INTEGRATION OF THE ARMED FORCES
1940-1965

DEFENSE STUDIES SERIES

INTEGRATION
OF THE ARMED FORCES
1940-1965

by Morris J. MacGregor, Jr.

 

 

Defense Historical Studies Committee
(as of 6 April 1979)

Alfred Goldberg
Office of the Secretary of Defense Robert J. Watson
Historical Division, Joint Chiefs of Staff Brig. Gen. James L. Collins, Jr.
Chief of Military History Maj. Gen. John W. Huston
Chief of Air Force History Maurice Matloff
Center of Military History Stanley L. Falk
Office of Air Force History Rear Adm. John D. H. Kane, Jr.
Director of Naval History Brig. Gen. (Ret.) Edwin H. Simmons
Director of Marine Corps History and Museums Dean C. Allard
Naval Historical Center Henry J. Shaw, Jr.
Marine Corps Historical Center

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

MacGregor, Morris J
Integration of the Armed Forces, 1940-1965.

(Defense studies series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Supt. of Docs. no.: D 114.2:In 8/940-65
1. Afro-American soldiers. 2. United States—

Race Relations.
UB418.A47M33 I. Title.
335.3'3 II. Series.
80-607077

Department of the Army
Historical Advisory Committee
(as of 6 April 1979)

Otis A. Singletary
University of Kentucky Maj. Gen. Robert C. Hixon
U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command Brig. Gen. Robert Arter
U.S. Army Command and
General Staff College Sara D. Jackson
National Historical Publications
and Records Commission Harry L. Coles
Ohio State University Maj. Gen. Enrique Mendez, Jr.
Deputy Surgeon General, USA Robert H. Ferrell
Indiana University James O'Neill
Deputy Archivist of the United States Cyrus H. Fraker
The Adjutant General Center Benjamin Quarles
Morgan State College William H. Goetzmann
University of Texas Brig. Gen. Alfred L. Sanderson
Army War College Col. Thomas E. Griess
U.S. Military Academy Russell F. Weigley
Temple University

Foreword

The integration of the armed forces was a momentous event in our military and national history; it represented a milestone in the development of the armed forces and the fulfillment of the democratic ideal. The existence of integrated rather than segregated armed forces is an important factor in our military establishment today. The experiences in World War II and the postwar pressures generated by the civil rights movement compelled all the services—Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps—to reexamine their traditional practices of segregation. While there were differences in the ways that the services moved toward integration, all were subject to the same demands, fears, and prejudices and had the same need to use their resources in a more rational and economical way. All of them reached the same conclusion: traditional attitudes toward minorities must give way to democratic concepts of civil rights.

If the integration of the armed services now seems to have been inevitable in a democratic society, it nevertheless faced opposition that had to be overcome and problems that had to be solved through the combined efforts of political and civil rights leaders and civil and military officials. In many ways the military services were at the cutting edge in the struggle for racial equality. This volume sets forth the successive measures they and the Office of the Secretary of Defense took to meet the challenges of a new era in a critically important area of human relationships, during a period of transition that saw the advance of blacks in the social and economic order as well as in the military. It is fitting that this story should be told in the first volume of a new Defense Studies Series.

The Defense Historical Studies Program was authorized by the then Deputy Secretary of Defense, Cyrus Vance, in April 1965. It is conducted under the auspices of the Defense Historical Studies Group, an ad hoc body chaired by the Historian of the Office of the Secretary of Defense and consisting of the senior officials in the historical offices of the services and of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Volumes produced under its sponsorship will be interservice histories, covering matters of mutual interest to the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The preparation of each volume is entrusted to one of the service historical sections, in this case the Army's Center of Military History. Although the book was written by an Army historian, he was generously given access to the pertinent records of the other services and the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and this initial volume in the Defense Studies Series covers the experiences of all components of the Department of Defense in achieving integration.

Washington, D.C.
14 March 1980 James L. Collins, Jr.
Brigadier General, USA
Chief of Military History

The Author

Morris J. MacGregor, Jr., received the A.B. and M.A. degrees in history from the Catholic University of America. He continued his graduate studies at the Johns Hopkins University and the University of Paris on a Fulbright grant. Before joining the staff of the U.S. Army Center of Military History in 1968 he served for ten years in the Historical Division of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He has written several studies for military publications including "Armed Forces Integration—Forced or Free?" in The Military and Society: Proceedings of the Fifth Military Symposium of the U.S. Air Force Academy. He is the coeditor with Bernard C. Nalty of the thirteen-volume Blacks in the United States Armed Forces: Basic Documents and with Ronald Spector of Voices of History: Interpretations in American Military History. He is currently working on a sequel to Integration of the Armed Forces which will also appear in the Defense Studies Series.

Preface

This book describes the fall of the legal, administrative, and social barriers to the black American's

full participation in the military service of his country. It follows the changing status of the black serviceman from the eve of World War II, when he was excluded from many military activities and rigidly segregated in the rest, to that period a quarter of a century later when the Department of Defense extended its protection of his rights and privileges even to the civilian community. To round out the story of open housing for members of the military, I briefly overstep the closing date given in the title.

The work is essentially an administrative history that attempts to measure the influence of several forces, most notably the civil rights movement, the tradition of segregated service, and the changing concept of military efficiency, on the development of racial policies in the armed forces. It is not a history of all minorities in the services. Nor is it an account of how the black American responded to discrimination. A study of racial attitudes, both black and white, in the military services would be a valuable addition to human knowledge, but practically impossible of accomplishment in the absence of sufficient autobiographical accounts, oral history interviews, and detailed sociological measurements. How did the serviceman view his condition, how did he convey his desire for redress, and what was his reaction to social change? Even now the answers to these questions are blurred by time and distorted by emotions engendered by the civil rights revolution. Few citizens, black or white, who witnessed it can claim immunity to the influence of that paramount social phenomenon of our times.

At times I do generalize on the attitudes of both black and white servicemen and the black and white communities at large as well. But I have permitted myself to do so only when these attitudes were clearly pertinent to changes in the services' racial policies and only when the written record supported, or at least did not contradict, the memory of those participants who had been interviewed. In any case this study is largely history written from the top down and is based primarily on the written records left by the administrations of five presidents and by civil rights leaders, service officials, and the press.

Many of the attitudes and expressions voiced by the participants in the story are now out of fashion. The reader must be constantly on guard against viewing the beliefs and statements of many civilian and military officials out of context of the times in which they were expressed. Neither bigotry nor stupidity was the monopoly of some of the people quoted; their statements are important for what they tell us about certain attitudes of our society rather than for what they reveal about any individual. If the methods or attitudes of some of the black spokesmen appear excessively tame to those who have lived through the 1960's, they too should be gauged in the context of the times. If their statements and actions shunned what now seems the more desirable, albeit radical, course, it should be given them that the style they adopted appeared in those days to be the most promising for racial progress.

The words black and Negro have been used interchangeably in the book, with Negro generally as a noun and black as an adjective. Aware of differing preferences in the black community for usage of these words, the author was interested in comments from early readers of the manuscript. Some of the participants in the story strongly objected to one word or the other. "Do me one favor in return for my help," Lt. Comdr. Dennis D. Nelson said, "never call me a black." Rear Adm. Gerald E. Thomas, on the other hand, suggested that the use of the term Negro might repel readers with much to learn about their recent past. Still others thought that the historian should respect the usage of the various periods covered in the story, a solution that would have left the volume with the term colored for most of the earlier chapters and Negro for much of the rest. With rare exception, the term black does not appear in twentieth century military records before the late 1960's. Fashions in words change, and it is only for the time being perhaps that black and Negro symbolize different attitudes. The author has used the words as synonyms and trusts that the reader will accept them as such. Professor John Hope Franklin, Mrs. Sara Jackson of the National Archives, and the historians and officials that constituted the review panel went along with this approach.

The second question of usage concerns the words integration and desegregation. In recent years many historians have come to distinguish between these like-sounding words. Desegregation they see as a direct action against segregation; that is, it signifies the act of removing legal barriers to the equal treatment of black citizens as guaranteed by the Constitution. The movement toward desegregation, breaking down the nation's Jim Crow system, became increasingly popular in the decade after World War II. Integration, on the other hand, Professor Oscar Handlin maintains, implies several things not yet necessarily accepted in all areas of American society. In one sense it refers to the "leveling of all barriers to association other than those based on ability, taste, and personal preference";[1] in other words, providing equal opportunity. But in another sense integration calls for the random distribution of a minority throughout society. Here, according to Handlin, the emphasis is on racial balance in areas of occupation, education, residency, and the like.

From the beginning the military establishment rightly understood that the breakup of the all-black unit would in a closed society necessarily mean more than mere desegregation. It constantly used the terms integration and equal treatment and opportunity to describe its racial goals. Rarely, if ever, does one find the word desegregation in military files that include much correspondence from the various civil rights organizations. That the military made the right choice, this study seems to demonstrate, for the racial goals of the Defense Department, as they slowly took form over a quarter of a century, fulfilled both of Professor Handlin's definitions of integration.

The mid-1960's saw the end of a long and important era in the racial history of the armed forces. Although the services continued to encounter racial problems, these problems differed radically in several essentials from those of the integration period considered in this volume. Yet there is a continuity to the story of race relations, and one can hope that the story of how an earlier generation struggled so that black men and women might serve their country in freedom inspires those in the services who continue to fight discrimination.

This study benefited greatly from the assistance of a large number of persons during its long years of preparation. Stetson Conn, chief historian of the Army, proposed the book as an interservice project. His successor, Maurice Matloff, forced to deal with the complexities of an interservice project, successfully guided the manuscript through to publication. The work was carried out under the general supervision of Robert R. Smith, chief of the General History Branch. He and Robert W. Coakley, deputy chief historian of the Army, were the primary reviewers of the manuscript, and its final form owes much to their advice and attention. The author also profited greatly from the advice of the official review panel, which, under the chairmanship of Alfred Goldberg, historian, Office of the Secretary of Defense, included Martin Blumenson; General J. Lawton Collins (USA Ret.); Lt. Gen. Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. (USAF Ret.); Roy K. Davenport, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army; Stanley L. Falk,

chief historian of the Air Force; Vice Adm. E. B. Hooper, Chief of Naval History; Professor Benjamin Quarles; Paul J. Scheips, historian, Center of Military History; Henry I. Shaw, chief historian of the U.S. Marine Corps; Loretto C. Stevens, senior editor of the Center of Military History; Robert J. Watson, chief historian of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and Adam Yarmolinsky, former assistant to the Secretary of Defense.

Many of the participants in this story generously shared their knowledge with me and kindly reviewed my efforts. My footnotes acknowledge my debt to them. Nevertheless, two are singled out here for special mention. James C. Evans, former counselor to the Secretary of Defense for racial affairs, has been an endless source of information on race relations in the military. If I sometimes disagreed with his interpretations and assessments, I never doubted his total dedication to the cause of the black serviceman. I owe a similar debt to Lt. Comdr. Dennis D. Nelson (USN Ret.) for sharing his intimate understanding of race relations in the Navy. A resourceful man with a sure social touch, he must have been one hell of a sailor.

I want to note the special contribution of several historians. Martin Blumenson was first assigned to this project, and before leaving the Center of Military History he assembled research material that proved most helpful. My former colleague John Bernard Corr prepared a study on the National Guard upon which my account of the guard is based. In addition, he patiently reviewed many pages of the draft manuscript. His keen insights and sensitive understanding were invaluable to me. Professors Jack D. Foner and Marie Carolyn Klinkhammer provided particularly helpful suggestions in conjunction with their reviews of the manuscript. Samuel B. Warner, who before his untimely death was a historian in the Joint Chiefs of Staff as well as a colleague of Lee Nichols on some of that reporter's civil rights investigations, also contributed generously of his talents and lent his support in the early days of my work. Finally, I am grateful for the advice of my colleague Ronald H. Spector at several key points in the preparation of this history.

I have received much help from archivists and librarians, especially the resourceful William H. Cunliffe and Lois Aldridge (now retired) of the National Archives and Dean C. Allard of the Naval Historical Center. Although the fruits of their scholarship appear often in my footnotes, three fellow researchers in the field deserve special mention: Maj. Alan M. Osur and Lt. Col. Alan L. Gropman of the U.S. Air Force and Ralph W. Donnelly, former member of the U.S. Marine Corps Historical Center. I have benefited from our exchange of ideas and have had the advantage of their reviews of the manuscript.

I am especially grateful for the generous assistance of my editors, Loretto C. Stevens and Barbara H. Gilbert. They have been both friends and teachers. In the same vein, I wish to thank John Elsberg for his editorial counsel. I also appreciate the help given by William G. Bell in the selection of the illustrations, including the loan of two rare items from his personal collection, and Arthur S. Hardyman for preparing the pictures for publication. I would like to thank Mary Lee Treadway and Wyvetra B. Yeldell for preparing the manuscript for panel review and Terrence J. Gough for his helpful pre-publication review.

Finally, while no friend or relative was spared in the long years I worked on this book, three colleagues especially bore with me through days of doubts and frustrations and shared my small triumphs: Alfred M. Beck, Ernest F. Fisher, Jr., and Paul J. Scheips. I also want particularly to thank Col. James W. Dunn. I only hope that some of their good sense and sunny optimism show through these pages.

Washington, D.C.
14 March 1980 Morris J. MacGregor, Jr.

Contents

tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">Black Demands
The Army's Grand Review
The Navy's Informal Inspection
6. NEW DIRECTIONS
The Gillem Board Report
Integration of the General Service
The Marine Corps
7. A PROBLEM OF QUOTAS
The Quota in Practice
Broader Opportunities
Assignments
A New Approach
The Quota System: An Assessment
8. SEGREGATION'S CONSEQUENCES
Discipline and Morale Among Black Troops
Improving the Status of the Segregated Soldier
Discrimination and the Postwar Army
Segregation in Theory and Practice
Segregation: An Assessment
9. THE POSTWAR NAVY
The Steward's Branch
Black Officers
Public Image and the Problem of Numbers
10. THE POSTWAR MARINE CORPS
Racial Quotas and Assignments
Recruitment
Segregation and Efficiency
Toward Integration
11. THE POSTWAR AIR FORCE
Segregation and Efficiency
Impulse for Change
12. THE PRESIDENT INTERVENES
The Truman Administration and Civil Rights
Civil Rights and the Department of Defense
Executive Order 9981
13. SERVICE INTERESTS VERSUS PRESIDENTIAL INTENT
Public Reaction to Executive Order 9981
The Army: Segregation on the Defensive
A Different Approach
The Navy: Business as Usual
Adjustments in the Marine Corps
The Air Force Plans for Limited Integration
14. THE FAHY COMMITTEE VERSUS THE DEPARTMENT OF

DEFENSE
The Committee's Recommendations
A Summer of Discontent
Assignments
Quotas
An Assessment
15. THE ROLE OF THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE, 1949-1951
Overseas Restrictions
Congressional Concerns
16. INTEGRATION IN THE AIR FORCE AND THE NAVY
The Air Force, 1949-1951
The Navy and Executive Order 9981
17. THE ARMY INTEGRATES
Race and Efficiency: 1950
Training
Performance of Segregated Units
Final Arguments
Integration of the Eighth Army
Integration of the European and Continental Commands
18. INTEGRATION OF THE MARINE CORPS
Impetus for Change
Assignments
19. A NEW ERA BEGINS
The Civil Rights Revolution
Limitations on Executive Order 9981
Integration of Navy Shipyards
Dependent Children and Integrated Schools
20. LIMITED RESPONSE TO DISCRIMINATION
The Kennedy Administration and Civil Rights
The Department of Defense, 1961-1963
Discrimination Off the Military Reservation
Reserves and Regulars: A Comparison
21. EQUAL TREATMENT AND OPPORTUNITY REDEFINED
The Secretary Makes a Decision
The Gesell Committee
Reaction to a New Commitment
The Gesell Committee: Final Report
22. EQUAL OPPORTUNITY IN THE MILITARY COMMUNITY
Creating a Civil Rights Apparatus
Fighting Discrimination Within the Services
23. FROM VOLUNTARY COMPLIANCE TO SANCTIONS
Development of Voluntary Action Programs

tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">Civil Rights, 1964-1966
The Civil Rights Act and Voluntary Compliance
The Limits of Voluntary Compliance
24. CONCLUSION
Why the Services Integrated
How the Services Integrated, 1946-1954
Equal Treatment and Opportunity
NOTE ON SOURCES
INDEX

Illustrations

Crewmen of the USS Miami During the Civil War
Buffalo Soldiers
Integration in the Army of 1888
Gunner's Gang on the USS Maine
General John J. (Black Jack) Pershing Inspects Troops
Heroes of the 369th Infantry, February 1919
Judge William H. Hastie
General George C. Marshall and Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson
Engineer Construction Troops in Liberia, July 1942
Labor Battalion Troops in the Aleutian Islands, May 1943
Sergeant Addressing the Line
Pilots of the 332d Fighter Group
Service Club, Fort Huachuca
93d Division Troops in Bougainville, April 1944
Gun Crew of Battery B, 598th Field Artillery, September 1944
Tankers of the 761st Medium Tank Battalion Prepare for Action
WAAC Replacements
Volunteers for Combat in Training
Road Repairmen
Mess Attendant, First Class, Dorie Miller Addressing Recruits at Camp Smalls
Admiral Ernest J. King and Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox
Crew Members of USS Argonaut, Pearl Harbor, 1942
Messmen Volunteer as Gunners, July 1942
Electrician Mates String Power Lines
Laborers at Naval Ammunition Depot
Seabees in the South Pacific
Lt. Comdr. Christopher S. Sargent
USS Mason
First Black Officers in the Navy
Lt. (jg.) Harriet Ida Pickens and Ens. Frances Wills
Sailors in the General Service
Security Watch in the Marianas
Specialists Repair Aircraft

href="@public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@20587@[email protected]#img034" class="pginternal" tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">The 22d Special Construction Battalion Celebrates V-J Day
Marines of the 51st Defense Battalion, Montford Point, 1942
Shore Party in Training, Camp Lejeune, 1942
D-day on Peleliu
Medical Attendants at Rest, Peleliu, October 1944
Gun Crew of the 52d Defense Battalion
Crewmen of USCG Lifeboat Station, Pea Island, North Carolina
Coast Guard Recruits at Manhattan Beach Training Station, New York
Stewards at Battle Station on the Cutter Campbell
Shore Leave in Scotland
Lt. Comdr. Carlton Skinner and Crew of the USS Sea Cloud
Ens. Joseph J. Jenkins and Lt. (jg.) Clarence Samuels
President Harry S. Truman Addressing the NAACP Convention
Assistant Secretary of War John J. McCloy
Civilian Aide to the Secretary of War Truman K. Gibson
Company I, 370th Infantry, 92d Division, Advances Through Cascina, Italy
92d Division Engineers Prepare a Ford for Arno River Traffic
Lester Granger Interviewing Sailors
Granger With Crewmen of a Naval Yard Craft
Lt. Gen. Alvan C. Gillem, U.S. Army
Secretary of War Robert P. Patterson
Admiral Louis E. Denfeld, U.S. Navy
General Gerald C. Thomas, U.S. Marine Corps
Lt. Gen. Willard S. Paul
Adviser to the Secretary of War Marcus Ray
Lt. Gen. Robert L. Eichelberger Inspects 24th Infantry Troops
Army Specialists Report for Airborne Training
Bridge Players, Seaview Service Club, Tokyo, Japan, 1948
24th Infantry Band, Gifu, Japan, 1947
Lt. Gen. Clarence R. Huebner Inspects the 529th Military Police Company
Reporting to Kitzingen
Inspection by the Chief of Staff
Brig. Gen. Benjamin O. Davis, Sr.
Shore Leave in Korea
Mess Attendants, USS Bushnell, 1918
Mess Attendants, USS Wisconsin, 1953
Lt. Comdr. Dennis D. Nelson II
Naval Unit Passes in Review, Naval Advanced Base, Bremerhaven, Germany
Submariner
Marine Artillery Team
2d Lt. and Mrs. Frederick C. Branch

href="@public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@20587@[email protected]#img075" class="pginternal" tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">Training Exercises
Damage Inspection
Col. Noel F. Parrish
Officers' Softball Team
Checking Ammunition
Squadron F, 318th AAF Battalion, in Review
Col. Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., Commander, 477th Composite Group, 1945
Lt. Gen. Idwal H. Edwards
Col. Jack F. Marr
Walter F. White
Truman's Civil Rights Campaign
A. Philip Randolph
National Defense Conference on Negro Affairs, 26 April 1948
MP's Hitch a Ride
Secretary of the Army Kenneth C. Royall Reviews Military Police Battalion
Spring Formal Dance, Fort George G. Meade, Maryland, 1952
Secretary of Defense James V. Forrestal
General Clifton B. Cates
1st Marine Division Drill Team on Exhibition
Secretary of the Air Force W. Stuart Symington
Secretary of Defense Louis C. Johnson
Fahy Committee With President Truman and Armed Services Secretaries
E. W. Kenworthy
Charles Fahy
Roy K. Davenport
Press Notice
Secretary of the Army Gordon Gray
Chief of Staff of the Army J. Lawton Collins
"No Longer a Dream"
Navy Corpsman in Korea
25th Division Troops in Japan
Assistant Secretary of Defense Anna M. Rosenberg
Assistant Secretary of the Air Force Eugene M. Zuckert
Music Makers
Maintenance Crew, 462d Strategic Fighter Squadron
Jet Mechanics
Christmas in Korea, 1950
Rearming at Sea
Broadening Skills
Integrated Stewards Class Graduates, Great Lakes, 1953
WAVE Recruits, Naval Training Center, Bainbridge, Maryland, 1953
Rear Adm. Samuel L. Gravely, Jr.
Moving Up

class="pginternal" tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">Men of Battery A, 159th Field Artillery Battalion
Survivors of an Intelligence and Reconnaissance Platoon, 24th Infantry
General Matthew B. Ridgway, Far East Commander
Machine Gunners of Company L, 14th Infantry, Hill 931, Korea
Color Guard, 160th Infantry, Korea, 1952
Visit With the Commander
Brothers Under the Skin
Marines on the Kansas Line, Korea
Marine Reinforcements
Training Exercises on Iwo Jima, March 1954
Marines From Camp Lejeune
Lt. Col. Frank E. Petersen, Jr.
Sergeant Major Edgar R. Huff
Clarence Mitchell
Congressman Adam Clayton Powell
Secretary of the Navy Robert B. Anderson
Reading Class in the Military Dependents School, Yokohama
Civil Rights Leaders at the White House
President John F. Kennedy and President Jorge Allessandri
Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara
Adam Yarmolinsky
James C. Evans
The Gesell Committee Meets With the President
Alfred B. Fitt
Arriving in Vietnam
Digging In
Listening to the Squad Leader
Supplying the Seventh Fleet
USAF Ground Crew, Tan Son Nhut Air Base, Vietnam
Fighter Pilots on the Line
Medical Examination
Auto Pilot Shop
Submarine Tender Duty
First Aid
Vietnam Patrol
Marine Engineers in Vietnam
Loading a Rocket Launcher
American Sailors Help Evacuate a Vietnamese Child
Booby Trap Victim from Company B, 47th Infantry
Camaraderie

All illustrations are from the files of the Department of Defense and the National Archives and Records Service with the exception of the pictures on pages 6 and 10, courtesy of William G. Bell; on page 20, by Fabian Bachrach, courtesy of Judge William H. Hastie; on page 120, courtesy of Carlton Skinner; on page 297, courtesy of the Washington Star, on page 361, courtesy of the Afro-American Newspapers; on page 377, courtesy of the Sengstacke Newspapers; and on page 475, courtesy of the Washington Bureau of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

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