Years after death, KC high school gives Black WWII Medal of Honor awardee diploma
Only seven Black soldiers who fought in World War II have ever been awarded the military’s highest decoration for valor, the Medal of Honor.
In 1997, Pfc. Willy F. James, Jr. of Kansas City, who died in Germany at age 25 trying to save a wounded comrade, became one of them. On a single day, he and the other recipients were awarded their medals — six posthumously — by President Bill Clinton in acknowledgment of heroics that had gone unrecognized for far too long, due largely in part to the nation’s history of racism.
On Friday, with a line of James’ descendants — including his 104-year-old sister, Elizabeth Baldwin — seated on stage, he was awarded another posthumous honor: an honorary diploma from his high school, Lincoln College Preparatory Academy.
Black history and DEI under attack
Although the receipt of a high school diploma may seem small compared to a Medal of Honor, Ret. 1st Sgt. Robert Gray, III, of the U.S. Marine Corps, said he arranged the tribute to highlight not only James as a distinguished Lincoln alum, but also Black history at a time when President Donald Trump’s administration has placed diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI) and Black history under attack.
“Not everyone knows his story,” Gray told The Star of James. “He fought for this country. He defended the Constitution. He took an oath, and he sacrificed his life so we can be here. Then for the administration to go, ‘Oh, well, we don’t want to talk about Black history.’ That’s American history.
“The number one motivated goal is that Black history needs to be taught and talked about. We have the perfect right to be part of the United States. He gave his life for that.”
The auditorium was full of students three days after Veterans Day. They listened to Gray tell the story of James’ bravery, how on April 8, 1945, he time and again faced withering machine gun fire as part of an assault on a German town, and how he died, struck by gunfire, as he attempted to reach his wounded platoon leader.
“Think about it,” Gray told the students. ”The courage it took for this young, Black man in 1941 to put on the uniform of a segregated army, to risk everything for his country that would not let him sit at certain lunch counters, live is certain neighborhoods, or attend certain universities. Think about the faith that it took to believe in an ideal America, even when reality fell short.
“That kind of faith, that kind of sacrifice demands that we not only remember his name, but also carry forward the unfinished mission to ensure that no American is ever treated as half an American.”
Black soldiers’ tribute removed from military cemetery
Also in the auditorium was a reporter and camera crew from Denmark Public Television, capturing footage and later interviewing Margaret Pender of Kansas City, Kan., the niece of James’ wartime bride, the late Valcenie James, who wed the solider just before he deployed.
James is buried at The Netherlands American Cemetery and Memorial in Margraten, the only American military cemetery in the Netherlands. Some 8,300 other soldiers, 174 of whom are Black, are interred there. Just before Veterans Day, controversy erupted over what has been reported as the quiet removal by the cemetery of two panels related to the Black soldiers that had been on display since September 2024 in the visitor’s center.
One panel focused on how Black soldiers who had enlisted found themselves “fighting on two fronts,” that included the Nazis in Europe and American racism and segregation at home. The other told the story of George H. Pruitt, a Black soldier who after the war ended attempting to safe the life a fellow solider in a German river.
The Military Times has reported that while one panel was “retired,” the other is still in rotation. Both were reportedly removed in March, one month after President Donald Trump’s executive order terminating DEI initiatives across federal government agencies.
CNN reported that Charles Djou, the former secretary of the American Battle Monuments Commission, which runs the sites, told the news agency that the panel’s removal was “done via an internal agency review at the prompting of the Trump administration.” An appointee of former President Joe Biden, Djou was dismissed by the Trump administration.
Following the Lincoln event, Pender expressed outrage over the removals.
“I’m appalled,” Pender said. “I hope that it can be replaced. It’s senseless. It’s like eradicating everything that we stand for as Black Americans.
“If we don’t know our history, these children, these students that are here, if they don’t know where they’ve been, they won’t know where they’re going. We need history. We don’t need everything to be shut down regarding our race.”
But rather than a setback, Pender said, she believes the removal of the panels can be a motivator.
“I feel that it’s something that's actually prompted us to keep moving,” she said. “We have to keep the stories going. We have to share the stories. They have to be in the schools, in the homes, in public, so that people will know, so that our people — so everyone — will know. Because we all contribute to the United States of America.”
.JPG "IMG_7642 (1).JPG")
Medal of Honor recipient’s family finds each other
James’ diploma was presented to his sister seated in her wheelchair. The family members sitting in a line on stage put the importance of story in high relief. Pender said that she and her husband had long cared for Valcenie James, James’ widow, until her death at age 87 in 2002.
Pender and her husband and Valcenie James, who did not remarry or have children following her husband’s death, all attended the Medal of Honor ceremony with President Clinton in 1997. When Valcenie James died, the medal passed to Pender who, in 2023, agreed to place it on permanent display under glass at the Black Archives of Mid-America, 1722 E. 17th Terrace.
Until last year, however, she was unaware of the existence of James’ 104-year-old sister or any of the extended family who live nearby. Baldwin’s family, likewise, was unaware of Pender. Until just recently, they also did not know that their mother’s and grandmother’s late brother was a war hero who was awarded the Medal of Honor.
“We did not find that out until last year,” James’ grandniece, Angela Buttram, said.
Buttram said that her grandmother still possesses the Western Union telegram announcing her brother’s death on April, 8 1945, one month shy of the May 8, 1945 end of the war in Europe, known as VE, or Victory in Europe, Day.
But perhaps because her name had changed over the years, she never received notice from the White House in 1997 that her brother had been awarded the Medal of Honor.
“They didn’t know we existed,” Buttram said.
It was Gray, the retired Marine first sergeant, who ultimately informed them.
“I remember as a little girl my mom telling me she had a brother, because she’s all we’ve ever known,” said James’ niece Brenda Smith. “So I asked her about her siblings. She said she had a brother who died in the war, and that was it. It never went any further than that.”
Now, they’ll never forget.
“It’s exciting,” Smith said. “It’s just amazing.”
This story was originally published November 15, 2025 at 5:41 AM.
