…The African American community uh…was was all I mean most of the African Americans lived in a uh...in the southeast area. And, and most of them attended um…well, uh, for the um…elementary and junior high. Well the junior high school was the Hand Junior High School. That was, that was the um junior

Lancaster County Historical Society African-American Veterans Oral History Project Interviewer: Carole LeFever Interviewee: Nelson Polite Location: Home of Nelson Polite Subject: American Legion Post 780 Date of Interview: October 19, 2006 Transcription Date: January 23, 2009 Transcriber: Miles

] Post No. 772 of the American Legion, Columbia, Pennsylvania was one of the congratulatory uh…sponsors. L: Now was it, was it common for American Legions to be named after a local person, or was that uniquely an African American thing? B: No that was the common— L: That was the practice. B: Yes. L: Now

not right after, it must have been about three, four years after that. L: Alright well let’s go back a little bit. What made you decide to join the military? That wouldn’t have been a normal thing for an African American woman at that time, you were one of the first. What made you decide to go that