Despite being denied full citizenship in the Jim Crow South, African Americans have voluntarily enlisted in the military and defended the United States in conflicts from the Civil War to the present. They served as Buffalo Soldiers on the western plains following the American Civil War, and in the Spanish American War. Despite increasing racial tensions, and the tightening of segregation, African Americans fought for their country (in segregated units) in World Wars I and II. Walking through any African American cemetery, as well as any of the national cemeteries, in Tennessee, one will find countless examples of patriotic African Americans who have given loyal service to their country.