The War Between Black and White investigates a series of violent clashes between the US Armed Forces and the African American inhabitants of Tombolo, a pine forest between Pisa and Livorno, which occurred between 1945 and 1948. The book will identify Tombolo, for the first time, as the site of an African American freedom struggle brutally repressed, demonstrating how postwar Italy played a pivotal if unexamined role in US civil rights history. Although this history has been largely forgotten, I argue that the tragic events of Tombolo continue to haunt contemporary society. Restoring a necessary cultural memory, the book will empower readers to confront and to comprehend this important moment in Italian and American history.