The U.S. Armed forces were desegregated 75 years ago this week. Decades later, many Black veterans, including World War II and Vietnam veterans, still struggle with lower rates of GI Bill benefit approvals like disability pay and homeownership.
On the anniversary of the military’s desegregation, 23 attorneys general signed a letter urging Congress to move on H.R. 1255, the “Sgt. Isaac Woodard, Jr. and Sgt. Joseph H. Maddox GI Bill Restoration Act of 2023.” Connecticut AG William Tong was among them.
“Well, number one, it is important, it's a matter of justice because these veterans and their families gave so much,” Tong said.
The bill would extend access to VA home loans and education benefits for Black World War II veterans, spouses and descendants who were once denied those benefits because of their race.
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“And that's why what this law would do is make sure that anybody who was prejudiced by a discriminatory practice in VA benefits, in education, in home loan guarantees, who were victims of redlining, that now we make that right,” Tong said.
Black veterans have for years struggled to obtain GI Bill benefits at the same rate as their white counterparts.
The Government Accountability Office released a report this week confirming that Black veterans had lower approval rates for disability benefits under the GI Bill than any other group between 2010 and 2020.
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“And so, it just confirms that Black vets have long known that they face, you know, stark racial inequities in accessing VA disability compensation,” said Richard Brookshire, CEO and co-founder of the Black Veterans Project. “And now, you know, there's a level of accountability that can happen because we actually have these numbers in more and a more concrete fashion.”
Conley Monk, a Vietnam veteran in Hamden, has filed a lawsuit against the United States for access to disability and education benefits that he and his father were denied.
“I feel that I'm entitled to some form of compensation,” Monk said during an interview in January with NBC Connecticut. “I felt that I should have been entitled to it when I came back from Vietnam. But all these years, you know, I was unable to get any help from the military.”
Monk has PTSD from the Vietnam War and was denied access to healthcare treatment and disability benefits for 40 years. The federal government responded to his suit by filing a motion to dismiss his case. A ruling has not yet been made.
Cases like his are the reason Tong is pushing for Congress to pass the GI Restoration Act of 2023. He tells NBC Connecticut that he would not be an American born in Hartford if not for American soldiers liberating the Pacific and fighting a war that might have ended his grandparents’ lives.
“And it's because of their contributions that all of us have the lives that we have today and the world that we have today,” Tong said.
The letter was signed by a bipartisan group of attorneys general, and Tong says he hopes other states join it.
