On Thanksgiving 1925, 10 of the 15 African-American World War I soldiers who had ties to North Iowa were U.S. Army veterans and lived within a 30-mile radius of Mason City. All served in France in segregated regiments assigned to perform menial, physically and psychologically straining tasks that white soldiers were never assigned.

J.W. Sayles is a Mason City resident. Opinions are his own.

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