"Most were buck privates who succumbed to infections or pneumonia. Some are buried in France. All 21 were African American troops from Laurens County who died in uniform during World War I or soon after it ended. They are among the 43 veterans of the Great War on a new courthouse plaque in Dublin that will be featured at an upcoming ceremony. It replaces a United Daughters of the Confederacy plaque from 1921 that listed only white troops. Many blacks who died during the war were not publicly recognized in segregated America after the fighting ended and as the nation endured deadly race riots and lynchings during the “Red Summer” of 1919. Dublin and a few other Georgia communities have set out to correct that. Local real estate attorney Scott Thompson Sr. and Keith Smith, the historian for Dublin’s American Legion Post 17, uncovered the names of the 21 black troops while digging through draft records, court files and death certificates. “It was just the right thing to do,” said Thompson, a former U.S. Army Reservist and the former president of the Laurens County Historical Society." www.ajc.com/news/state--regional/georgia-communities-honor-black-american-veterans-who-died-during-wwi/abqiL1UTPHslvmkEqaTOJL/?fbclid=IwAR0XDJNEG7qJ-7TjCaqAk5115hgotpTZT7mPUbm4MYZvOGNoi05MR5WVfAU