World War II vet reflects on his military service, segregation

When Culpeper native and U.S. Army veteran Sgt. George Everett Taylor was on leave in Scotland during World War II, the locals considered him a hero. More importantly, he was treated like a man.

“When I got to Glasgow, all of my civilian friends said, ‘Welcome home, George,’” said Taylor, who lived in the city for six months before returning.

But because of his skin color, there was largely no hero’s welcome for Taylor when he returned to America after helping to win the war.

“I got a better welcome in Glasgow than I got in New York and Washington, D.C., when I got back,” said Taylor, his voice quivering as he recalled a time before the civil rights movement. “When I got back to D.C., I was told to go to the back of the bus.”

Taylor’s active military career lasted 33 months.

“I was a white man for 27 months in Europe. I was free for 27 months. I got to do as I wanted and go where I wanted,” said Taylor, who lives in a nondescript house on U.S. 29 just south of the town of Culpeper.

Generations of family photos and stacks of World War II DVDs adorn coffee tables in his modest living room.

For his courage, Taylor received four medals: The Good Conduct Medal for efficiency, honor and fidelity; European-African-Middle Eastern Theater Ribbon with one bronze arrowhead; a World War II Victory Ribbon and a French Republic medal.

Taylor was honorably discharged Jan. 10, 1946. Today, the vigorous 88-year-old still sports a steel-trap memory and walks two miles about five days a week in Yowell Meadow Park to stay fit.

Defending a divided America

Segregated from the white population at home, Taylor, like so many other African-American soldiers, also experienced a racial divide on the battlefield. These men fought for freedom abroad, yet it was something most didn’t experience at the fullest level in the United States.

“We went overseas to fight the Germans, but we had to fight the American white man first,” said Taylor, who was 20 when he was drafted 68 years ago today.

It was March 31, 1943, when the Culpeper native boarded a train with six other black men headed for Fort Meade, Md. Assigned to the 502nd Port Battalion, Taylor and his troops headed for Camp Myles Standish in Taunton, Mass., for four months of basic training.

“The first morning we went to the Army base in South Boston, we saw two ships that had just pulled in from Europe loaded with German prisoners and one hollered, ‘You fools go on overseas and get killed. They are waiting for you.’”

With precision, Taylor rattles off dates, times and locations of the extensive list of historical events he encountered.

He recently shared with the Star-Exponent his recollections of childhood memories, landing on the beaches of Normandy during D-Day and his successful post-war contracting business with his brother, Herbert Taylor.

Preparing for war

On Oct. 13, 1943, Taylor’s division of about 960 black men and their white officers boarded the Queen Elizabeth headed for Scotland.

“We were on the world’s largest luxury liner. We all had private compartments,” smiled Taylor. “We went overseas unescorted in a zig-zag course at 37 knots per hour so the enemy couldn’t get a direct aim on us.”

Taylor remained in Scotland from Oct. 18, 1943, until May 1944 when his battalion set sail on June 1 toward France.

On June 6, 1944, otherwise known as D-Day, more than 160,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy — a 50-mile stretch on the French coastline — to fight Nazi Germany.

Although more than 100,000 soldiers advanced across Europe, about 9,000 Allied soldiers were killed or wounded that day, according to Army.mil.

“On June 6, about 2:30 that afternoon, we went in on Omaha Beach,” said Taylor, choking back tears. “In order to get in, we had to wade over dead American bodies. The water was red with American blood. I saw thousands and thousands of poor guys that didn’t make it.”

As part of the 5th Engineers Special Brigade, Sgt. Taylor’s troops were able to land and set up camp, where they unloaded supplies and transported them to the troops.

Nearly 2.5 million blacks drafted during World War II served in segregated units in the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force and Coast Guard, according to the National Center for Veteran Statistics and Analysis.

By 1948, President Harry S. Truman issued an executive order to enforce desegregation in all Armed Forces.

Thank you, Sgt. Taylor

During the 50th anniversary of D-Day, French businessman Jean Leducq — who founded Prince Michel Vineyard and Winery in Madison County’s Leon in 1982 — hosted a special tribute for World War II veterans. About 1,600 people helped Leducq honor Taylor and the many men of the Greatest Generation. Leducq, who died at the age of 82 in 2002, was part of the French Resistance against the Axis powers and worked for the French National Railroad.

“It has been my dream for half a century to express my gratitude to all Americans, but especially to the members of the heroic 29th Infantry Division of the Army National Guard who suffered such heavy losses in their fight to liberate my homeland,” Leducq said at the event.

Former Virginia Gov. George Allen also attended the 1994 celebration at the winery, calling the veterans “courageous and valiant beyond comprehension.”

Growing up

Born on a farm near Merrimac on Aug. 6, 1922, Taylor is one of 10 children: six boys and four girls.

The only son still living, Taylor’s has two sisters in Philadelphia. His parents, George Washington Taylor and Ruth Lewis Taylor, purchased more than 28 acres adjacent to Taylor’s grandfather, who also owned an additional 42 acres along U.S. 29 just south of town.

Taylor’s father raised hogs, cows, and horses and grew his own fresh vegetables in a vast garden, and his mother canned as much as possible.

“In the 1930s, my daddy could take $2 and last him all week,” Taylor said proudly. “He had no electric bill, no telephone bill, no nothing. We always had plenty to eat. We made our own milk and butter.”

Without refrigerators, the Taylors used a nearby creek to keep perishable items cold.

In 1928, Taylor enrolled at Brocktown School — a one-room school for blacks where Kirtley Trail is located — completing the eighth grade in 1936.

Without transportation for black students in those days, Taylor walked two miles each way to school.

“In the winter I didn’t have any gloves, so I walked between two girls with one hand in one pocket and one in the other,” Taylor said. “I never got a chance to go to high school, because there was no high school in Culpeper for blacks at that time.”

So at the age of 14, Taylor went to work on a farm making $3.50 a week milking cows.

During the 1930s, local farmers suffered a difficult drought.

“The farmers caught it rough. The poor people had to survive the best way they could,” said Taylor, who endured The Great Depression, Jim Crow laws and the Second World War. “Back in those days, people were used to surviving. They were born that way.”

Getting back to business

When Taylor returned to civilian life in Culpeper in January 1946, he looked forward to using the G.I. Bill to help pay for a college education, but was denied, he said, based on his race.

Instead, Taylor took correspondence classes and supplemented that with on-the-job training with a black contractor.

After earning his Class A building, electrical and plumbing licenses, George Taylor and his brother Herbert started Taylor Brothers Home Builders in 1952, specializing in residential construction.

Taylor was already employed as a laborer helping to construct Andrews Air Force Base (formerly known as Camp Springs) when he was drafted in 1943.

The Taylor brothers were in business for 41 years until Herbert’s death in 1993. George retired soon after.

“We built a few houses in Culpeper, but we built homes all over Fauquier County from one end to the other for 20 years. That’s where the money was,” Taylor said proudly. “We did it all — the flooring, the electric and the plumbing. When we left, they could move right in.”

After the war, Taylor returned home to more of the same — segregation from the white population.

In 1948, Taylor helped build the George Washington Carver Piedmont Technical Educational Center, a segregated high school for blacks located on U.S. 15 in southern Culpeper County, and Mount Olive Baptist Church on White Shop Road in 1968, a place of worship dedicated to a black congregation.

His volunteer work includes serving as treasurer of the town’s bicentennial commission in 1959, a lifetime member of the Veterans of Foreign War Post 2524 and numerous civic and church organizations. As a lifetime member of the Reva Volunteer Fire and Rescue Department, he helped build that structure as well.

Family life

Taylor married his wife, Alice Washington, in September 1952, and the couple has three children: George Jr., Karl and Rosalynn. Alice Taylor, who graduated from Culpeper Training School in 1945, attended a cosmetology school in Buffalo, N.Y., before opening her own beauty salon above Dr. Elijah Barber’s medical office on East Davis Street.

When Alice became pregnant with her first child, the couple decided that she would stay home to raise the children.

She died Jan. 18, 2007.

The couple’s eldest son, George Jr., said his father taught his children to respect authority and stressed the importance of obtaining a higher education. All three of Taylor’s children graduated from Culpeper County High School. George Jr. and Karl Taylor earned degrees in computer science and Rosalynn received a degree in urban studies.

“He’s very hard working and always giving. He would even give when he didn’t have much to give himself,” said George Jr., who lives in Round Hill. “He’s also very active in the church and the community.”

Rosalynn Taylor Hughey also admires her father’s work ethic.

“He taught all three of his kids that in life you have to work hard to achieve your goals,” said Hughey, who lives in Upper Marlboro, Md. “Not just financial goals, but any personal or career goals. He taught us the importance of working hard.”

Hughey said the fact that her father was able to build a successful career with a limited education impresses her to a great extent.

“When people are getting MBAs in order to go further in business and my father didn’t even have a high school education and he was able to start, grow and have a very successful business with his brother and partner, that’s something that’s left a huge impression on me and my entire family,” said Hughey, the deputy director of citywide and neighborhood planning for the District of Columbia. “It’s because of his business in terms of building that has led me in my own profession. I have a love for design, and I know I got that from my dad.”

Karl Taylor recalls going to work with his father at age 5. By 13, Karl was a regular on the job site, helping with the plumbing, electrical and pouring cement.

“It helped develop me into a well-rounded person,” said Karl, who is a product manager for a computer software company in Atlanta.

A new day has dawned

After enduring decades of racial oppression, Taylor never imagined he’d see the day a black man would run this country.

That day came on Nov. 5, 2008, when Barack Obama won the presidential election.

“I’ve seen from almost slavery to a black man in the White House,” said Taylor. “I never thought I’d see black kids playing on the White House lawn. … But this is a new day now. And we’ve come a long way.”