The book details the institutional policies and social pressures that shaped the treatment of African American servicemen from the eve of the Second World War through the mid-nineteen-sixties. At the outbreak of the war, the armed services maintained a policy of strict racial segregation, confining the majority of black personnel to noncombat support units and menial duties. Civil rights organizations and black newspapers launched a double victory campaign, demanding victory over fascism abroad and racial discrimination at home, while military leaders defended segregation on the grounds of tradition and social custom.
As the military expansion strained the nation's manpower resources, the inefficiency of segregation became increasingly apparent. The Army struggled with separate training facilities, unequal opportunities, and deteriorating morale among black troops. Despite the official policy, small-scale experiments with integration, such as the use of black officer candidate schools and integrated infantry platoons in Europe, proved that mixed units could function effectively in combat without causing social disruption.
In the Navy and the Coast Guard, similar exclusionary practices gradually yielded to wartime pressures and the leadership of figures like James Forrestal. After years of resisting general service integration, the Navy began assigning black sailors to auxiliary vessels and combat ships toward the end of the war, finding that integrated crews performed successfully. The Marine Corps remained the most resistant to change, though its labor and pioneer units saw hazardous combat service in the Pacific theater.
The postwar era brought intensified pressure from civil rights leaders and black veterans who refused to accept a return to prewar discrimination. Incidents of racial friction both on and off military reservations forced the Department of Defense to reexamine its policies. Through executive action and the persistent efforts of reformers within the military administration, the services slowly dismantled their segregated structures.
The narrative traces the gradual evolution from separate and equal doctrines to the adoption of equal treatment and opportunity as official defense policy. By the mid-nineteen-sixties, the Department of Defense had established civil rights mechanisms to combat discrimination both on military installations and within surrounding communities, marking a profound shift in the nation's military and social history.
