Integration of the Armed Forces

Integration of the Armed Forces, 1940-1965, by

Morris J. McGregor Jr. This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: Integration of the Armed Forces, 1940-1965
Author: Morris J. McGregor Jr.
Release Date: February 15, 2007 [EBook #20587]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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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. I. Title. II. Series. UB418.A47M33 335.3'3 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