Getting a Medal of Honor upgrade could be a tall order With only 2.6 percent of Medals of Honor having been awarded to Black troops since 1863, legislative action may be needed. Author: Mike Gooding Updated: 5:32 PM EDT May 7, 2021 NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — Just 2.6 percent of the more than 3,500 Medals of Honor awarded to U.S. troops since 1863 have gone to African Americans. The vast majority of those decorations were bestowed prior to World War I. Between 1861 and 1918, the Medal was awarded nearly 3,000 times. Still, the math is pretty hard to accept for modern-day Black veterans. "We know it was unfair, so what do we do now?" asked Vietnam War Army veteran Jim Cornish of Newport News, Virginia. "How do we tell what's going to happen now? I mean, you can't get it back."