Washington (CNN) -- Thurgood Marshall, Hattie McDaniel, the Tuskegee Airmen and Walter Morris -- all African-Americans who made history breaking the color barrier. But while America's first black Supreme Court justice, the first African-American Oscar winner and the U.S. military's first African-American pilots are well known, you may never have heard of Walter Morris or his role in American history. The War Department, as the Defense Department used to be called, wanted it that way. In March, a ceremony at the Pentagon sought to undo that. When Walter Morris first joined the Army just before World War II, he wasn't a "black" or "Negro" or "African-American" soldier -- he was "colored." And he was treated like all the other "colored" men who wanted to fight for their country.
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Walter Morris joined Army just before World War II when segregation still ruled
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He became head of new African-American unit, the 555th Parachute Infantry Company
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555th wound up fighting fires in Western U.S. in a mission that was kept secret
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Pentagon to honor their contributions in Thursday ceremony
"They didn't think colored soldiers had the intestinal fortitude to jump out of a plane in flight," @placeholder remembered.