Local Author Perry Cockerell Promotes Fiction Novel About Two African American Soldiers Fighting in World War II. In 2016 local attorney and author Perry Cockerell wrote the fiction novel “A Private War” that centers on two fictional black United States Army soldiers serving in the European Theater during World War II. What inspired him to write the novel? He searched his name on the internet and it came up in a website written about the contributions of African American soldiers serving in World War II. The article was written by Ollie Stewart, the first black journalist credentialed to cover the European Theater. Stewart interviewed a Private Perry Cockerell from Lexington, Mississippi. The website contains the many of the war reports of Ollie Stewart and others and can be found at is http://members.tripod.com/black_and_hispanic/blackhistory/invation_of _france.htm. “It is amazing that I have the same name as the Army private who served in the invasion of Normandy during World War II. I can trace my family roots to Normandy and served in the military. I have great respect for the Private and for all of those great men and women who served in World War II and thereafter. They gave the ultimate sacrifice of their lives for our great country.”
A Private War (2016) Set between the years 1930 and 1947, “A Private War” follows the intertwining lives of the two young soldiers and African American war correspondents, and contentious military attorneys. Tragically orphaned as a young child in Alabama, Andre Williams is raised with his best friend, Booker Thompson, and experiences youth in a small town filled with friendship, mischief, and romance. After Andre’s home is accidently burned down in 1930 he grows up with Booker. They join the Army in November 1941 at the behest of Uncle George who could no longer care for them. When African American soldiers are encouraged to participate in the war effort, Uncle George has them enlist and they are sent into the African and European arenas of World War II. While Andre and Booker experience the dangers and difficulties of battle, three war correspondents, Oliver Smith, Cub Miller and Tatiana Phillips, break the gender and race barrier as they too are sent overseas to cover the experience of the black soldier serving in Africa and Europe. The journalists