The U.S. government had a multi-pronged approached to destroying the growing Black Power movement in the 60s and 70s. While COINTELPRO has gained a fair amount of infamy, a lesser-known program was Project 100,000. The Project was launched by the Defense Department and was aimed at controlling the Black Power movement by targeting and recruiting those to whom the Black liberationist message would most appeal. However, Project 100,000 was billed as a way to “rehabilitate” impoverished applicants and accepted those that would traditionally be turned away from military service (such as those with criminal records). The Project 100,000 recruits ended up seeing more extensive combat duty than other recruits and “rehabilitation” from poverty played out to be just the lip-service that it was. The project is credited with enlisting nearly 140,000 Black soldiers.

Here’s a quote from Specialist 4 Richard J. Ford III on returning from Vietnam:

You know, they decorated me in Vietnam. Two Bronze Stars. The whiteys did. I was wounded three times. The officers, the generals, and whoever else came out to the hospital to see you. They respected you and pat you on the back. They said, “You brave. And you courageous. You America’s finest. America’s best.” Back in the States the same officers that pat me on the back wouldn’t even speak to me. They wanted that salute, that attention, ’til they holler at ease. I didn’t get the respect that I thought I was gonna get…. They just wanted another Black in the field. Uncle Sam, he didn’t give me no justice. You had a job to do, you did it, you home. Back where you started. They didn’t even ask me to reenlist.