The Transylvania Times -

In the Sept. 3 issue, Mr. Brendle provided important facts about the “Star Spangled Banner,” including being first sung at a baseball game in 1918 in remembrance of U.S. soldiers recently killed. What Mr. Brendle did not acknowledge was the military service of black Americans nor the drastic treatment of black soldiers.

In World War I over 350,000 black soldiers served in a segregated military. Almost one million black soldiers or 6.5 percent of those overseas served in World War II in a segregated military, and while blacks accounted for 11 percent of the total U.S. population, they...