Henry County is a county in the northwest part of Tennessee. Today, its population is about 32,000 and the county seat is Paris. My wife is from Paris, TN. I took the photo during one of our visits to see her mother and/or her stepfather. To the best of my knowledge, the photo was taken in about 1992, as I had my daughter with me when I took the photo. I do remember it was a cold day in Paris, and we both had winter coats and hats on.
The photo shows the memorial that is set up to honor those killed in action during the various wars that the United States was engaged in. The location of the memorial is the former football field associated with Grove School, which was the long-time high school in Paris, TN. Today, although the school is standing, it is no longer in use as a school and is normally used for community events. The field is often used for peewee football, soccer and other events.
There are two parts of the photo that strike me every time I look at it. In no particular order, at the time of World War II, Henry County’s population was a bit less than it is today, registering about 25,000 individuals who identified themselves as living in Henry County. Yet, from the monument, it is obvious the toll WWII took on Henry County as can been seen from the large number of casualties from this small rural county in Tennessee. This in itself brings home to me just how massive the war effort of the United States must have been during WWII and how even a fairly remote part of our country was impacted greatly.
The second thing that always strikes me about this photo is the segregation of African American war dead. The left-hand column of the monument clearly identifies the war casualty ‘Negroes’ from WWI and WWII.
I especially like the composition of this photo because of both the lock and the barbed wire on the gate, which to me, is symbolic of how African Americans were locked out of many aspects of American life, perhaps epitomized by the injustice, even after death, of being segregated on a monument honoring those that died in the service of our country.