When he returned to the Netherlands in 2009, decades after World War II, Jefferson Wiggins realized that no one he met knew about the segregated US Army during the war, nor did they know about the contribution of Black American soldiers to the liberation of the Netherlands. They were not mentioned anywhere in Dutch history books or in archives. Together with oral historian Mieke Kirkels, Wiggins sat down to record his memories. Wiggins passed away in 2013, and his widow, Janice Wiggins-Paterson, continued the project in his memory. With newly discovered archival material, and richly illustrated, this book gives a lively account of an undocumented story of WWII, Black American, and Dutch military history.

Mieke Kirkels is an oral historian and the author of several acclaimed books on oral history and Dutch war history. She is also an Officer in the Order of Orange Nassau.

Words by Jefferson Wiggins
Preface by Matthew Delmont
Preface to the second edition
Introduction by Janice Wiggins
Introduction to the second edition
Chapter 1: Houston County, Alabama
Chapter 2: A segregated crossing to Scotland
Chapter 3: Digging graves
Chapter 4: The fields of Margraten
Chapter 5: The Netherlands American Cemetery and Memorial
Chapter 6: American policy against racism in wartime
Chapter 7: Professional soldier or civilian
Chapter 8: A long career in education
Chapter 9: Lessons of Margraten
Chapter 10: Back to Margraten: A telephone call from the past
Chapter 11: Margraten 2009
Chapter 12: People should know!
Chapter 13: A follow-up oral history project
Chapter 14: People should know, the sequence
Epilogue by Jonathan Pieterse
Acknowledgements