Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/Peer review/List of African American Medal of Honor recipients

List of African American Medal of Honor recipients

Have worked on this quite a bit and would like for it to be a Featured List eventually. Any comments are appreciated. jwillbur^talk 00:14, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

Kirill Lokshin

Some thoughts:

• The lead needs to be more self-explanatory for the average reader. For example, "the nation's highest military decoration": what nation? And so forth. The basic facts need to be stated explicitly; don't assume that the reader is American.
• The lists themselves would work better in table form, I think, than they do in the current mode of having bulleted sections with repeated labels.
• The choice of data presented seems a bit strange. Why is the place where the recipient entered service of interest? Why are birth dates given, but not death dates? The final rank achieved may be of interest here, as well.
• The "See also" section should be eliminated; these aren't that difficult to link in the text itself.
• Is homeofheroes.com a reputable source?

Kirill Lokshin 01:43, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for your comments, Kirill.

• Some context has been added. I plan on adding a brief summary of African American military history to the lead, as soon as I can figure out how to word it.
• I made my best attempt at a table that fits all the data but is still readable. Hopefully it is not too confusing.
• I initially incorporated only the data given in their Medal of Honor citations. I've changed it now, adding death dates and final rank, and getting rid of enlistment place.
• Only two links left there now, when I expand the lead I will incoporate them into it and delete the whole "See also" section.
• No, homeofheroes.com is probably not a reputable source. I removed it and am working on getting more book sources.

jwillbur^talk 00:46, 15 May 2007 (UTC)

Balloonman

• get rid of "complete" in the first sentence.
• isn't the proper name "The Congresional Medal of Honor?"
• I agree with Kirill I would like to see a different format, perhaps a table.
• I'd also be interested in knowing when the award was awarded vs when the actions were performed.
• give a short explanation on what a buffalo soldier is... the article should at least introduce people to the concept.
• Sweeny is one of 19 men to receive the honor twice, is he the only african american to do so?
• Stowers had to wait 73 years before being awarded the award... is this the longest anybody had to wait? Is it the longest any african american had to wait?
• have you considered making a new category for these individuals as well?Balloonman 02:52, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

Thank you for your comments, Balloonman. Hopefully I have addressed them all:

• get rid of "complete": Done.
• isn't the proper name...: The official name is just "Medal of Honor", I have added a note about the common name to the lead paragraph.
• would like to see a different format: I have made my best attempt. I couldn't get everything to fit onto one line and look nice, so I made a more complicated table. Hopefully it is still readable.
• interested in knowing when the award was awarded: Done, included in the table. A few dates are missing, I will work on that.
• a short explanation on what a buffalo soldier is: Added a (very) short explanation.
• Sweeny is one of 19 men...: Yes, it is stated in the second paragraph. I added a re-statement of it into the "Peacetime" section.
• Stowers had to wait 73 years...: No, Andrew Jackson Smith waited the longest of any Medal of Honor recipient (137 years), African American or otherwise. I added a note about that in the "Civil War" section.
• considered making a new category: Well, I'm not sure what benefit a category would add since we already have the list.

jwillbur^talk 00:31, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

The advantage of a category is that it will alert people to the other african americans who won the medal of honor. Eg if I pull up Sweeny, I might see the category and then look up the other winners. If it is just a list I might fumble around looking for the others. Personally, I prefer categories to list for that reason. The advantage of the list is that you have more control over it and it is easier to watch/read. Also, and I don't know if you want to include this or not, but there was an episode of JAG that dealt with African American's and the MoH... it was well done without being preachyBalloonman 14:30, 8 May 2007 (UTC)

Okay, category has been created at Category:African American Medal of Honor recipients and added to all relevant pages. jwillbur^talk 00:04, 15 May 2007 (UTC)