I promise that I will say no more about Mardon Down after this long post! But I couldn’t do justice to its subject, Samuel Wesley Byuarm, in fewer words.
Since time immemorial Dartmoor has been the scene of military activity and Mardon Down is no exception – most recently in WWII when it was a US army field camp. I learned this at a meeting of the local history group when I also learned (and was surprised at myself for not having realised it) that until 1953 segregation applied in the American armed forces as much as it applied in wider society.
In 1944, as part of the extensive preparations for the D Day invasion, the 392nd Engineer General Regiment – a black African American regiment – came to Mardon. Their foxholes and earthworks , practice for their later deployment at Omaha Beach and the Battle of the Bulge, are still visible after swaling (annual burning off of gorse and heather) has been completed.
The rules of segregation applied as strictly in rural Devon as in the southern states of the USA. White soldiers were stationed elsewhere in Moretonhampstead. If a black soldier from Mardon Down walking along Fore Street saw a white soldier approaching, he had to get himself across to the other side of the road quickly. On one occasion a white GI demanded to be served his meal downstairs in the Toc H building because blacks were eating in the dining room upstairs. To her credit, the woman in charge told him he could eat with them or get out: he left.
But generally their reception in the village was predictably mixed. There were some romances, one or two marriages and some births out of wedlock. There was also a lot of prejudice and the soldiers of the 392nd preferred to use the pub in slightly further afield Dunsford where the reception was kinder than the one in Moreton. They were largely self-contained and self-sufficient up on the Down, and villagers down below used to hear their band playing in the evenings.
The 392nd consisted entirely of under-educated, unskilled African Americans. This is the story of one of them: Samuel Wesley Byuarm.
The only picture I could find of this remarkable man - his funeral service - and very poor quality
Samuel Wesley Byuarm was drafted in 1942 and a member of the 392nd Engineer General Service Regiment from its inception, serving as a staff sergeant in charge of supplies. He had graduated from high school but for the next 16 years or so had worked in the only occupations open to unskilled blacks, as a kitchen porter, washer-up and labourer. Before being drafted he had evidently caught the eye of someone who recognized his ability and he became a shipping clerk, a semi-skilled occupation. As a member of the regiment he served throughout the D Day and post D Day theatre.
In 1944 Roosevelt signed the GI Bill of Rights, a controversial piece of legislation that nearly didn’t make it on to the statute book. It did so thanks so a single tie-breaking vote by a congress member from Georgia being rushed in at the last moment for this purpose. The Bill of Rights gave returning GIs a number of opportunities – including housing benefit and, crucially, free education. Before this, home ownership and a college education would have been an unreachable dream for all but the richest Americans, Samuel Byuarm amongst them. Because of the life-chances it opened up, The Bill of Rights changed for ever the cultural, social and economic face of the USA, making it possible for African Americans and other impoverished groups to have aspirations and to find a route out of poverty and injustice.
Samuel took the opportunity, achieving his BA, MA and PhD, and became a successful academic – one of the earliest African Americans to do so, becoming Professor of Sociology at the University of Illinois. He worked tirelessly for justice and campaigned on issues of poverty and health, serving on organisations fighting against racism, inequality & bullying. He was awarded several honours for his work & there is a prize in his name for improving human relations at the historically African-American Johnson C. Smith University, North Carolina.
It is interesting to reflect that, thanks to the Bill of Rights, Samual Wesley Byuarm was one of the people who paved the way for Barack Obama’s rise through academia, to the Senate and the presidency. Obama’s history of pre-occupation with justice, poverty and community issues prior to becoming the Senator for Illinois echoes much of Byuarm’s story. Byuarm died in 1987 but it’s at least conceivable that their paths crossed - Illinois isn’t one of the largest states and the academic world is a small one – and more so that Obama knew of him.
I wonder whether – and to what extent – Byuarm’s time on Mardon Down and his experiences in the village of Moretonhampstead where he was a regular member of the Baptist Chapel congregation influenced him.
