"A white fella told me [after the Pearl Harbor attack], ‘Well, we have a battle,’ and I said, ‘No, we don’t have one; you have a battle,’ because...I was a real victim of discrimination here in Texas, and I knew I wasn’t wanted, period."(Video Interview, 4:29)

Reby Cary

Reby Cary in uniform [1943] War: World War, 1939-1945 Branch: Coast Guard Unit: USS Cambria (APA 36) Service Location: New Jersey; Saipan (Northern Mariana Islands); Japan; Tinian (Northern Mariana Islands); Leyte (Philippines); Luzon (Philippines); Okinawa Island (Ryukyu Islands); Key West, Florida; Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Pacific Theater Rank: Radioman First Class Place of Birth: TX

Having grown up in Texas in the 1920s and 1930s, Reby Cary had experienced racial discrimination and was eager to avoid it in the service. So when he was drafted out of graduate school in 1942, he enlisted in the Coast Guard, which was actively recruiting blacks to become able-bodied seamen. He trained as a radio operator and served aboard the Cambria, a ship involved in the invasions of Saipan and Okinawa. Cary was accepted as an equal aboard his ship, so it was more than disappointing when he returned home to find the status quo, right down to black veterans being denied postwar job training. He persevered, becoming an educator, an author, a businessman, and a state legislator.