In the
course of the war, about one million Afro-Americans saw service
on behalf of their country. Their ratio within the armed forces
was almost the same as that within the nation. This had been the
stated goal of the Department of War.
Gradually, the armed forces modified their discriminatory
policies in response to the flood of complaints. The Air Force
began to train Negro pilots although they still received
segregated training and served in segregated squadrons. The
Marine Corps accepted Negro recruits for the first time in its
history. They, too, served in segregated units. The Navy, which
had restricted Negroes to menial positions, gradually began to
accept them in almost all noncommissioned positions. Eventually,
it even began to commission some Negro officers. The Army, too,
introduced an extensive program to prepare Negro officers. It
trained most of them in integrated facilities, but they continued
to lead segregated units. As the war grew to a close, the Army
announced that it intended to experiment with integration.
However, when the experiment took place, the integration proved
not to be quite what had been expected.
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