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U S Armed Forces Integration Chronology
African Americans Military Chronology
Part I- Part II- Part III- Part IV- Part V
African American Military History Timeline
African Americans and the U. S. Navy
African Americans in the Civil War
Black Union Soldiers in the Civil War
Buffalo Soldiers on the Frontier
Blacks and America's Wars
Harlem Hellfighters - 369th Infantry Regiment
African American World War II Photos
Colonial Period
Blacks arrived as slaves in 1619 (Jamestown), 1626 (New Amsterdam), and 1636 (Salem).
For the most part Black slaves were not authorized to carry arms or ammunition.
However, in New Amsterdam in 1641 they were armed with a "tomy hawk and a half pike" to assist in fighting Indians.
In Plymouth Colony, Abraham Pearse, a Black man, was listed on the roles as being capable of bearing arms, and later in the Massachusetts Colony "all Negroes and Indians from sixteen to sixty" were enjoined to attend militia training. This militia service was scattered and New England soon followed the Virginia lead and began to ban Blacks from militia organizations.
Because this gave the Blacks the "social status" on a par with ministers and public officials, who were also exempted, many colonial legislatures required free Blacks to work on public projects for a like amount of days as White settlers gave to the militia, and slaves were commonly used as laborers.
Free Blacks were for the most part allowed to enlist as soldiers in the militia.
In the southern colonies greater restrictions were placed on the Blacks, but in time of emergency Blacks were permitted, and sometimes required, to serve in military units. In New York they fought in the Tuscarora War in 1711 and the Yamassee War in 1715, and in Louisiana in 1730 they fought the Natchez Indians for the French.
In 1736, a Spanish force was assembled in Mobile to again fight the Natchez. Accompanying them was a separate company of Blacks with free Blacks serving as officers. This represents the first occasion Blacks served as officers in a colonial military unit.
During the French and Indian War, Black militia men served with independent colonist units from some of the states and as scouts, wagoneers, and laborers with regular English forces. During this period Black Americans had won honors in several battles and "Negro Mountain" in Maryland was so named in honor of a Black man killed in a fight with Indians during this War.
By the end of this period the Black population in the colonies had grown to 462,000, and the fear of revolts caused the Blacks to be exempted from military duty, except in times of emergency.
Revolutionary War
Crispus Attucks, a Black man who was the first of five to die in the Boston Massacreof 1770, is said to be one of the first martyrs to American independence. Eyewitness reports credit Attucks with shaping and dominating the action, and when the people faltered, he is said to have been the one who rallied them and encouraged them to stand their ground.
Black Minutemen fought at Lexington and Concordas early as April 1775, but in May of that same year, the Committee for safety of the Massachusetts Legislature presented a resolution that read:
"Resolved that it is the opinion of this Committee, as the contest now between Great Britain and the Colonies respects the liberties and privileges of the latter, which the Colonies are determined to maintain, that the admission of any persons, as soldiers, into the army now raising, but only such as are freemen, will be inconsistent with the principles that are to be supported, and reflect dishonor on the colony, and that no slaves be admitted into this army, upon any consideration whatever."
The British forces began offering freedom to Black slaves in return for their joining His Majesty's Troops, and by December 1775 almost 300 Blacks were members of Lord Dunmore's "Ethiopian Regiment." Their uniforms were inscribed "Liberty to Slaves."
That same month George Washington authorized recruiting officers to sign up free Blacks, but still prohibited slave participation.
Some slaves did participate as "substitutes" for their masters.
By mid-1778, an average of 42 Black soldiers was in each integrated brigade, and later all-Black units were formed in Rhode Island, Boston, and Connecticut. One of these units, relatively untrained, fought the battle of Rhode Island on Aquidneck Island in August 1778. It held the line for four hours against British-Hessian assaults, enabling the entire American Army to escape a trap. A monument to their courage was erected in Portsmouth, Rhode Island.
By 1779, the issue of enlisting Black soldiers had been resolved. With his troop strength dangerously low, George Washington welcomed all Blacks, free or slave, into the ranks.
In a Colonial Army of 300,000, approximately 5,000 Black soldiers fought in most of the major battles, accumulating honors and praise from commanders.
The Continental Navy was small and ships suffered chronic manpower shortages. Although no ship captains were Black, many pilots were Black, and no state passed legislation barring Blacks from naval service. In fact, several states paid bonuses or granted freedom to known slaves for Black crew members.
In 1775, in the seaport city of Newport, Rhode Island, a recruiting poster was displayed seeking "ye able backed sailors, men white or black, to volunteer for naval service in ye interest of freedom."
Despite heroic efforts by Black Americans in the Revolutionary War, their contributions were soon forgotten and none were given much recognition or declared to be national heroes. At the end of the American Revolution, Blacks were virtually eliminated from the armed forces of the new nation.
In 1792, an act was passed by Congress restricting military service to "free able-bodied white male citizens," and most states followed suit.
When the Marine Corps was established in 1798 the rules stated that "no Negro, mulatto or Indian" was to be enlisted.
Lewis and Clark brought a slave named York with them on their 1804-5 expedition of the Louisiana Territory. The Plains Indians had never seen a Black before and they were fascinated with the color of his skin. After successful raids or battles, they had marked their skins with charcoal to symbolize bravery. So, as his skin was as black as if he were marked with charcoal, he was seen as a very brave man. The Indians considered him, rather than Lewis and Clark, to be the leader of the expedition, and, thanks to York, many tribes were friendly to the expedition.
Post-Revolutionary War
Although Blacks were still excluded from most land forces during the War of 1812, this was primarily a naval war and experienced Blacks proved to be a valued and sought-after resource. When Commodore Perry won his great victory on Lake Erie, at least one of every ten sailors on his ship was Black.
Before and during the War of 1812, Black slaves from southern states escaped and fled to a haven with the Seminole Indians in Florida.
England and Spain refused to return these slaves to their owners. The First Seminole War began as an attempt to recapture runaway slaves.
The Second Seminole War resulted from attempts to remove the Seminole from Florida to make room for White settlers.
However, one-quarter to one-third of the warriors resisting this removal were Black. This Black presence among the Seminole is believed to be the principal reason that removal of the Seminoles was sought, as they were attracting the Black slaves from the southern states.
The Seminoles were "allowed" to move to Indian Territory, but only a few Blacks were permitted to go. Some escaped to Mexico, others were returned to their former White owners.
Civil War
Historians have argued the root causes of the Civil War for over a hundred years. Clearly, the abolition of slavery and freedom for all Blacks was one of the major reasons that war broke out. Upon taking office, in order to avoid a break-up of the Union, President Lincoln announced in his inaugural address that he had no intention or legal right to interfere with the "institution" of slavery in those states "where it now exists."
In 1861, Secretary of War Cameron declared that, "This Department has no intention at present to call into the service of the Government any colored soldiers."
However, General John C. Fremont issued a proclamation of emancipation in Missouri in 1861, and in Georgia, Kansas, and Ohio, Blacks were accepted into certain volunteer units. These orders were all countermanded or negated by the Federal officials in Washington.
By mid-1862 the supply of volunteers slowed down and Congress revoked the laws against Blacks in the militia or Blacks as laborers. Finally, in August, Secretary of War Stanton approved Black recruitment.
Furthermore, Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation of 22 September 1862 authorized participation of Blacks in "the armed services of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places to man vessels of all sorts in said service."
In May 1863, the War Department created the Bureau of Colored Troops to handle recruitment. The United States Colored Troops (USCT) were created at this time, but all officers were still to be White.
Black soldiers were paid considerably less than White soldiers, until January 1864, when equal pay was achieved.
Over 180,000 Blacks served in USCT units--10 percent of the total Union strength. Another 200,000 Blacks served in service units. Fewer than 100 served as officers.
Thirteen Black Non-Commissioned Officers received Medals of Honor for action at Chapins Farm, Virginia, where they assumed command of their units and led assaults after their White officers had been killed or wounded.
Of the 1,523 Medals of Honor awarded during the Civil War, twenty-three were awarded to Black soldiers and sailors.
The Navy enlisted Blacks beginning in September 1861. By 1862, regular seaman ranks were opened to Blacks. By the war's end 30,000 Blacks had served in the Navy, out of a total Naval enlisted strength of 118,000.
By 1865, over 37,000 Black soldiers had died--almost 35 percent of all Blacks who had served in combat.
Indian Campaigns
After the Civil War the USCT were moved to western posts to relieve tensions created by the presence of armed Black soldiers in the South.
During the Indian Campaigns (1866-1890) the Black regiments in the West, despite poor equipment and inadequate rations, had a high morale and fewer desertions than any other Army unit.
The poorly equipped Black cavalrymen supplemented their rations by hunting buffalo. Called "Buffalo Soldiers" by the Indians, the Black soldiers earned 18 of 370 Medals of Honorduring this period.
An officer who served many years with the all-Black 10th Cavalry noted that although the Black soldiers did all the fighting at the Cheyenne Agency during the Indian Campaigns, and sustained all the casualties, the White troops received all the commendations. The role of the Black soldier was summed up with one brusque statement: "Two colored troops of the 10th Cavalry were also engaged."
In 1877, Chaplain George M. Mullins, of the all-Black 25th Infantry, wrote from Fort Davis, Texas, that "The ambition to be all that soldiers should be is not confined to a few of these sons of an unfortunate race. They are possessed of the notion that the colored people of the whole country are more or less affected by their conduct in the Army."
In 1877, the first Black officer in the Regular Army, Henry Ossian Flipper, graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He successfully served in the Black regiments in the West for four years, but came under attack by his fellow officers and was discharged in 1881 for conduct unbecoming an officer. The charge of "embezzling public funds" was never proven. In 1976, at the request of Wesley A. Brown, the first Black graduate of the United States Naval Academy, and historian Ron O. McCall, the Army reviewed the charges against Lieutenant Flipper and issued an Honorable Discharge in his name
In summarizing the effectiveness of the Black units during the Civil War, General W. T. Sherman wrote to the Secretary of War, J. D. Cameron on 1 March 1877:
...I have watched with deep interest the experiment of using black [sic] as a soldier made in the Army since the Civil War... General Butler misconstrues me as opposed to blacks as soldiers for I claim them equality in the ranks as in civil life... I advised the word "black" be obliterated from the statute book and that Whites and blacks be enlisted and distributed alike in the army.
General Sherman's recommendation on integration of the armed forces would not take effect until 1954.
Spanish American War
When the battleship Maine sank in Havana Harbor in February 1898, there were 22 Black sailors who died with the rest of the crew.
Up to the time of the outbreak of the war with Spain, only one company of Black soldiers served at a post east of the Mississippi River. During this short war, Blacks served with distinction, particularly under the command of Colonel "Teddy" Roosevelt and his "Rough Riders." Overall, Blacks received six of fifty-two Medals of Honor during the Spanish-American War.
World War I
Approximately 10 percent of the 400,000 Blacks who served in World War I were assigned to combat units.
Over 1300 were commissioned as officers (less than 1 percent of all officers). World War I saw the largest number of commissioned Blacks in the Army since Blacks were admitted.
One Black soldier, Sergeant Henry Johnson of the 369th Regiment, was the first American of the war to receive the French Croix de Guerre.
One Black American, Eugene Jacques Bullard, served as an aviator in the French Foreign Legion. Fleeing racial persecution in the United States, he joined the Legion in 1911. Wounded twice and declared disabled, he somehow engineered a transfer into the French Air Service and became a highly decorated combat pilot. Having flown more than 20 combat missions, he was known as the "Black Swallow of Death," and his plane was marked with a heart pierced by an arrow with the motto: "All Blood Runs Red." Despite his record, Bullard was never allowed to fly for the United States even after the country entered the war in 1917.
Until 1991, of the 127 Medals of Honor awarded during World War I, none were awarded to Blacks. This changed on April 24, 1991 when President Bush posthumously awarded the 128th Medal of Honor to Corporal Freddie Stowers, a Black soldier killed while leading his company in an assault against a German-held hill in France on September 28, 1918. The review of Stowers' war record by the Office of the Secretary of Defense was a result of an inquiry launched by Hofstra University historian Leroy Ramsey in 1988.
World War II
On October 25, 1940, Benjamin O. Davis, Sr., became the first Black American to achieve the rank of Brigadier General in the regular Armed Forces.
During the Battle of Pearl Harbor, Dorie Miller, a messman aboard the USS West Virginia, manned a free gun on the USS Arizona and shot down six Zeros, for which he was awarded the Navy Cross. Miller died with 644 other shipmates on Thanksgiving Day 1943 when his ship was torpedoed and sunk by a Japanese submarine. The Navy later named a destroyer escort in his honor. Recently, there has been discussion in DOD circles as to whether Miller's Navy Cross has been upgraded to a Medal of Honor. To date no Black soldier, sailor or airman has been awarded the Medal of Honor for action in World War II.
After World War I the Navy prohibited Blacks from enlisting. In 1932, enlistment was permitted, but only in the messman's branch, which was predominantly Filipino. Finally in 1942 the Navy decided to accept volunteers for general service, but even then they were prohibited from going to sea.
On October 27, 1944, Steward's Mate Alonzo Swann shot down a Japanese "Kamikaze" on a collision course with Swann's ship, the carrier Intrepid. A wing of the aircraft hit the gun tub where Swann was stationed, killing nine of his shipmates. The commanding officer recommended all seven survivors, all minorities, for the Navy Cross. The men were eventually awarded the Bronze Star, seven levels lower than the Navy Cross, with no explanation from Washington. Part of the problem may have been Swann's rating as steward's mate or "messboy." Although he had never cooked a meal, he was so listed as such on the ship's sailing list even though he had been trained as a gunner. Swann launched a personally-funded legal battle to upgrade his award. Finally, 48 years after his heroic action, he received the Navy Cross.
Black soldiers saw little combat in World War II. There were notable exceptions, however, and the 761st Tank Battalion won the Presidential Unit Citation for its efforts in the European Theater of Operations. Although this all-Black unit was nominated for this award six times between 1945 and 1976, the award was not presented until 1978.
In 1943, a submarine chaser (PC 1264) and a destroyer escort (USS Mason) were staffed with predominantly Black crews.
Initially all officers and petty officers were White, but on the submarine chaser the petty officers were replaced with Blacks about six months after commissioning.
In 1945, the first Black officer in the Navy was assigned to the submarine chaser.
One officer on this ship, Ensign Samuel L. Gravely, Jr., eventually became the first Black flag officer in the Navy.
In 1939, Congress enacted the Civilian Pilot Training Act to create a reserve of trained pilots to be called in case of war. Civilian schools were called upon to do this training, and there was a requirement that at least one of the schools train Black aviators.
In early 1941, the Tuskegee Training Program was begun at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. A total of nearly 1,000 "Tuskegee Airmen" were trained through this program, and Tuskegee Institute was the single training facility for Black pilots until the flying program closed there in 1946.
At the same time, the 99th Pursuit Squadron was formed as part of the Tuskegee Training Program. Later redesignated the 99th Fighter Squadron, this flying unit, made up exclusively of Black pilots, participated in campaigns throughout Europe and earned three Distinguished Unit Citations. They were noted for destroying five enemy aircraft in less than four minutes, a feat that had never before been accomplished.
Another all-Black Army Air Corps flying unit, the 332nd Fighter Group, first saw combat in early 1944. One of their noteworthy achievements was the destruction of a German Navy destroyer by fighter aircraft, which had never been done before. This unit was placed under the command of then Lt. Col. Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., who was the first Black graduate of the U.S. Military Academy to become a general officer in the Regular Army (he retired at the rank of Lieutenant General).
In all, the Tuskegee Airmen destroyed 261 aircraft, damaged 148 more. They flew 15,533 sorties and 1,578 missions, with 66 of their members killed in action between 1941 and 1945
Some Blacks received the Silver Star and other combat decorations, but there were no Black recipients of the 431 Medals of Honor.
Post World War II
Executive Order 9981was issued by President Harry S Truman on July 26, 1948, establishing a policy of equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the Armed Forces without regard to race, color, religion, or national origin
Also established was a Presidential Committee, chaired by Charles Fahy, which examined racial policies to determine whether Blacks were militarily and technically qualified to hold all military occupations, and whether segregated units should be maintained. The Committee concluded that full utilization of Blacks would improve military efficiency and that segregated units were an inefficient use of Black resources.
In June of 1949, Wesley A. Brown was the first Black graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy.
Korean War
Full implementation of Truman's integration policy was slowed by the Korean Conflict, which began in 1950.
Blacks constituted 13 percent of all U.S. forces during the Korean Waryears, and 40 percent of them were assigned to combat units.
Two Black Army sergeants, Cornelius H. Charltonand William Thompson, were among the 131 Medal of Honor recipients.
Ensign Jesse L. Brown, the first Black naval aviator, was killed in a combat mission in December 1950 and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and Air Medal posthumously. At about the same time, Frederick C. Branch became the first Black to be commissioned in the U.S. Marine Corps.
"Project Clear," a study on the effects of segregation and integration in the Army both in Korea and the United States, was conducted by the Operations Research Office of Johns Hopkins University and released in 1954.
It concluded that racially segregated units limited overall Army effectiveness, while integration enhanced effectiveness; integration throughout the Army was feasible; and that the quota on Black participation was unnecessary. This study assisted with desegregation and by 1954 the last all-Black unit had been disbanded, while Black enlistments grew.
The Vietnam Era
In June 1961, the first DoD directive was issued that was designed to eliminate off-post discrimination, and by 1963 post commanders were made responsible for developing equal treatment in both off-base and on-base situations. Full implementation of this policy was hampered by the war in Vietnam
During the Vietnam era there was a disproportionate number of Blacks entering the military.
They were underrepresented on the local draft boards and often were unable to receive deferments.
Consequently, Blacks constituted 16 percent of all those drafted, compared to 11 percent of the total national population.
Blacks tended to stay in the military longer than Whites and to volunteer at higher rates for elite units, such as airborne or air cavalry units.
As a result, Blacks assumed a higher proportion of the casualties than might be expected.
There were 20 Blacks among the 237 Medal of Honor winners in the Vietnam era.
U.S. Air Force General Daniel "Chappie" James, a Tuskegee Airman, flew 78 combat missions into North Vietnam. In September 1975 he became the first Black promoted to the four- star grade.
Post-Vietnam Era
With the end of the Vietnam War in 1973 came the advent of the all volunteer force. Other changes included a drastic increase in pay and a policy of equal pay for equal work. Enlistments soared. Whereas Black membership in the Army of 1968 was 12 percent, it rose to 32 percent in 1979.
Equanimity in the all volunteer force manifested itself at a slow, yet certain pace. In 1964, Black officers made up only 3.3 percent of the force. By 1979, this number had risen to only 6.8 percent. (See Table 1) With Blacks making up 32 percent of the enlisted ranks, there was an apparent discontinuity in officer representation. Blacks were still occupying the majority of the lower pay grades and positions of responsibility.
The Role of Blacks During Operation Desert Storm
Civil rights leaders claimed that the disproportionate numbers of Black troops in the armed forces at the time of the Persian Gulf war would lead to high percentages of Black casualties. The Department of Defense has released figures on the percentage of participation of various ethnic groups and the percentage of casualties each group suffered. Blacks, who make up 12 percent of the U.S. population, made up 24.5 percent of military personnel deployed to the Gulf. Black personnel of all branches who died in combat or non-combat situations represented 15 percent (182) of the total casualties in the war. Whites, who made up 66 percent of the U.S. forces in the theater accounted for 78 percent of the deaths. Hispanics, who were 5 percent of the forces, accounted for 4 percent of the deaths, and Asian Americans, less than two percent of the force, made up less than one percent of the deaths.
Although their lives were circumscribed by numerous discriminatory laws even in the colonial period, freed African-Americans, especially in the North, were active participants in American society. Black men enlisted as soldiers and fought in the American Revolution and the War of 1812. The 54th Massachusetts Infantry was a volunteer group of African-Americans who fought during the Civil War. The unit was made up of former slaves from throughout the North. The regiment was one of the first black units organized in the northern states.
Pine Ridge Agency, S. D. trooper, Buffalo Soldier Corporal / C. G. Morledge.
The 9th and 10th Cavalries were nicknamed the "Buffalo Soldiers" by Cheyenne and Comanche Indians who saw a similarity between the troopers hair and buffalo fur. These black soldiers were charged with carrying out orders to clear the way for whites as they headed West. Until the early 1890s, African Americans constituted 20 percent of all cavalry forces on the American frontier.
Stereoview of two African American pickets on duty near Dutch Gap, Virginia.
Abraham Lincoln's election led to secession and secession to war. When the Union soldiers entered the South, thousands of African Americans fled from their owners to Union camps. The Union officers did not know how to manage this addition to their numbers. Some sought to return the slaves to their owners, but others kept the blacks within their lines and dubbed them "contraband of war." Many "contrabands" greatly aided the war effort.
After Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, which was effective Jan. 1, 1863, black soldiers were officially allowed to participate in the war. Over 180,000 African Americans eventually served in the Union Army during the Civil War. Of these, more than 33,000 died. The Library of Congress holds histories and pictures of most of the regiments of the United States Colored Troops as well as manuscripts and published accounts by African American soldiers and their white officers.
A soldier who lost his leg in World War I shakes hands with the crowd at the Parade of the 369th Colored Infantry.
Many African Americans served in segregated units during World War I, mostly as support troops. Several units saw action alongside French soldiers fighting against the Germans, and 171 African Americans were awarded the French Legion of Honor. After the United States entered the war in April 1917, over 400,000 African Americans served, more than double the number that served in the Civil War. Active combat units included the 369th Infantry Regiment, a National Guard outfit also known as Harlem Hellfighters. They were the first Americans, black or white, to reach the combat zone in France, the first to cross the Rhine River in the offensive against Germany; and in continuous combat for 191 days, longer than any other American Unit.
Dorie Miller, a naval messman on board the Arizona, shot down four planes and was awarded the Navy Cross for his bravery and alertness.
At first, the Army and Navy were reluctant to accept black enlistees or draftees, even on a segregated basis. In 1940, there were fewer than 5,000 blacks and only two black officers in an Army of 230,000 -- that is, a little more than 2 percent. By September 1944, however, there were 702,000 in the Army, 165,000 in the Navy, 17,000 in the Marines, and 5,000 in the Coast Guard. Combined, around 1 million black men and women served in the U.S. armed forces during the war, half of them overseas. However, they were segregated into all-black units, usually under white officers, or were assigned to be cooks, porters, laborers, or servants. They also faced racial harassment by white military police. It was not until 1948 that the armed forces were officially desegregated.
Remembering their experiences in World War I, African American soldiers and civilians were increasingly unwilling to quietly accept a segregated Army or the discriminatory conditions they had previously endured. Northern black troops sent to the South for training often had violent encounters with white citizens there. Black-owned newspapers protested segregation, mistreatment, and discrimination. Labor leader A. Philip Randolph threatened a march on Washington by hundreds of thousands of blacks in 1941 to protest job discrimination in defense industries and the military. To avoid this protest, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802, reaffirming the "policy of full participation in the defense program by all persons, regardless of race, creed, color, or national origin."
During the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, Dorie Miller, a naval messman on board the USS Arizona, pulled his dying captain off the deck and then manned a machine gun. Miller shot down four planes and was awarded the Navy Cross for his bravery and alertness. Although barely out of his teens, he died in a subsequent encounter. His valor was particularly significant because, in spite of numerous protests by African-Americans, the Navy generally only allowed blacks to serve in its Messmen's Branch.
Even though an extreme shortage of nurses in World War II forced the federal government to seriously consider drafting white nurses, defense officials remained reluctant to recruit black nurses throughout the war. Allowing black nurses to care for whites was considered a violation of social norms. Nevertheless, the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses, led by Mabel Staupers, and rights groups like the NAACP, loudly protested racial policies in the Army Nurse Corps and the military in general. These groups achieved some success.
Col. Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., the son of the first African American general, pictured on the left, and first Lieutenant Lee Rayford.
Due to the rigid pattern of racial segregation that prevailed in the United States during World War II, over 966 black military aviators were trained at an isolated complex near the town of Tuskegee, Ala., and at Tuskegee Institute, now known as Tuskegee University. Some 450 black fighter pilots under the command of Col. Benjamin O. Davis Jr., (who was to later become the U. S. Air Force's first black general) fought in the aerial war over North Africa, Sicily and Europe. These gallant men flew 15,553 sorties and completed 1,578 missions with the 12th Tactical U. S. Army Air Force and the 15th Strategic U. S. Army Air Force.
George E.C. Hayes, Thurgood Marshall, and James Nabrit, congratulating each other, following Supreme Court decision declaring segregation unconstitutional, 1954.
In 1948, President Truman abolished racial segregation in the armed services by executive order. Starting with the Korean War, in 1950, integration proceeded rapidly, first at training bases in the United States, then in combat units in Korea, and finally at U.S. military installations around the world. Racial integration in the Army was accomplished with striking speed (the process took only five years) and thoroughness, at least on a formal level. By the mid-1950s a snapshot of a hundred enlisted men on parade would have shown, say, twelve black faces; integration was a fact of life. At a time when blacks were still arguing for their educational rights before the Supreme Court and marching for their social and political rights in the Deep South, the Army accomplished integration with little outcry.
Black U.S. Marine artillerymen greet each other in passing with the clenched fist symbolizing black power at the large base at Con Thien, south of the DMZ, in Vietnam, in Dec. 1968 during the Vietnam War.
The increasing activism of the civil rights movement, coupled with the widening of the Vietnam War, led to turbulent change. Truman's executive order to integrate the military had brought blacks partway into the armed service mainstream; the upheavals of the mid- and late 1960s provided the impetus for some measure of real equality.
African Americans often did supply a disproportionate number of combat troops, a high percentage of whom had voluntarily enlisted. Although they made up less than 10 percent of American men in arms and about 13 percent of the U.S. population between 1961 and 1966, they accounted for almost 20 percent of all combat-related deaths in Vietnam during that period. In 1965 alone, African Americans represented almost one-fourth of the Army soldiers killed in action.
In 1968, African Americans, who made up roughly 12 percent of Army and Marine total strengths, frequently contributed half the men in front-line combat units, especially in rifle squads and fire teams. Under heavy criticism, Army and Marine commanders worked to lessen black casualties after 1966, and by the end of the conflict, African American combat deaths amounted to approximately 12 percent more in line with national population figures. Final statistics: Overall, blacks suffered 12.5% of the deaths in Vietnam at a time when the percentage of blacks of military age was 13.5% of the total population.
While many black leaders, most notably Martin Luther King Jr., denounced the war, the antiwar movement was led mainly by whites. The war saw the widespread drafting of blacks into the military, whereas wealthier whites often evaded the draft through college deferments. But on a positive note, increased numbers of black officers served in Vietnam.
By the end of the draft in 1973, blacks made up about 17 percent of the enlisted force. By the early 1980s, the proportion had nearly doubled.
U.S. soldier in Kuwait, 1990
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Medal Of Honor - African Americans
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