African-American soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen

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During World War II, the U.S. armed forces were,for the most part, racially segregated. African-American soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmenwere trained separately. They served in segregatedunits, usually commanded by white officers,although a small number of African Americanswere commissioned during the war. At sea, blacksailors were given segregated quarters, althoughmodest experiments in integration were carried out.For the most part, African Americans served insupport and labor units rather than in front-linecombat units. In December 1942, President Rooseveltissued an executive order calling for AfricanAmericans to make up 10 percent of all personneldrafted for the services.ARMYDuring World War I, some 380,000 African Americanswere enlisted or drafted into the army, 89percent assigned to labor units and only 11 percentcommitted to combat. After the war, African-American membership in the army fell to just5,000 enlisted men (2 percent of the service) andfive officers. During World War II, black membershipin the army rose spectacularly; 900,000 AfricanAmericans served by war's end, mostly insupport roles, including the famed Red Ball Expresstruck convoys run during the advance throughFrance following the Normandy landings (Dday).Although black officers were few, there wasone African-American brigadier general, BenjaminO. Davis, Sr.ARMY AIR FORCESIn 1940, President Franklin D. Roosevelt openedthe United States Army Air Corps in a limitedway to black pilots, who were trained and whoserved in segregated units. The most famous ofthese were the Tuskegee Airmen, who served withdistinction in the North African and Italian theatersbut remained segregated throughout the war.Most African Americans served in labor roles.However, after the war, following President HarryS. Truman's 1948 Executive Order 9981, whichmandated an end to segregation in the military anda universal policy of equal treatment and opportunityregardless of race, the U.S. Air Force (whichhad become an independent service in 1947) wasfar ahead of the other services in implementing theintegration policy.MARINESBefore World War II, the Marine Corps acceptedno black enlistments. On the eve of World War II,President Roosevelt directed the commandant ofthe Marine Corps to take steps toward incorporatingAfrican Americans into the corps. A commissionwas created to study how black marines couldbest be used, but actual enlistments were notaccepted until after the Battle of Pearl Harbor,December 7, 1941. A short time after this, a segregatedtraining facility, Camp Johnson, was establishedoutside Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune inSouth Carolina. The first recruits arrived at CampJohnson in August 1942 to make up the 51stDefense Battalion. Initially, they were trained bywhite drill instructors, but they were eventuallyreplaced by black instructors.The 51st Defense Battalion was brought to astrength of 1,400 and sent to the Pacific, first in theAfrican-American soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen 3Ellis Islands and then in the Marshalls. Theyremained posted there throughout the war. A secondblack unit, the 52nd Defense Battalion, wasestablished in December 1943 and dispatched toRoi-Namur and then to the Marianas. The blackmarines were used almost exclusively as stewardsand laborers, not as combat troops. In all, 19,000African Americans served in the marines duringWorld War II, most of them having been drafted.No black marine was commissioned an officer duringthe war.NAVYMore than any other service during World War II,the U.S. Navy implemented steps toward racialintegration. Black sailors had served in the sailnavy during the 18th and 19th centuries, when thelabor of handling sails required many hands. Afterthe Civil War, as sails were replaced by steam andthe number of hands required diminished, so didnaval recruitment of African Americans. Thosewho did join were typically assigned to servicepositions, typically as "mess boys," stewards, andorderlies serving white officers. Segregation wasenforced aboard ship in eating and sleeping areas.After the United States annexed the Philippines in1898, black mess, steward, and orderly personnelwere increasingly replaced by Filipinos, so thatwhen the United States entered World War I in1917, Filipinos outnumbered African Americansin the navy. The enlistment of Filipino volunteersdeclined beginning in the early 1930s, and AfricanAmerican enlistments rose proportionately—although black personnel were still confined tomess and steward positions, and segregation wasenforced on board ships as well as in shore accommodations.In 1940, Walter White of the NationalAssociation for the Advancement of Colored People(NAACP), together with the black labor leaderA. Phillip Randolph and activist T. Arnold Hill,wrote a letter to President Franklin D. Rooseveltprotesting the strictures on black employment inthe navy. In response, the president approved aplan in support of "fair treatment," but the navyfailed to implement it, arguing that morale wouldsuffer if blacks were assigned to nonservice positions.Only after World War II was under way didthe NAACP again appeal to the administration,this time to Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox, toexpand the role of African Americans beyond servicepositions. The conservative Knox declined toact, and the NAACP again appealed directly to thepresident. In June 1942, FDR personally prevailedon top naval command to adopt an expandedassignment policy. New guidelines were formulatedthat admitted African-American sailors toservice in construction battalions, supply depots,air stations, shore stations, section bases, and yardcraft. Although this represented an expansion wellbeyond mess and steward service, the new positionswere overwhelmingly labor assignments andnot combat postings.President Roosevelt's December 1942 executiveorder mandating that African Americans represent10 percent of the personnel in all the armed servicescreated a dramatic increase in black enlistmentin the navy. By July 1943, 12,000 blacks werebeing inducted monthly. By December 1943,101,573 African Americans had enlisted, of whom37,981 (37 percent) served in the Stewards Branch.The rest were boatswains, carpenters, painters,metalsmiths, hospital apprentices, firemen, aviationmaintenance personnel, and members of theShore Patrol. Few nonstewards were assigned seaduty. Nevertheless, by this time, the navy beganselecting African Americans for commissioning asofficers. The selectees were divided into line andstaff officers.In January 1944, the line officers began segregated10-week training at Naval Training CenterGreat Lakes. Of these, 12 commissioned officersand one warrant officer were graduated—the firstAfrican-American officers in U.S. Navy history.This so-called Golden Thirteen were assigned torecruit training programs and small patrol craftand tugs.The staff officer selectees were trained duringthe summer of 1944. Of the first class, two graduateswere assigned to the Chaplain Corps, two tothe Dental Corps, two to the Civil Engineer Corps,three to the Medical Corps, and three to the SupplyCorps. By the end of the war, just 58 out of 160,0004 African-American soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmenAfrican-American sailors had been commissionedas officers.As for enlisted personnel, reform acceleratedduring 1944, after the death of Knox and hisreplacement as navy secretary by James Forrestal.A political liberal and civil rights activist, Forrestallaunched a trial integration program in whichblack sailors were assigned to general sea duty positions.As for shipboard segregation, the black sailorswere placed exclusively on large auxiliary vessels(such as cargo craft and tankers) and constitutedno more than 10 percent of the crew of any oneship. Some 25 ships were integrated in this waywith no race relation problems reported. Before thewar ended, Forrestal assigned African-Americanpersonnel to all auxiliary ships of the fleet, and,even more significantly, segregated training wasended. African-American recruits were assigned tothe same training centers as whites.See also United States Army; United StatesArmy Air Forces; United States Marine Corps;and United States Navy.Further reading: Belknap, Michael R., ed. Civil Rights,the White House, and the Justice Department, 1945–1968:Integration of the Armed Forces. New York: Garland, 1991;Fletcher, Marvin E. The Black Soldier and Officer in theUnited States Army, 1891–1917. Columbia: University ofMissouri Press, 1974.