Christine and Dennis McClure
A family connection led Christine and Dennis McClure to the Alaska Highway in 2013, but traveling the famous road raised issues more important than family. The racism that distorted the experience of thousands of young, black American soldiers infuriated them.
Back home they created two websites, one designed to locate Alcan veterans or their families, the other a blog to regularly share individual stories. They spent four years exhaustively researching the black experience on the Highway and writing a book, We Fought the Road, to present it to the world.
Back in Alaska in 2017 they discovered the even more infuriating experience of yet another segregated regiment, the 97th Engineers who worked in Alaska. After another four years of exhaustive research their second book, A Different Race, was just released by Little Lands End Publishing LLP.
Articles by
The Construction of the Alaska Highway, 1942: The Role of Race in the Far North
In the following article independent historians Christine and Dennis McClure describe the role race played in the construction of the...
Buffalo Soldiers in Skagway, Alaska (1899-1902)
In May of 1899 the United States Army sent Buffalo Soldiers, the black soldiers of Company L of the 24th...
Injustice in Alaska Territory: The World War II Court-martial of Ten Black Soldiers Who Helped Build the ALCAN Highway
In their latest book on the Black soldiers who helped build the Alcan Highway during World War II, authors Christine...
The 93rd Engineer Regiment (1941-1945)
With a small cadre of white officers and Black NCOs, the segregated 93rd Engineer Battalion (600 men) was activated on...
The 97th Engineering Regiment (1941-1948)
In 1941 the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), the construction agent for the War Department, maintained construction battalions...
