Joseph Knight (February 14, 1921-August 19, 1945)

3187th Quartermaster Service Company, 3rd US Army

By Heaven Wilson and Gramond McPherson

Early Life

Joseph Knight was born on February 14, 1921, in Jupiter, FL, located in Palm Beach County.¹ His father was born in Georgia. Knight’s mother Anna (née Bush) was born in South Carolina and, by 1910, she lived in Palm Beach County. His mother had been previously married, with her first marriage coming at the age of sixteen, but by 1930, she listed her marital status as divorced.² Knight had several half-siblings including brothers Vincent Small, born in 1909, and James Pratt (1919) and sisters Florence Pratt (c.1904), Linda Pratt (c. 1912), and Thelma Pratt (1916).³ In 1920, Knight’s mother and his sister Linda supported the family by working in the farming industry in Palm Beach County. By 1930, the family moved south to Fort Lauderdale, FL, where Anna worked as a laborer in the truck farming industry.⁴ Truck farming involved the production of annual fruit and vegetable crops that would be sold fresh and shipped to markets across the country and the world. While Broward County in the 1920s experienced a land boom that brought thousands of new residents to the area, the county before World War II remained one of the leading production areas in the world for truck vegetables.⁵

By 1935, Knight and his family moved north to Daytona Beach, FL. His household included his mother Anna, his two brothers Vincent and James, his sister Thelma, and Thelma’s one-year-old daughter Florence.⁶ During the 1920s and 1930s, Daytona Beach attracted thousands of tourists, particularly as a winter resort for white residents from colder states in the North and Midwest. However, Daytona Beach also attracted African Americans who came to the area for employment in agriculture as well as domestic and personal services, hotels, restaurants, boarding houses, and other manufacturing industries, despite these jobs being low-paying.⁷ In Daytona Beach, Anna worked as a laundress, a common occupation for many Black women. They either worked from their own homes, which allowed them to care for their children, or in the homes of their white employers. While fourteen-year-old Joseph still attended school, his brother Vincent worked as a laborer amid the Great Depression, while his sister, Thelma, worked as a maid, another common occupation for Black women.⁸

Daytona Theater, Beach St., Daytona Beach, FL, 1979

By 1937, Knight entered the workforce as a porter at the Lyric Theater in Daytona Beach, likely responsible for greeting movie patrons.⁹ In 1940, Knight, then seventeen years old, made deliveries for a retail drug store in town. In the previous year, Knight earned an income of seventy-two dollars. His household recorded on the census included himself, his mother Anna, and his niece Florence. While his mother, now fifty-four years old, listed herself as unable to work, she stated she earned income from other sources than wages or salary.¹⁰ In 1942, Joseph worked at the Daytona Theater which opened in 1941 on Beach Street, as seen here. By 1943, Knight moved north to Mercer County, NJ.¹¹ As part of the second wave of the Great Migration during the 1940s, Knight likely moved north in search of better employment opportunities as thousands of African Americans migrated to cities like Trenton, NJ for defense jobs during World War II.¹²

Military Service

Joseph Knight WWII Draft Registration Card

With the US entering World War II after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, millions of men continued to register for the military draft. On February 16, 1942, in Daytona Beach, Knight, then twenty-one years old, participated in the Third Draft of men between the ages of twenty and forty-five who had not previously registered, as seen here. After moving to New Jersey and being motivated to serve his country, Knight enlisted in the Army on November 20, 1943, in Camden, NJ.¹³ Many Black soldiers believed that by joining the military and serving overseas honorably, they would improve the quality of life at home for all African Americans. They believed that performing the same service as their white counterparts would give them better opportunities in education and employment, as well as improve their day-to-day lives. In 1942, the Pittsburgh Courier, a prominent Black newspaper, featured a letter by a Black Wichita, KS, resident named James Thompson that stated, “Would it be demanding too much to demand full citizenship rights in exchange for the sacrificing of my life? Is the kind of America I know worth defending?”¹⁴ With the Courier leading the charge, the Double V campaign–victory overseas against fascism and victory at home over racism–galvanized African Americans during the war to defeat tyranny abroad and defeat racism at home.¹⁵

Yet, Black soldiers like Knight continued to experience racism and discrimination as the military restricted Black soldiers to segregated and largely non-combat units during the war. Moreover, one account from a Black soldier stated that German prisoners of war could enter facilities reserved for white Americans that Black servicemen could not enter. Typical duties of Black soldiers in service units included cooking food, digging ditches, gathering the dead, serving white officers, washing laundry; building bridges, roads, and runaways, and repairing engines and radios.¹⁶ After completing his basic training, Knight served in the 3187th Quartermaster Service Company overseas, first spending some time in Hamstead, located in southern England before crossing into continental Europe.¹⁷ During their time in Britain, Black soldiers noted the difference in their treatment by white British citizens compared to their typical experiences with white Americans back in the US. Evelyn Clarisse Martin-Johnson, a postal clerk during her time of service in Britain, stated, “They the English people treated us royally.”¹⁸ This is not to say that racial prejudice in British society remained absent, but as British people warmly welcomed Black troops, it only served to underline the many injustices that they faced back in the US. This motivated Black Veterans after the war to campaign for greater political and economic freedoms in the US.¹⁹

Sometime prior to December 1943, the 3187th was attached to the 3rd US Army. On December 31, 1943, the 3rd Army received orders to depart overseas for the United Kingdom (UK). From the UK, the 3rd Army prepared to participate in the Allied invasion of Europe. Knight likely joined a few months after the 3187th became attached to the 3rd Army in the UK. On January 26, 1944, Lieutenant General George S. Patton Jr. took command of the 3rd Army. In the month following the D-Day landings of June 6, 1944, the units of the 3rd Army arrived in France.²⁰ Quartermaster companies like Knight’s played a key role for Patton and the 3rd Army. The 3187th and others transported ammunition, food, gasoline, and water to combat soldiers on the front lines. From mid-1944 through the spring of 1945, quartermaster companies supplied the 3rd Army as it pushed German forces out of France and Belgium and into Germany itself.²¹ After the German surrender on May 8, 1945, the 3187th remained in Germany, receiving occupation credit from August 15 to October 31, 1945.²² However, a few days into this occupation period, Knight suddenly passed away on August 19, 1945.²³

Legacy

Knight was initially buried in the St. Avold-Metz Cemetery, outside the city of Saint-Avold, France near the German border. After World War II ended in September 1945, the rest of the 3187th returned to the US in March 1946. Less than four years after his initial burial in France, Knight’s body returned to the US. On February 4, 1949, he was reinterred at the St. Augustine National Cemetery in Florida, close to his family in Daytona Beach. He now rests among his fellow Veterans in Section D, Site 144.²⁴ While the service of Knight and other Black soldiers in quartermaster and supply units is often forgotten in the memories and narratives of the war, their efforts proved crucial to the success of the Allied forces during World War II.

In 1950, Knight’s immediate family still lived in Daytona Beach. Knight’s mother Anna lived by herself in a unit at Pine Haven, a public housing development constructed for African Americans.²⁵ Knight’s older brother, Vincent, also lived at Pine Haven with his wife Drusilla, whom he married in 1943. In 1950, Vincent’s household included his wife, his two stepdaughters Elane and Mildred, three daughters Jacqulyn, Dorothy, and Lucinda, a son Vincent Jr., and a granddaughter Cynthia. Vincent supported his family working as a janitor for a local school. Vincent continued to live in Daytona Beach until he died in 1983.²⁶ In 1940, Knight’s other brother James had been married to his wife Elizabeth and had a daughter named Joan Elizabeth. However, after the couple’s divorce in 1946, James lived with his new wife Alice and worked as a porter at a service station.²⁷ Knight’s older sister Thelma married her husband, Henry Watkins, in 1940, and by 1950, the couple, along with Thelma’s daughter, Florence, also lived in town. Thelma worked as a beautician, while Henry worked as a carpenter’s helper for a construction company. Thelma continued to live in Daytona Beach until her death on March 2, 1998. As this is written, Knight and his generation's struggle for victory at home continues. ²⁸

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