The climate nowadays has on some levels turned against this concept. I oppose this turn for several reasons, starting with the historical tendency to skip over the parts played by black Americans. The field in which I’m best able to dig those up is that of military history.

It’s a simple fact to verify. Guess how many black men earned the Medal of Honor in Vietnam? I count 23. Total awards for the whole war, entire military, were 268. (About half the time, the MoH is a posthumous award. The things one does that earn such a decoration often are one’s last acts.) The demographics generally put the total serving and fatalities right around the national neighborhood of 12% black. A number of those medals were upgraded from previous, lesser decorations; before that, there was even more reason to believe that recognition for black men’s military valor was understated. It likely still is, but some progress beats none.

I read the descriptions for the actions that earned these men their country’s highest decoration, even at a time in which authorities back home were driving back peaceful civil rights protestors with nightsticks, dogs, and fire hoses. How many you reckon earned the Medal for jumping on or in front of frag grenades to save their buddies?

Nine. Right around 40%.

Were there men of other backgrounds who did the same? Surely. This isn’t a comparison game; this is the statement of a simple fact. In Vietnam, 40% of the black earners of the Medal earned it by the reflex, guaranteed-fatal action of shielding comrades from grenade blasts.  Was that what it took for men of their color to be recognized at the deserved level? I haven’t done a comparison of all the MoH earners who got it jumping on frag grenades. The point is not to crusade, though, but to honor and educate.

There are lots of ways to die saving lives in wartime. Probably most who do so are never recognized at all because no one else saw it. Thing here is that jumping on a grenade isn’t something one is granted a couple of minutes to think about. It’s now or never. It’s knowing your death is coming in the next couple of seconds, and there is one final way you can support your buddies. Having the esprit de corps, the pride as a warrior, induce one to make that last act the saving of lives–that is valor and pride, and the stories of black valor have long been undertold in U.S. history. Most Americans have no idea how many black troopers served the Union in the Civil War (don’t have exact figures, but it’s closer to 200,000 than 100,000), and until recently had no idea of events like the Battle of Fort Wagner–popularized in the hit movie Glory.

We all need heroes, examples from our own demographics. Why was Black Panther such a hit, especially with black viewers? The ‘duh’ reaction would be basic affinity, but that seems a facile take. I think a more motivating reason would be that there’s long been underrepresentation of black faces and actions in superheroic fiction, and the movie offered a joyful and inspiring difference. It was fun. One might look at the way a young Whoopi Goldberg reacted to Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Uhura in the original Star Trek: “Come quick, come quick, there’s a black lady on television and she ain’t no maid!”

Nichols had actually wanted to leave the show in the first season. As every Trekker knows, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. himself talked her out of it. Uhura was representation, a sight to inspire black women and girls. I believe Whoopi Goldberg when she says it mattered.

Nine black men earned the Medal of Honor in Vietnam shielding their comrades from grenades, which meant their certain deaths. They did it anyway. Say their names and remember:

• PFC James Anderson Jr., USMC
• SGT Rodney Davis, USMC
• PFC Robert Jenkins Jr., USMC
• PFC Ralph Johnson, USMC
• PFC Garfield Langhorn, USA
• SGT Donald Long, USA
• PFC Milton Olive III, USA
• 1LT Ruppert Sargent, USA
• SSG Clifford Sims, USA

Almost half Marines. That might tell us something as well.

But here’s to them, and here’s to the ten times as many who probably earned it but no one saw how it went down.