Legislature passes bill recognizing Black Americans’ efforts in AK Highway construction

Pvt. Refines Simms Jr., a bulldozer operator with the Army’s 97th Engineer Battalion, exchanges a handshake with Pvt. Alfred Jalufka, an operator with the 18th Engineer Brigade, when soldiers working from the north and south met Oct. 25, 1942 at Contact Creek, Yukon Territory – some eight months after work on the highway began. (Photo: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers/Alaska Highway Project)The Alaska legislature today passed a bill formally recognizing the contributions of Black America