Film Follows Vietnam Vet Who Was Denied Purple Heart Medal

by Lauren Nutall

November 8, 2023

Jerry Smith Sr., cousin of the late Emmett Until, was denied the Purple Coronary heart Medal on account of his race, however a brand new quick movie goals to vary this.

Jerry Smith Sr., a cousin of the late Emmett Until, was denied the Purple Coronary heart Medal on account of his race, however a brand new quick movie goals to vary this, based on a latest press launch. 

The Purple Coronary heart Medal is awarded to United States Armed Forces members who’ve been injured or killed in fight. Smith and his household have lengthy maintained that he deserves the dignity however have been repeatedly denied, an injustice that has been controversial for years. This has triggered a Change.org petition and now a film. 

The 9-minute quick movie, titled In Honor of a Purple Coronary heart, follows Smith’s journey from foster care to turning into a Vietnam Struggle veteran.

“I wish to affect the folks I are available contact with. I wish to be a motivation for them and make them conscious you may survive something so long as you consider. Be grateful for what you might have and what you don’t have, don’t fear about it. You’re nonetheless alive,” Smith says within the video. 

Smith’s experiences with racism date again to when he was only a boy, dwelling within the rural South through the Jim Crow period. As a younger Black foster youngster, he was hardly ever instructed of his worth on the planet. Quite, he was taught to really feel inferior to his white counterparts, a sentiment that was solely additional supported by the 1955 homicide of his 14-year-old cousin Emmett Until, who was falsely accused of whistling at a white girl and located murdered in a river shortly after.  

Smith, too, was topic to false allegations as a young person, which resulted in him dropping a scholarship to Kansas State College. He was compelled to flee and wound up enlisting within the army through the Vietnam Struggle. Whereas serving, Smith sustained an damage from a Punji stick, a spiked system typically utilized in battle. Nonetheless, he was denied the Purple Coronary heart Medal and was instructed that Black folks don’t obtain the dignity.  

Eric Scott Johnson, a producer of the movie, spoke about its significance. “The movie has gained awards at festivals, however that is about one thing extra essential,” he mentioned. “That is about Jerry Smith Sr. getting what was wrongfully withheld from him solely resulting from his race.”