Supporting Question 1:
What historical examples exist that reflect integration and segregation among servicemen/women?
The first supporting question, “What historical examples exist that reflect integration and segregation among servicemen/women?” asks students to consider inequalities experienced by minority groups in the United States armed forces. The formative task calls for students to consider the history of segregation and integration in the U.S. military. Students will identify and describe examples of segregation and integration using the Robert Gould Shaw Memorial, the National Archives article of President Harry Truman’s 1948 Executive Order 9981, and Dr. Paul-Thomas Ferguson’s history of African American segregation and integration.
On this page:
Source A: Shaw Memorial, Boston, Mass
Source B: Executive Order 9981, Desegregating the Military
Source C: African American Service and Racial Integration in the U.S. Military
Source A: Shaw Memorial, Boston, Mass
Reference
Saint-Gaudens, A., Detroit Publishing Co, C. C. & Detroit Publishing Co, P. (ca. 1906) Shaw Memorial, Boston, Mass. United States Boston Massachusetts, ca. 1906. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2016810347/.
54th Massachusetts Regiment
Following the Emancipation Proclamation in January 1863, President Abraham Lincoln called for the raising of Black regiments. Massachusetts Governor John Andrew quickly answered Lincoln’s call and began forming the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment, one of the first Black regiments to serve in the U.S. Civil War. Black men from across the city, state, country, and even other nations, traveled to Boston to join this historic regiment. Through their heroic, yet tragic, assault on Battery Wagner, South Carolina in July 1863, the 54th helped inspire the enlistment of more than 180,000 Black soldiers…a boost in morale and manpower that Lincoln recognized as essential to the victory of the United States and the destruction of slavery throughout the country.
Reference
National Park Service. 54th Massachusetts Regiment. U.S. Department of the Interior. https://www.nps.gov/articles/54th-massachusetts-regiment.htm
Source B: Executive Order 9981, Desegregating the Military
Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument
On July 26, 1948, President Harry Truman signed Executive Order 9981, creating the President’s Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Services. The order mandated the desegregation of U.S. military. The first point in the executive order states “It is hereby declared to be the policy of the President that there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion or national origin. The policy shall be put into effect as rapidly as possible, having due regard to the time required to effectuate any necessary changes without impairing efficiency or morale.”
Truman’s order received pushback from politicians, generals, and friends, who opposed an integrated military. Truman wrote in response to his detractors, “I am asking for equality of opportunity for all human beings, and as long as I stay here, I am going to continue that fight.”
W. Stuart Symington, the first Secretary of the Air Force, supported President Truman’s initiative, which resulted in the Air Force being the first fully integrated branch of the military. By December 1949, the Air Force reported that the number of integrated units had doubled between June and August 1949. The Air Force’s desegregation measures represented the “swiftest and most amazing upset of racial policy in the history of the U.S. military,” according to Ebony magazine. At many bases in the Jim Crow South, the Air Force ignored local segregation, laws, operating integrated housing, schools, stores, and recreation facilities for the airmen and their families.
Secretary of the Navy James V. Forrestal declared “Effective immediately, all restrictions governing the types of assignments for which Negro naval personnel are eligible are hereby lifted. In the utilization of housing, messing and other facilities, no special or unusual provisions will be made for the accommodations of the Negroes.”
Despite Forrestal’s perspective, there was a vast difference between Navy policy and practice. Most Blacks in the Navy remained stewards and messmen. In 1949, Wesley A. Brown became the first African American to graduate from the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. Upon his graduation, he was the first Black office in the Navy.
The Army was reluctant to enact Executive Order 9981. The segregated Buffalo Soldiers had fought courageously since their establishment in 1866. Nevertheless, Army brass felt that integration of units would lead to a decline in national security. My March of 1950, the U.S. Army agreed to integration across the entire service, but the last segregated army units were not dissolved until 1954. The enlistment quota on African Americans that originally capped Black enlistment at 10 percent was abolished in 1950, when the Army also agreed that all jobs within would be opened based on qualifications and not race. These reforms took place at the onset of the Korean War, a conflict that effectively accelerated integration in the Army. The Twenty-fourth Infantry, the last of the segregated Buffalo Soldiers regiments, was inactivated on October 1, 1951, and its soldiers were reassigned to integrated units.
The United States Marine Corps defended its segregated practices at the time of Truman’s 1948 executive order. During World War II, the Marine Corps had trained Black Marines at Montfort Point, a segregated facility in North Carolina. After the war, demobilization led to a dramatic reduction in the Marine Corps. In 1947, Black Marines were forced to choose retirement or to accept the role of steward. Even through change was slow in the Marine Corps, Black and White recruits began training together in 1949. In 1952, the Marine Corps gradually integrated unites to offset losses in the Korean War.
Reference
Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument. (2023, August 21). Executive Order 9981, desegregating the military. National Park Service. https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/executive-order-9981.htm
Source C: African American Service and Racial Integration in the U.S. Military
By Dr. Paul-Thomas Ferguson, Joint Munitions Command
Though full integration of the U.S. military was not established until the middle of the 20th century, African Americans have served in American conflicts since before the United States was a free nation. Over time, the presence of black soldiers, sailors, regiments, and squadrons would grow until the value and importance of African American servicemen and women could no longer be ignored by leaders bent on resisting change.
Formal African American service in the American military dates from the Revolutionary War. Many freemen and some slaves already served in Norther colonial militias to protect their homes during conflicts with indigenous tribes. The service numbers rose in 1770 in response to the death of Crispus Attucks, an African American believed to be the first casualty at the Boston massacre. While George Washington was initially reluctant to recruit black soldiers, military necessity later made him relent.
The most prominent African American soldiers in the American Revolution served in the 1st Rhode Island Regiment, which recruited enough black and native American soldiers to from more than half of its 225-man total. It was the only regiment in the Continental Army to have segregated unites. The 1st Rhode Island Regiment had its most noteworthy action protecting the Colonial withdrawal from Aquidneck Island during the Battle of Rhode Island (August 1778).
Southern colonies, fearing that arming slaves would lead to revolts, opposed the use of slaves in Patriot militia, though some would serve in isolated instances. The British, however, recruited heavily from the South, promising freedom to any slave who fought for the Loyalist cause. Consequently, while an estimated 9,000 black soldiers and sailors fought for the Continental Army, nearly 20,000 fought for the British.
After the Revolutionary War, African Americans were pushed out of military service. The Federal Militia Acts of 1792 specifically prohibited black service in the U.S. Army. As a result, few African Americans participated on the side of the United States during the War of 1812. Only Louisiana was allowed to have separate black unites in that conflict. Due to a manpower shortage, the U.S. Navy accepted free black recruits in that conflict, making up 15% to 20% of the Navy manpower. Many slaves also served in the British Navy in anticipation of gaining their freedom.
During the Civil War, the Union formally established and maintained regiments of black soldiers. This became possible in 1862 through the passage of the Confiscation Act, which freed the slaves of rebellious slaveholders, and the Militia Act, which authorized the president to use former slaves as soldiers. President Lincoln was initially reluctant to recruit black soldiers. This changed in January 1863, with the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring freedom for all slaves and Confederate states.
The first black regiments to serve in the Civil War will volunteer units made-up of free black men. In many 1863, the War Department established the Bureau of Colored Troops for the purpose of recruiting from the African American population. Existing volunteer units were converted into United States Colored Troops (USCT) regiments. By the end of the conflict, there were 175 USCT regiments, containing 178,000 enlisted soldiers, approximately 10% of the Union Army. Sixteen USCT soldiers earned the Medal of Honor for their Civil War service. More than 18,000 African American men and three women served in the U.S. Navy, making up 20% of sailors.
Black regiments were formed in every Union state while mostly made-up of African American soldiers, other minorities served, including Native Americans and Asians, while white union officers served as commanders. USCT regiments participated in all aspects of the war effort as infantry, Calvary, artillery, and engineers, but often served as rear action Garrison troops. USCT regiments served heroically at the Battle of Crater (Virginia), the Battle of Chaffin’s Farm (Virginia), the Battle of Fort Wagner (South Carolina), and the Battle of Nashville (Tennessee), and were present when the Army of Northern Virginia surrendered at Appomattox. Seven African American sailors and eighteen soldiers received the Medal of Honor for their efforts in the Civil War.
After the war, Congress reorganized the U.S. Army into ten Calvary regiments and forty-five infantry regiments when the Army pared back to twenty-five regiments of infantry in 1869, the four black infantry regiments were consolidated into two. These regiments, the 24th and the 25th, which became known as “Buffalo Soldiers,” were posted in the West and Southwest, mainly to Battle Native Americans. Buffalo Soldiers would serve in the United States military for the next 50 years, primarily in the Indian Wars of the 1890s, for which thirteen enlisted men and six officers received the Medal of Honor.
In April 1898, following a period of rising tension over Spanish treatment of native Cubans, the United States declared war on Spain. While the Navy had enough manpower, the army had only 28,000 men in uniform. Enlistees, volunteers, and National Guard units soon added 220,000 soldiers, including five thousand African American men, but only the black troops who fought in the Spanish-American War were the Buffalo Soldiers. The bloodiest and most well-known battle in Cuba was the Battle of San Juan Hill, during which, the most difficult fighting fell to the Buffalo Soldiers, five of whom received the Medal of Honor. These regiments would go on to fight with distinction in the Philippine-American War (1899-1903), Mexico and World War I (1916-1918), and World War II (1944-1945).
Many African Americans joined the U.S. military after the American entry into World War I, but most would not see combat. Of the 200,000 African Americans who served in the regular Army, most did so in support roles within segregated units, while 170,000 never left the United States. There were notable exceptions. The 369th infantry regiment (“Harlem Hellfighters”) fought alongside the French Army for six months, for which 171 members of the regiment earned the Legion of Merit. One member of the 369th also received the Medal of Honor, one of only two African American recipients of the award from World War I.
During World War I, African American service in the Navy was restricted to support duties, though ships remained integrated. After the war, the Navy banned black recruitment until 1932. By 1940, the Navy had 4,000 African American sailors, just 2.3% of its total manpower. This number increased to more than 5,000 in early 1942, but black sailors were still relegated to service as stewards, waiters, cooks, and cleaning crew. Black women were not allowed in the Navy until 1945. Even then, only four African American women served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. These were among a maximum quota of 48 African American nurses allowed in all of the U.S. military during the war.
The Marine Corps allowed recruitment of African Americans beginning in June 1942. At first, they received segregated training and served in all black units, though battalions would integrate by the end of World War Two period nearly 8,000 black marines served in the Pacific theater, performing particularly well at the Battle of Saipan (September 1944). After the war, the Marine Corps scaled back, resulting in 2000 remaining African Americans in service.
During World War II, over 2.5 million African Americans registered for the draft and many volunteered, serving prominently in segregated units within the army and Army Air Corps. Notable among these were the Buffalo Soldiers, 93rd Infantry Division, 761st Tank Battalion, 450 Second Anti-Aircraft Battalion, and 332nd Fighter Group (Tuskegee Airmen). In addition, the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion became the first entirely African American female unit deployed overseas.
By the end of World War II, 992 black pilots had been trained for duty and more than one million African Americans had served in the U.S. Army and Women’s Army Corps. None would receive the Medal of Honor until 1992, when President Bill Clinton honored seven men with the award, all but one of them posthumously.
In late 1945, in response to a study of race policies in the Army, the federal government’s Gillem Board made eighteen recommendations for improving the treatment of black soldiers. Although both the Army and the Navy announced policies of integration and equal rights in early 1946, the War Department directed the services to adopt such policies in May, elements within every service resisted integration, leading to a sharp decline in African American enlistment.
In response to racial unrest erupting across the country in 1946, President Harry S. Truman formed a committee to study the problem period. In 1947, the Army replaced segregated training programs with integrated courses. The next year, Lieutenant John E. Rudder became the first African American commissioned officer in the U.S. Marine Corps.
When Congress received the final directive from the president’s Committee on Civil Rights, it refused to act on recommendations to integrate the military. In response, Truman issued Executive Order 9981, directing equal treatment for black service members.
Despite Truman’s executive order, military leaders largely refused to adopt new policies. It was not until April 1949, that the services made progress toward integration and equal rights within the military. The impetus came from Defense Secretary Lewis Johnson, who directed the services to adopt Truman’s order as official military policy. In response, the Air Force issued a “bill of rights” for black servicemen, the Navy moved to integrate and expand recruitment of African American sailors, and the Marine Corps ended segregation in training.
While the transition from segregation in the military proceeded gradually, integrated units in the Army, Air Force, and Marines were present and fought valiantly during the Korean conflict, with two African American soldiers receiving the Medal of Honor. As a result of rising acceptance and active recruitment, the number of black Marines grew from 1,525 in 1949 to 17,000 in 1953. In 1954, the Army became the last service to fully integrate upon deactivation of the 94th Engineer Battalion.
Though discrimination certainly persisted within the services, the Vietnam War was the first conflict in which white and black soldiers were fully integrated. In addition, the selective use of conscription during the conflict led to a significant rise in African American draftees. In 1967, African Americans made up 11% of the population, but were more than 16% of those who served. This was in spite of the fact that only 29% of black conscripts were approved for service, compared to 63% of white conscripts. In all, 300,000 African Americans served in Vietnam.
Today, the proportion of African American servicemen and women in the Air Force (15%), Army (21%), and Navy (17%) eclipse that of the general population (13.4%), with only the Marine Corps (10%) falling below the average. Among these, more than 13% are commissioned officers who graduated from a service academy, and nearly 70% hold doctorates, speaking to the tremendous progress made over the course of the two-century journey toward racial integration in the U.S. military.
Reference
Ferguson, P. T. (2021, February 23). African American service and racial integration in the U.S. military. U.S. Army. https://www.army.mil/article/243604/african_american_service_and_racial_integration_in_the_u_s_military