In commemoration of Black History Month, the latest article from “Beyond the World War II We Know,” a series by The Times that documents lesser-known stories from World War II, focuses on the challenges of black troops stationed in Germany in the aftermath of the war.

When Walter White, the head of the N.A.A.C.P. from 1931 to 1955, wrote a piece for the Chicago Defender in 1948 about a recent trip he had taken to Germany to report on black troops stationed there, he reflected on one particular question Germans had asked him about America: “How can you talk about German racism as long as you maintain separate white and black armies?”

As a civil rights activist, White had posed that very question to the United States government time and again. And the answer he received repeatedly was frank: America functioned under Jim Crow and the military was no different.

For the 1.2 million black men who served in a segregated army during World War II, efficiency and bravery on the battlefield didn’t lead to the social changes they had hoped for. The gulf between America’s ideals and its realities hit home particularly hard for one group: the thousands of black occupation troops sent to a defeated Germany to promote democracy.