A soldier in uniform stands with his right arm around an older man and his left arm around an older woman, while both look at him with pride.

Charles “Teenie” Harris, Tuskegee Airman James T. Wiley posed with possibly his parents (detail), June 1944. © Carnegie Museum of Art, Charles “Teenie” Harris Archive

With Diligence and Care: Celebrating Memorial Day through the Photographs of Charles “Teenie” Harris

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Each Memorial Day, we honor the men and women who have died in service to this country as part of its armed forces. With diligence and care, many local observances of this holiday seek to uplift African Americans, who have often fought and died abroad for a country that marginalized them through segregation and Jim Crow laws at home.

During the 1940s, Charles “Teenie” Harris photographed over 1,500 soldiers in his studio, which was located on Centre Avenue in Pittsburgh’s Hill District. These portraits were his contribution to the war effort. As a photojournalist for the Pittsburgh Courier, Harris also captured the realities—points of pride and points of sorrow—of a “separate but equal” service during this era.

Harris’s photographs preserve the legacy of black patriotism during a time of visible discrimination. The lived experiences of Master Sergeant Eugene Boyer Jr., a veteran of World War II and the Korean War, and of Mr. Staff Sergeant Lance Woods—60 years Boyer’s junior, and a veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan—have been woven into this history. Their recollections of their unique experiences frame the activities captured in these photographs.

Two soldiers in uniform standing on a platform salute while a US flag waves behind them.
Charles “Teenie” Harris, Two men wearing U.S. Army uniforms, including Major George S. Roberts (on left), ca. 1944. © Carnegie Museum of Art, Charles “Teenie” Harris Archive
Men in athletic pants and shorts stand in three rows of eight inside of a gymnasium. A man in uniform stands at the front of the center row.
Charles “Teenie” Harris, Men standing in lines, including man wearing military uniform at front center, in Centre Avenue Y.M.C.A. gymnasium, ca. 1940–1955. © Carnegie Museum of Art, Charles “Teenie” Harris Archive
Three men stand behind the counter of a large kitchen with a range, pots, and hanging utensils in the background and a counter holding covered bowls and stacks of plates in the foreground.
Charles “Teenie” Harris, Three men, including Mess Sergeant Lewis in center, standing in military mess kitchen at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, 1940. © Carnegie Museum of Art, Charles “Teenie” Harris Archive
A newspaper clipping featuring a row of three photographs.
Images published in the Pittsburgh Courier, September 7, 1940.

“The day that I was drafted in 1945, I go down there to the draft board, and you’re waiting to get assigned to a unit in the military, and they’ve got you all lined up, and they say, ‘This guy, you go to the Navy. This one to Marines. This one to the Army.’ I was literally praying, ‘Please don’t let me go to the Navy,’ because the only thing you could be in the Navy was a cook. And a server. For a guy who comes in the military expecting to defend his country, here you are, you’re serving dinner to these officers, and they weren’t always very nice. But the feeling of the Navy was, that was the only thing you were capable of doing.”
—Master Sergeant Eugene Boyer Jr., US Army 1 

Men in uniform stand and sit in a semicircle, talking.
Charles “Teenie” Harris, Five soldiers at Army training camp or base, possibly at Fort Bragg, ca. 1935–1950. © Carnegie Museum of Art, Charles “Teenie” Harris Archive
A man in uniform sits on top of a duffel bag placed on the ground, his face propped up by his left hand and his left elbow on his knee. He wears an armband with a cross on a white background and a flag with the same cross rises above his duffel bag, held in place by one of its straps.
Charles “Teenie” Harris, Medic soldier seated on duffel bag, ca. 1930–1950. © Carnegie Museum of Art, Charles “Teenie” Harris Archive

“In the Army, it’s all hurry up and wait. You know, so everything’s rushing a million miles an hour and then you sit down for six months, six weeks, you know, six days. Nothing is immediate, I feel like. Until it is.”—Staff Sergeant Lance Woods, US Army

“Hurry up and wait. You sat on your duffle bag, and you waited for wherever they were sending you. You were always moving, after a year or so in one spot, you were always being transferred someplace else [. . .] They’d send you there and you’d do everything that had to be done, and you were there maybe six months, a year, and then you were off to someplace else.”—Master Sergeant Eugene Boyer Jr., US Army 2 

A man in uniform and a woman in a collared dress or blouse sit cheek to cheek in a booth, looking directly at the camera.
Charles “Teenie” Harris, Man in military uniform and woman, seated in booth, possibly Celebrity Cafe, Hill District, ca. 1944. © Carnegie Museum of Art, Charles “Teenie” Harris Archive
A man in uniform embraces a woman in a white jacket, with his hands on her back and her hands around his shoulders, as they share a kiss.
Charles “Teenie” Harris, Woman and Army Corp. of Engineers soldier, ca. 1950–1955. © Carnegie Museum of Art, Charles “Teenie” Harris Archive
A soldier in uniform stands with his right arm around an older man and his left arm around an older woman, while both look at him with pride.
Charles “Teenie” Harris, Tuskegee Airman James T. Wiley posed with possibly his parents, June 1944. © Carnegie Museum of Art, Charles “Teenie” Harris Archive
A man in uniform stands outdoors at the front of a group of nearly thirty children who are gathered closely around him.
Charles “Teenie” Harris, Children gathered around Tuskegee Airman James T. Wiley, in Homewood, 1944. © Carnegie Museum of Art, Charles “Teenie” Harris Archive

“I got on a bus one day. I was probably 16 or 17, and the war was going on. There was a black pilot, he was a lieutenant, on the bus, and he had dark glasses on. I found out he had gotten fragments in his eyes in an air[strike] and his vision was impaired [. . .] For me, that was the greatest thing that could’ve happened. I really saw a black fighter pilot, so you know now, it’s possible. That was a great feeling.”—Master Sergeant Eugene Boyer Jr., US Army 3 

Two men in uniform and five men in overcoats hold a casket draped with a US flag.
Charles “Teenie” Harris, Pallbearers wearing U.S. Army uniforms, holding flag-draped casket, ca. 1943. © Carnegie Museum of Art, Charles “Teenie” Harris Archive

Endnotes

  1. Boyer Jr., Eugene and Lance Woods. Interview with Dominique Luster. August 31, 2017. ↵
  2. Boyer and Woods, interview. ↵
  3. Boyer and Woods, interview. ↵