Every November, the calendar sets two reminders side by side. Election Day has just passed; Veterans Day arrives on Wednesday, Nov. 11. This year, that pairing deserves more than a passing thought.
Roughly 6% of American adults have worn the uniform. That small share has shouldered an outsized burden: defending the country abroad, responding to disasters at home, and returning to lead in classrooms, small businesses, congregations, and city halls.
Veterans also vote. In the 2014 midterms, 54% of veterans cast ballots, compared with 41% of nonveterans. They understand, perhaps better than most, that citizenship is something you practice, not something you simply hold.
Among them are about 2 million Black veterans, roughly 12% of the nation’s veteran population. Their story is one of service to a country that too often failed to return the favor. Black Americans fought in the Revolution, many while enslaved. They served in segregated units through two world wars, and the armed forces were not ordered to integrate until President Truman’s 1948 executive order. When Black soldiers returned from World War II, many were effectively shut out of the GI Bill benefits that built the white middle class, denied home loans and college admission by local officials and lenders.
Some of them came home and fought again, this time for the ballot. Medgar Evers, an Army veteran of the Normandy campaign, returned to Mississippi and was turned away from the polls. Men who had defended democracy overseas became among the most determined soldiers in the civil rights movement at home.
That legacy is not ancient history. The Congressional Budget Office has found that, on average, Black veterans earn less, own homes at lower rates, and carry higher disability ratings than white veterans. In fiscal year 2024, Black veterans made up nearly 38% of those served by VA homelessness programs, roughly three times their share of the veteran population.
Those gaps are not inevitable. Policy shapes them: how the VA processes claims, how housing and health care dollars are spent, and how Congress writes the budgets that fund it all. And policy is shaped by who shows up.
This year, a record number of veterans, more than 750 by one count, sought seats in Congress. Whatever their party and whatever happens as a result of Election Day, their candidacies remind us that service does not end at discharge.
The votes are cast, though in some races the counting may not be complete. But the ballot was never the whole job. The Congress seated in January will write the next VA budget, shape how quickly claims move, and decide whether the gaps Black veterans face begin to close. Call your representatives. Show up at town halls. Hold the winners, whoever they are, to the promises they made to the people who served.
Honoring veterans takes more than parades and a day off. It means honoring the cause they defended. Tuesday’s vote was a start, not the finish.
