One could make a very strong argument, that though black soldiers have nobly fought in all of the American wars, beginning at the beginning with our revolutionary war; that their treatment by their fellow countrymen and by their country, itself, has clearly never been equal or truly appreciated, except, possibly within the last few years, and even that, is highly debatable. In point of fact, despite the fact that blacks have historically been underrepresented in all the pinnacles of power, governmental or private; and have often been disenfranchised from voting, discriminated against in regards to employment, education, housing, opportunity and justice; free blacks have been, since the very beginning, patriotic, courageous, and loyal, to a government and a people that have way too often done them wrong, time and time again.
There is an awful lot of blame to be laid at the feet of the southern mentality of honor, with its long history of systemic racism, injustice, and violence; all done to keep those that were of a different color, subservient and in their place. As bad as that was, and it was very, very bad, as well as most definitely being a pox upon America and its claim of freedom, liberty and justice for all --what is especially galling and foundationally unacceptable, is the lynching of patriotic black soldiers that had the audacity to wear their uniform after honorably completing their service, or while on furlough in the southern States.
It is to the great shame of America, and in particular, to the great shame of the South, the extrajudicial lynching that thousands of blacks suffered by the oppressive hands of the southern white man, for crimes that in virtually every case were never committed by those so lynched, but instead were pinned upon these innocent victims, so that the southern honor bloodlust could be satiated, as well as to send a very definitive message to all blacks in residence, that not a single black man in the South, not one, could guarantee to anyone of their family, and of their residence, that they were ever safe, from being lynched themselves.
To make matters even worse, the southern white man, had no respect for its National government, proven by their deliberate targeting of black men in uniform by the South, of which, time and time again, these good servicemen, were lynched, in their uniform, by southern rebels, solely on the basis that a black man in uniform in the South, was considered to be a form of disrespect, a clear violation of a lack of subservience, and adjudged to be an overt form of contempt, all stemming from these soldiers' failure to adhere to their proper place in the South, as dictated by the southern man.
So then, it must be clearly stated, that this National government has the highest moral obligation, to make good on every single military man so lynched in the South, from the very first serviceman to the very last serviceman lynched. While it is too late to prosecute the miscreants and instigators of this gross injustice, it is not too late, to properly identify most of the men that were lynched, and see that their descendents receive a death gratuity commensurate with the injustice and suffering that these men, that so nobly gave their all to their country, justly deserve, so that their unjust death should not have been completely in vain.