Bob Filner: “This resolution recognizes the soldiers and patriots who had to fight in both types of wars, and it helps to memorialize…”

“This resolution recognizes the soldiers and patriots who had to fight in both types of wars, and it helps to memorialize and to serve as a testament to their great spirit and determination. We've heard about Jackie Robinson, but as a member of the Army before becoming the famous baseball player who broke the color barrier, he once suggested that he was in two wars--one against the foreign enemy, the other against prejudice at home. Charles Hamilton Houston, who served as a commissioned 1st lieutenant in the 17th Provisional Training Regiment during World War I, boldly stated after encountering racism, "I made up my mind that if I got through this war I would study law and use my time fighting for men who could not strike back." As we know, he became a famed civil rights lawyer and was the chief legal strategist behind Brown v. Board of Education. In seeing this paradox of fighting for the promise of liberty and freedom abroad and experiencing the denial of basic rights at home, black veterans were often in the forefront of the leadership of the civil rights movement.”