BALTIMORE — Veterans Day is this weekend, so AFRO News honored Black veterans and service members across generations at a ceremony at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum called "A Salute to Our Veterans."
A room filled with veterans bridging generations of service starting from World War II all the way to today.
"We have some Vietnam vets in the audience, we have some World War II vets in the audience, we probably have Korean conflict folk here as well," said Frances "Toni" Draper, CEO of AFRO News.
It's "A Salute to Our Veterans," a ceremony by AFRO News that honors the heroism of Black veterans.
"Here we are now in 2023 with wars all over the place and I think we take for granted when people go to war that they're going to come back and so we want to say thank you for your service,” said Draper.
AFRO News was started back in 1892 by CEO Draper's great grandfather. And was the news outlet that sent Black war correspondents during World War II to tell what was going on in the front line from their perspective. A tradition they have continued.
"We then produced a book based on their writing called 'This is Our War' and the other reason this is important is because we replenish the book for this event,” said Draper.
An event that honored three military members with awards for their service. One of those, Army Veteran Col. Edna Cummings went on a quest to bring recognition to the Six Triple Eight, a World War II women's army corps unit whose stories were only told through the AFRO News.
"These women, predominately African American, 855 from throughout the United States saw the military’s male immoral problem and nobody else could get that job done clearing millions and millions of backlogged mail in England and France. And because of the AFRO, we've captured this rich history and now these veterans are being honored decades later,” said Col. Edna Cummings, Army Veteran and a Six Triple Eight Congressional Gold Medal Champion.
For keynote speaker Anthony Woods, who is the Secretary for the Maryland Department of Veterans Affairs, the Salute to Our Veterans is about Black patriotism.
“Black Americans throughout our countries history have served in the military but have not always enjoyed equal treatment under the law and dignity and respect that they deserve for the service that they've given to the country,” said Woods.
The other honorees were Major General Janeen Birckhead, the Adjutant General of Maryland and the only Black woman leading a state military. And Major Edgar Brookins, who served as the general manager and circulation director of AFRO for three decades. He died in 2021.