With black history month being celebrated around the nation, Professor Lilly is intent on getting all the details of the executions and spreading the information. The professor, rich with curiosity but short on money, is planning to write a book about these military executions.

By his accounting, 70 soldiers were executed after courts-martial in Europe during the war, 55 of them black and 15 white. About 70 more executions were carried out elsewhere in the American military, but so far no breakdown on racial data has been obtained. "It was very clear that blacks were being punished in almost all instances a hell of a lot more for their behavior, proportionate to their presence, than the white soldiers were," Professor Lilly said.

"There's no question that in most instances the crimes committed were horrendous," he said. "But we don't know whether whites got away with the same acts, particularly the rapes."

The military data he has gathered in Europe show that blacks (or "colored," as the military referred to them then) made up 79 percent of the soldiers executed in Europe, as against 21 percent for whites. Death Sentences for Rape

The rate of execution for black soldiers was even higher for the rape of civilians, for which 25 blacks (87 percent) and 4 whites (13 percent) were put to death. In 28 murder convictions, 22 blacks and 6 whites were executed. Of the 12 executed for murder and rape, 8 were black and 4 were white. The other execution was that of Eddie Slovik, a white, for desertion. The United States Army Center of Military History in Washington says very little information is available on the subject. But one historian there, Russell J. Parkinson, was able to confirm the basic data that Mr. Lilly is using. "There's clearly a black preponderance," Mr. Parkinson said, after reviewing the execution records and finding Mr. Lilly's quest a worthy avenue for scholarship.