Black veterans from World War II to the Gulf War are honored at a first-of-its-kind summit aboard the Intrepid

On the deck of a World War II aircraft carrier docked on Manhattan's West Side, Black veterans who served from the 1940s to the Gulf War got the salute many of them say they have long deserved. New York state lawmakers and advocates held their first Black Veterans Summit last week aboard the Intrepid museum ship. The stories shared there are now drawing wider attention.

The program opened with a military color guard, songs and a solemn tribute to prisoners of war, troops missing in action and those killed in combat. Veterans from several wars and conflicts filled the seats.

Bronx Assemblymember Landon Dais, one of the organizers, used the moment to surprise his father, who served as an Army sergeant in the 1960s, with a state citation. Dais told the room that people in uniform swear an oath to the Constitution and the country rather than to any one leader.

Lawmakers who served

Several of the officials on stage wore the uniform themselves. Long Island Assemblymember Kwani B. O'Pharrow served in the Navy as a radioman in the early 1990s before a career as a New York City police detective. Harlem Assemblymember Al Taylor, a former military police officer, urged the veterans in the audience to never stop the work they are doing for their communities.

Still serving at home

Many of the honorees have kept serving long after they took off the uniform. Retired Maj. Sharon Sweeting-Lindsey spent 26 years in the military and said her experience running field kitchens helped her land a job managing food service for the city's jail system. Today she is a leader at an American Legion post in Queens that runs a food pantry and delivers meals to veterans and older neighbors. She also started two programs that support veterans.

Retired Lt. Col. Blossom Ferguson of the Army Nurse Corps joined in 1985 and said the friends she made in uniform are still in her life today. She now helps lead a national group for Black women who served. Retired Col. Joan R. Davis, an Army nurse for 32 years, helps lead an American Legion post in the Bronx and volunteers at a veterans hospital, walking patients to their cars after surgery and serving them meals.

Kevin C. Meggett, a Navy combat veteran of Desert Shield and Desert Storm, leads a regional chapter of a national Black veterans group and founded an effort to end poverty among veterans. He said Black Americans have fought in every American war since the Revolution and deserve a fair shot at housing in the country they defended.

The fights that remain

Panels at the summit dug into the problems Black and Brown veterans still face, including suicide, poverty, homelessness, unequal access to benefits and the struggle to find good jobs after leaving the service. A federal report this year counted 6,398 veteran suicides in 2023, a small drop from the year before. It found that most of those veterans were not getting care through the veterans health system.

Women veterans described clinics they called run down and constant turnover among their doctors. Speakers pointed to state tax breaks for veteran homeowners and a free city program that helps veterans claim benefits and find mental health care. New York is home to more than 600,000 veterans, the seventh largest veteran population in the country.