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Soul Soldiers: African Americans and the Vietnam Era
20th Anniversary Lecture
On November 6, 2006, the Senator John Heinz History Center opened, “Soul Soldiers: African Americans and the Vietnam Era” as the first major museums exhibit on the subject in American museums. The multi-media exhibit accompanied the book of the same name and a host of public programs that included a symposium, and film series. The exhibit subsequently traveled to six American cities and was visited by nearly 450,000 people. The project has impacted other projects including a feature film, Da 5Bloods by Spike Lee and documentary films.
This presentation will discuss the creation, impact, and importance of the history of Soul Soldiers to the body of knowledge of the Vietnam War.
About the presenter:
Samuel W Black is the Director of the Museum of African American History at the Senator John Heinz History Center. He is a former President of the Association of African American Museums (2011-2016) and served on the Executive Council and the Advisory Council of the Association for the Study of African American Life & History (2003-06) as well as the program committee and the Excellence in DEAI Task Force of the American Alliance of Museums (2010-11, 2023-2025). He has served on the council of Pennsylvania Historical Association. He is the recipient of the Dr. John E. Fleming Award of the AAAM in 2016, a 2018 graduate of the Jekyll Island Management Institute of the Southeastern Museums Conference (SEMC), Smithsonian Affiliates fellow; a 2019 Fulbright Germany fellow; the 2024 American Association for State and Local History, History Leadership Institute, and the 2024 ASALH Mary McCleod Bethune Award. He has served as an advisor to the Center for Afro American Urban Studies and the Economy; Smithsonian Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES); and chairs the Pennsylvania International Underground Railroad Month Committee.
Black is the editor of Soul Soldiers: African Americans and the Vietnam Era (2006); co-author of Through the Lens of Allen E. Cole: A Photographic History of African Americans in Cleveland, Ohio (2012) and editor of The Civil War in Pennsylvania: The African American Experience (2013) a recipient of the AASLH Leadership in History Award of Merit in 2014. His writing has appeared in Oxford Bibliography; Western Pennsylvania History magazine; Journal of African American History; Ohio Valley History Journal; Journal of Museum Education; and Public Historian magazine. He is the 2024 recipient of the Davey Award for his article, “The Negro Motorist Green Book: Exploring the History of African American Travel, Migration, and Mobility.” His award-winning exhibitions include: The Vietnam War 1945 - 1975; From Slavery to Freedom; and Soul Soldiers: African Americans and the Vietnam Era.
He chairs the Heinz History Center’s DEAI working group and served on the American Alliance of Museums Excellence in DEAI Steering Committee.