Ideum had the honor of attending the Veteran’s Day commemoration at the National WWII Museum in New Orleans. This Veteran’s Day ceremony also marked the opening of the new Fighting for the Right to Fight: African American Experiences in World War II exhibit. The exhibit highlights the “Double Victory” campaign, in which African Americans fought against fascism abroad and for equality at home. 

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For Fighting for the Right to Fight, Ideum collaborated with the National WWII Museum and StoryFile on a new iteration of We Were There, an interactive oral history station in which visitors ask questions and receive video responses in the veteran’s own words. We Were There uses AI technology developed by StoryFile to provide the best video responses to natural language questions from among hours of interview footage of the veterans. 

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In this version, visitors have the opportunity to meet three Black Americans who served in the war: Theodore Britton, Jr., who served on Guadalcanal and Hawaii and later became an ambassador in the Caribbean under President Ford; Romay Davis, who served in the Army as a jeep driver in the 6888th Central Postal Distributing Battalion in the UK and France; and George Hardy, who trained as a fighter pilot at Tuskegee, flew P-51s, and later served in Korea and Vietnam. 

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This is the third iteration of the We Were There project to which Ideum has contributed. The first launched a year ago for Veteran’s Day 2023, in the Our War Too exhibit. This version featured three women who served in the war. The second version remains in the Malcolm S. Forbes Rare and Iconic Artifacts Gallery, and includes 19 perspectives on the war from those who lived through it, including veterans, those on the home front, and internees. Look for more news soon on an exciting addition to the collection of oral histories in the Forbes Gallery. This new iteration of We Were There adds to a list of projects on which we’ve been proud to collaborate with the National WWII Museum, including an exhibit about Bob Hope’s Wartime USO Tours and the Bayou to Battlefield interactive.

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Fighting for the Right to Fight and this version of We Were There will be on display November 11, 2024, through July 27, 2025, in the Senator John Alario, Jr. Special Exhibition Hall at the National WWII Museum.