Today #stampoftheday journeys to sea with the 3-cent stamp issued on June 10, 1957 to commemorate the 1957 International Naval Review, on June 12.
The review was based in Hampton Roads was scheduled to coincide with the 350th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown, the first permanent white settlement in the U.S. It featured about 80 U.S. warships and 30 other ships from 17 other countries: Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Cuba, Denmark, the Dominican Republic, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Peru, Portugal, Spain, Turkey, the United Kingdom, Uruguay, and Venezuela.
The stamp got me to thinking about the history of racial discrimination and segregation in the Navy (and other armed forces). I know that President Harry Truman’s 1948 executive order banning racial discrimination in the Armed Forces, made them forerunners in the ongoing efforts to dismantle legal segregation in the United States. And I know the Robert Putnam, the noted political scientist who has studied social capital, has frequently touted the army as an example of an institution that has done a particularly good job of creating a truly integrated institution.
Not surprisingly, racial segregation in the United States Armed Forces, which has included separation of white and non-white American troops, quotas, restriction of people of color troops to support roles, and outright bans on blacks and other people of color serving in the military, has been a part of the military history of the United States since the American Revolution. Estimates are that about 5,000 to 10,000 blacks fought served in the Continental Army and Navy or state militias and at least 20,000 served with the British, who used the promise of freedom to attract slaves to their fight. (However, about half of the blacks fighting for the British died in smallpox epidemics that swept the British forces and many did not get their promised freedom).
During the War of 1812, about one-quarter of the personnel in the American naval squadrons of the Battle of Lake Erie were black, and renderings of the battle on the wall of the nation’s Capital and in the rotunda of Ohio’s Capitol both portray blacks playing a major role in the fight. Blacks also served with the British who again promised freedom to blacks who joined their cause.
In the decades before the Civil War, US policy restricted blacks to no more than five percent of the people in naval service. During the Civil War, the Navy, unlike the Army, was integrated. Almost 18,000 black men (and 11 black women) served in the U.S. Navy during the Civil War, making them about 20 percent of the total force. During World War I, Navy policy allowed black sailors but limited them to working as mess attendants, firemen, or coal passers, who hauled massive quantities of coal to fuel the ships. A few also promoted to petty officers. Even these narrow roles were reduced after the war and by 1932 blacks were only allowed to work on US Navy ships as stewards and mess attendants. Consequently, by 1940 there were only 4,007 blacks among the about 170,000 people serving in the Navy. All but six of the black sailors were steward’s mates.
The situation changed with the US entry into the second World War and the demand for able-bodied men. In 1942, the Navy announced Blacks could enlist in the Seabees, though most of those units were segregated. Black Seabees played a major role as cargo handlers for the Navy, many serving in some of the Navy’s first integrated units.
Not surprisingly there were ongoing racial tensions, many of which came to head at Port Chicago in northern California where, on July 17, 1944, about 2,000 tons of ammunition exploded as it was being loaded onto ships by black Navy sailors under pressure from their white officers to hurry. The explosion killed 320 military and civilian workers, most of them black. It led a month later to the Port Chicago Mutiny, when about 50 Black sailors refused to continue loading ammunition under the same dangerous conditions. The sailors were court martialed and convicted in a trial that was observed by the then young lawyer Thurgood Marshall.
On July 26, 1948, President Harry S. Truman signed Executive Order 9981 integrating the military and mandating equality of treatment and opportunity. It also made it illegal, per military law, to make a racist remark. Desegregation of the military was not complete for several years, and all-black Army units persisted well into the Korean War. The last all-black unit was not disbanded until 1954. And, of course, racial tensions were common in units during the Vietnam War when black soldiers often were at odds with their white commanding officers.
The integration commanded by Truman’s 1948 Executive Order extended to schools and neighborhoods as well as military units. Fifteen years after the Executive Order, then Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara issued a directive stating that “Every military commander has the responsibility to oppose discriminatory practices affecting his men and their dependents and to foster equal opportunity for them, not only in areas under his immediate control, but also in nearby communities where they may gather in off-duty hours.” While the directive was issued in 1963, it was not until 1967 that the first non-military establishment was declared off-limits.
Since the end of military segregation and the creation of an all-volunteer army, the number and share of blacks in the military, including the Navy, has grown dramatically. As of 2016 (the last year for which I could find data), blacks, who made up about 13 percent of the US population, comprised about 19 percent of the Navy’s enlisted personnel and 7 percent of its officers. I did a little noodling to see if Robert Putnam’s acclaim for the way the Army has handled integration extended to the Navy as well. But I didn’t find anything indicating either that he had ever addressed the question. (I’d be interested in any readers’ thoughts on this…or anything else).
And that’s my #stampoftheday cruise for the day – yet another rambling journey that, at least for me, took in some interesting and insightful sights.
Stay safe, be well, fight for justice and work for peace.