Old-fashioned images evoke the complicated history of Black military service
Old-fashioned images evoke the complicated history of Black military service For Black Americans, the military can offer opportunities and the chance to serve—but a legacy of inequality remains. Staff Sgt. Vanessa Lewis Williams sits under a tree for a tintype portrait at the Georgia Army National Guard Readiness Center in Macon, Georgia. She serves in the 48th Brigade as a mechanic.Photograph by Rashod Taylor, National Geographic Photographs byRashod Taylor Email Fulton Porter wanted to be a doctor, but "I didn't want to go to medical school with any loans,” he says. “And I always had ...