In Memoriam

I begin Memorial Day 2021 by paying homage to United States Army Captain Donald Woodruff, a fierce former football player at Florida A&M University; a devoted and loving husband, father, and close friend of my own father during their championship winning days playing for the legendary Coach Jake Gaither.

Captain Woodruff was killed in action in South Vietnam on 20 July 1966—a loss that my father felt for the remainder of his own days.

The late Captain Donald Woodruff

FAMU football team captain Donald Woodruff (right) with legendary Coach Jake Gaither in an Ebony Magazine spread about the Rattlers

Charles Hobbs, Sr. (center in stance) and Donald Woodruff (to his right in photo) posing before their 1959 undefeated National Championship Season

While remembering Captain Woodruff and all of the military personnel who sacrificed their lives in service to America, I would be remiss if I did not pay special homage to the Black service members who for the better part of this nation's history, fought valiantly abroad for a country that enslaved them or treated them like second-class citizens back home. On this point, the words of the great Dr. W.E.B. DuBois following the end of World War I echo through the ages:

“We are returning from war! The Crisis and tens of thousands of black men were drafted into a great struggle. For bleeding France and what she means and has meant and will mean to us and humanity and against the threat of German race arrogance, we fought gladly and to the last drop of blood; for America and her highest ideals, we fought in far-off hope; for the dominant southern oligarchy entrenched in Washington, we fought in bitter resignation. For the America that represents and gloats in lynching, disfranchisement, caste, brutality and devilish insult—for this, in the hateful upturning and mixing of things, we were forced by vindictive fate to fight also…”

Lest we forget!