Valor In The Face of Racism: The History of African Americans in The Military

Bill Whitaker has covered major news stories domestically and across the globe for CBS News over four decades. He is the 2018 winner of the RTDNA’s highest honor, and the Paul White Award for career achievement. He was named a 60 MINUTES correspondent in March 2014; the 2020-’21 season will be his seventh on the broadcast. Whitaker’s investigation with the Washington Post into the origins of the opioid crisis has won more awards than any other 60 MINUTES work. The first report in the two-part series revealed how the DEA’s efforts to curb the epidemic were hampered by a law pushed by drug industry lobbyists. Whitaker graduated from Hobart and William Smith Colleges with a B.A. degree in American history and from Boston University with a master’s degree in African-American studies. Whitaker also holds a master’s degree in journalism from the University of California, Berkeley. He was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Hobart and William Smith Colleges in 1997.

Vincent K. Brooks is a career Army officer who recently retired from active duty as a four-star general. During his senior year at West Point, General Brooks was chosen for the paramount position a cadet can hold -- the cadet brigade commander or “First Captain” – making him the first African American to lead the student body. He is also the eighth African American in history to attain the military’s top rank – four-star general in the United States Army. He has a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point; a Master of Military Art and Science from the prestigious U.S. Army School of Advanced Military Studies at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas; was a National Security Fellow at the Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government; and holds an honorary Doctor of Laws from the New England School of Law. Widely respected as a speaker and leader of cohesive, innovative organizations, within and beyond the military, his areas of expertise are: leadership in complex organizations, crisis leadership, and building cohesive trust-based teams, national security, policy, strategy, international relations, military operations, combating terrorism and countering the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, diversity and inclusion. He is a combat veteran and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.