Photo: AFP
The removal of displays honoring African American soldiers from a U.S. World War II cemetery in the Netherlands has sparked widespread outrage from families and local officials.
According to Newsweek, the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) confirmed that a display featuring Private George H. Pruitt, a New Jersey-born engineer who died in 1945 rescuing a fellow soldier, has been “temporarily taken off display, though not out of rotation" at the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten. A second panel describing the U.S. military’s segregation during the war has been permanently retired.
Four of the cemetery’s 15 panels “currently feature African American service members buried at the cemetery,” the ABMC said. However, journalists visiting the Netherlands American Cemetery reported that those panels weren't visible.
Raphael Morris, the nephew of late soldier Julius Morris, said he believes the removal stemmed from racism.
“I think it’s all about race,” he told Newsweek. “They can deny it all they like, but the pattern is so clear. I never thought that it would reach all the way across the water and to rear its ugly head at Margraten—and it really did upset me.”
Julius Morris, who died in April 1945, is among the 174 African American soldiers buried or memorialized at Margraten, where more than 8,200 Americans rest. The panels, installed in 2024, detailed the lives of Black servicemen and the legacy of segregation in the U.S. military, which ended in 1948.
Local officials have joined calls for the reinstatement of the displays.
Alain Krijnen, mayor of Eijsden-Margraten, wrote to the ABMC urging it to “reconsider the removal of the displays” and ensure the stories of Black American soldiers receive “permanent attention.”
Historians and residents say the disappearance of the panels aligns with Trump's crackdown on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Earlier this year, Arlington National Cemetery removed online references to Black and female service members, while the Pentagon reversed a similar action only after public backlash.
“It is at least remarkable what they have done,” Samuel de Korte, a historian of Black American soldiers in WWII, said. “The experiences of Black U.S. soldiers—already very different from their white counterparts—are far less well known.”
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