1960s 1970s USAF AFRICAN AMERICAN PHOTO ALBUM

Item #1311

This is the album and scrapbook of one Lester C. Williams, a black recruit to the United States Air Force. The album opens with a certificate of graduation from Ballistic Missile Orientation from the Norton AFB in California.

The bulk of the album consists of Williams’ personal photographs - his wife or girlfriend, standing in a doorway back home; friends, family in faded (but still clear) polaroids; numerous pictures of game action from football matches (it would seem to be at the high-school level, rather than official Corps team play); soldiers marching in formation, or standing at attention; our hero at his desk, flanked by photos of fighters in flight; a young child, then two; a newsletter, published soon before the bicentennial, published in the manner of a revolution-era broadsheet; and finally, faded color photographs of Williams’ wife and two daughters, on a trip to Paris, dated on the reverse “Spring 1965”.

Dramatically, the three-ring binder ends with a portrait of John F. Kennedy, clearly revered by Williams.

Given the saga of the concurrent civil-rights movement - and more specifically, the drama surrounding the integration of the U.S. armed forces - this must be considered an important document of recent American history.

9 3/4” x 11 1/2” x 1 1/2”, portrait orientation; 12 leaves/24 pages, black with plastic sheathing; containing 62 pieces of ephemera, mostly photographs of varying sizes but including some newspaper clippings, the aforementioned certificate of attendance, and the gazette.

Price: $300.00