World War II inductees
Hundreds Cheer Negro Selectees
Daily News, July 28, 1942
Crowd gathers at bus station as two contingents leave for induction
"If you passed the Greyhound bus depot Sunday night and wondered about the huge crowd of negroes assembled there - Joe Louis was NOT due to arrive by bus; and Duke Ellington’s famed orchestra was NOT passing through.
"It was merely a farewell tribute by Springfield’s negroes to two contingents of Greene County negro draftees, leaving for Jefferson Barracks, Mo., for induction into the U. S. Army.
"Several hundred negroes gathered at the bus station during the evening to bid goodbye to their sons and relatives, who were entering the armed service.
"Dispatched from local board number two were:
"Steve Johnson, Booker T. Washington Brown, of Walnut Grove, William Lloyd Yokum, of Ash Grove, James Beasley Brown, Doris Leroy Thomas, of Springfield, and Millard Wilfred Berry, of Ash Grove
"Filling the quota from local board number three were:
From Springfield, Lewis Bedell, Chester Howard England, William Edgar Troutt, Leon Sanders, Bennie Lee Herbert Griffins, Nathan Frank Wollard, Lee Harold Eslinger, William Delbert Herndon, Charles Benjamin Looney, Wilbur B. Smith, Henry McBride, James Harrold Scott, Chester E. R. Lexion, Ralph Junior Richardson, Russell Greenleaf Whittaker; also Udell Charles Looney, Route 2 and Thaddeus Whayne Jr., Kirkwood, Mo."
Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress.
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