Though he was young, Medgar was plagued by the questions raised by what he’d experienced in the war. “Why should I put my life on the line for my country, the place where I was born and reared . . . and even while I am here in Europe, I’m still treated [by the U.S. Army] as a second-class citizen,” he told family members and friends. “And then when I return to the country of my birth, I’m treated not only as a second-class citizen, but a human being that they despise and want to see put down and kept on a lower tier than everybody else.”2 He told the story again and again.
