His final resting place can be found in Plot A, Row 9, Grave 22 at the American military cemetery near Anzio, 20 miles south of Rome. The inscription on the brilliant white cross reads simply: "Clemenceau M. Givings, Second Lieutenant, Army Air Forces, 100th Fighter Squadron, 332nd Fighter Group, Died 18 March 1944."

One has to look elsewhere for the details of a life cut short by war. Those details include the fact that he was born, raised, and educated in Richmond. He was the only child of a father who worked in the insurance business and a mother who was a school teacher. With America's entry into World War II, he joined the Army Air Corps, became a fighter pilot, and was killed in action at age 24 when his plane crashed into the ocean at Anzio. He was African-American.

The last fact is important. Lt. Givings was a member of the famed Tuskegee Airmen, a special unit formed in 1942 as part of American armed forces that were as strictly segregated as any community in the deep South. Nearly 10 percent of American military personnel in World War II were black, serving in all theaters of the conflict. But theirs was a war in which the specter of Jim Crow policies often relegated them to secondary roles and service in segregated units led by white officers.

A COMMON story was circulated then about a group of black army recruits who stopped at a roadside café in the South. They were told to go to the back door to be served lunch while a group of German POWs was allowed to enter through the front and eat in the main dining room.

That story may be apocryphal, but it is symbolic of a profound paradox. While the United States threw all of its might into a war to defeat Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, it did so with large numbers of uniformed personnel who were denied the full fruits of American citizenship. Many a black serviceman wondered why he was fighting to save the world for democracy only to return home to a country that seemed less than democratic.

Recently a group of Virginia Historical Society members traveled with me to Italy to study the allied campaign during World War II. Retired Army Gen. Jack Mountcastle gave daily talks on the brutal struggle in the so-called soft underbelly of Europe. During the course of our journey, we learned about how a segregated Army not only represented a flawed American mindset, it was incredibly inefficient and costly. Visiting the grave of Lt. Givings in a cemetery that is not segregated by race provided a poignant reminder of a brave Virginian who died in service of his country despite the inequities that faced him had he returned home. All of that would begin to change within a few years of his death.

THIS YEAR marks the 60th anniversary of President Harry Truman's executive order to integrate the American armed forces. Today men and women of all ethnic and racial backgrounds serve side by side in the military, often in harm's way. African-Americans holding key leadership positions in the military are now the norm. One has served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. After this year's presidential election, the next commander-in-chief could be African-American.

The sacrifices of men like Clemenceau Givings and the thousands of other African-Americans who died during World War II paved the way for one of the most important presidential orders of the 20th century 60 years ago. For that, every American can be grateful.
Charles F. Bryan Jr. is president and CEO of the Virginia Historical Society, which holds an important collection relating to Clemenceau Givings. Funds are being raised to preserve the collection. Contact Bryan at (804) 342-9656 or cbryan@vahistorical.org.