Crossing Borders, Expanding Boundaries: An Evening with Dan Hurley

Through 720 letters home, Irwin Hurley created a remarkable record documenting the personal impact of service in the World War II U.S. Army. He commented on military campaigns but, more importantly, reflected on the way military service challenged him to mature as a person.

Irv grew up in a middle-class Catholic family in a Northern Kentucky suburb of Cincinnati. After graduating from college and law school, he secured a job and married before being drafted in September 1942. The army challenged him in many ways to expand his horizons, especially after being assigned as a lieutenant to the 3659th Quartermaster Truck Company.

Composed of 130 African Americans from the deep South led by a Jewish Captain, this was the first time Irv came face-to-face with the crushing legacy of American segregation and racism. It culminated in a brutal murder of a uniformed enlisted African American who dared to sit in the “wrong” seat on a city bus.

Once in Europe, Irv became very aware of the way the French and Germans puzzled over the way multiracial and multiethnic American units fought effectively together. On two occasions, he commented on the irony that surrendering Nazi troops found themselves guarded by “American colored boys” in a unit commanded by a Jewish captain.

At the end of fighting in May 1945, the 3659th helped liberate the Dachau Concentration Camp, forcing Irwin to confront the horrors of the Holocaust.

6 pm reception/6:30 pm program
Free & open to the public. Registration required.

Copies of Crossing Borders, Expanding Boundaries will be available for sale & signing courtesy of Joseph-Beth Cincinnati.

About Dan Hurley

Dan Hurley founded Applied History Associates, a public history consulting firm, in 1985. Dan contracts with museums and corporations to produce research reports, books, exhibits and video documentaries. He is best known locally as a producer and on-air reporter for Local 12 News (CBS affiliate) for 36 years. He worked as a columnist for the Cincinnati Post and Cincy Magazine from 2005 to 2020. He also served as the original project manager from 1994 to 1997 for what became the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. Since retiring as director of Leadership Cincinnati in 2016, Dan has stepped in as the interim President of the Freedom Center and as host of Cincinnati Edition on 91.7 WVXU (NPR affiliate).