Underlying prejudice against blacks was nearly as widespread and deep in the North as in the South. Moreover, the South made it very clear that they intended to treat black soldiers and those who fought with them very harshly. So, despite the intense desire of blacks to participate in the war that would liberate them, the Union dragged its heels on using them. But the persistence of blacks and the enlightenment of a few white Northerners finally prevailed. Black soldiers were recruited, trained, and, eventually, used in battle.
Glory tells the true story of the first regiment of black soldiers to see battle.
Their bravery in some hideously deadly combat proved that black soldiers could be just as effective as whites. Unlike Henry V , the war in Glory is necessary, and, in a destructive way, liberating. The soldiers in Glory die in enormous numbers, but they die for a reason, and their deaths have meaning and value. The horror of war is not minimized, but the focus of the film is how some men used war for good purposes, sacrificing themselves for the benefit of others. Not a popular point of view, nowadays, and only the socially acceptable message of racial equality made this film possible, at all.