With One Tied Hand - The Buffalo Soldiers of World War II
by Joe and Dayle Hartnett, Director & Producer of With One Tied Hand
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Though veterans of the United States of America liberated others worldwide at immense sacrifice, a little told American story is the unique liberation of the Tuscan people by the Buffalo Soldiers of WWII. After the War ended, these courageous men were sent home to a 'Jim Crow' America. Italian history is strikingly different. The impoverished, starving Tuscans feel as if they owe their lives to the Buffalo Soldiers, whom they lovingly dubbed 'Giganti Buoni' (Good Giants). An Italian eyewitness said, “They came down the mountain and freed us, and took care of us.” Ivan J. Houston, who was himself wounded in WWII, served in the Segregated 92nd Infantry Division, which bravely fought and pushed the German Nazis and Italian Fascists back behind The Gothic Line. Tragically, these "Black Warriors" were also forced to fight the U.S. Army’s institutionalized racism, and even individual racist White officers who did not want them to succeed.“That was just the way the Army was,” says Mr. Hou