to reframe.” Freeman also believes that the onus falls on the shoulders of his community to ensure these stories remain cognizant in the American perspective despite opposition, “When the time comes, this is when you have to step up, and the time has come, obviously.”
The Oscar winner implores young people to continue to learn about the achievements of Black Americans in history despite the erasure by state governments. “The biggest audiences we would have, we look forward to [is] young people. If you can shape the minds of young people so that their thinking is inclusive, that’s a positive thing; that would be something to accomplish. So it helps to cement the fact that American history and black history are not separate histories, no such thing,” he says.
Bertelsen embraces the cultures and feels conservatives are “doing the work for us” by inciting a rebellious attitude within GenZers to become more knowledgeable about information Republicans are desperately trying to shroud in obscurity to spite the establishment.
“When you asked what do we do? Read banned books; start there. They’re like, ‘Don’t read this. Okay. I’ll read that.’ Start there. They’re telling you what not to read [so] read that,” Bertelsen says defiantly. While most younger generations may not be apt to read books, many glean their information through their iPhones and social media, and Freeman holds, “We’ll get to you through that medium.”
Kimberly Latrice Jones, the niece of Sgt. John Holt of the 761st Tank Battalion makes a poignant statement in the film, “You can still love your country and still demand more of it.” Her pointed thought is a response to the cowardly erasure approach made by Republicans who feel if American history is taught in its entirety and truthfully that, citizens would end up hating their country. However, the opposite would likely occur as in Germany, who recognized the stain committed by Adolf Hilter and vowed never to have such atrocities happen on their land again. America should embrace its past to live up to the spirit of democracy, freedom, and the pursuit of happiness, it claims.
Freeman indicates, “The only time you can criticize it’s when you love it?”
Bertelsen interjects, “Yes, sir, because it’s not living up to its promise. As descendants of enslaved people, we’ve been doing that from day one. My friend Nikole Hannah-Jones often says that history will radicalize you, and by that, she means the more you know about our past, the more committed to its better future you will become. Part of that radicalization is to ask for more, demand for more, work toward a better tomorrow, and I think that’s what Kimberly was implying when she made that statement about her uncle.”
Freeman interviewed one of the last surviving members of the 761st Battalion and the first Black Secretary of Defense, Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III, to gain his perspective on the significant accomplishments of Black men in the U.S. military. The documentary highlights “new and archival interviews, period footage, still photographs” and provides vital commentary from the family and relatives of the Black Panther soldiers and insights of “prominent historians on WWII and experts on race and inequality in America.”
761st Tank Battalion: The Original Black Panthers premieres August 20 at 8 p.m. on The HISTORY® channel, a division of A+E Networks. For a deeper dive, visit history.com and the National Archives.
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