Newfoundland Rescuers Scrub Black Survivor

In February 1942, the U.S. Navy ships USS Truxtun and USS Pollux wrecked in a storm off Newfoundland near the town of St. Lawrence, sending oil-coated survivors struggling ashore. Local residents, many of whom had never seen a black person before, rescued the men and tried to scrub one African American sailor, Lanier Phillips, because they thought the dark color on his skin was bunker oil soaked into his pores.

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