Questions and Answers: Why aren't there any black soldiers in HBO's 'Band of Brothers' miniseries?

Band of Brothers, sadly, reflects one of the sad realities of American society in the 1940s - racial segregation in the armed forces.

Although there were a few all-Negro (as blacks were referred to in those days) units in the U.S. Army and the Army Air Forces that served with distinction in the European Theater of Operations, most black servicemen were assigned to non-combat units in Supply of Services and other support forces. Most of these soldiers were truck drivers, anti-aircraft gunners, barrage balloon handlers, engineers, stevedores, clerks, cooks, corpsmen, and so on. Only late in the war (fall of 1944 and winter/spring 1945) did large numbers of black infantrymen see combat against German forces, and even then they served in all-black units commanded by white officers.

The 101st Airborne Division was an all-American unit made up of individuals from many different groups - Easy Company’s first C.O., First Lieutenant (later Captain) Herbert M. Sobel, was Jewish. and Sgt. Bill Guarnere was Italian-American. Most of America’s citizens were well-represented in the “Screaming Eagles” Division - except blacks (and Asian-Americans).