“Black GI: is it fair to serve more than the white Americans who send you here? Nothing is more confused than to be ordered into a war to die without the faintest idea of what’s going on. I dedicate this next record to the Soul Brothers of the First Infantry Divisions. Be safe.” These are the opening words of the trailer for Spike Lee’s latest film, Da 5 Bloods, spoken by “Hanoi Hannah,” who was a real-life Vietnamese radio broadcaster during the Vietnam War.
Thomas' sister, Eliza Thomas, was 17 years old when she was murdered alongside three other teenage girls-13-year-old Amy Ayers, 17-year-old Jennifer Harbison, and Jennifer's 15-year-old sister Sarah-in Austin, Texas, in 1991. To be fair, Sonora was only 13 when her sister was murdered, and her family, burdened by grief, never openly talked about what happened to Eliza. Still, memory, as Brown expertly captures in his series, is a really tricky thing.