Unsung Heroes of the Alaska Highway

In 1942, more than 3,000 African American soldiers of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers carved a road through the frozen wilderness of Alaska and Canada, linking the United States to its northern frontier. Their living conditions were far from equal — they slept in tents while white troops occupied heated barracks, labored with shovels where others had machines, and endured isolation, cold, and prejudice.

Yet, through endurance and pride, they built one of America’s greatest engineering feats. The Alaska Highway remains a lasting monument to their courage, discipline, and unshakable determination — a road not only through mountains and ice, but through barriers of discrimination.