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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - IV. Economics - 19. The War Boom—and Thereafter - 4. The Negro in the Armed Forces
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Chapter 19, The War Boom—^and Thereafter 421
tional representation among the Army Air Force pilots. At first they were
not accepted at all.**® In view of the relatively small proportion of Negroes
with some college education, and the low number of Negro officers and
reserve officers before the War, it is obvious that Negroes cannot get any-
thing near the number of Army officers’ positions which would correspond
with their proportion in the total population. It is expected, however, that,
at least by the end of 1943, the majority of the officers in Negro outfits,
except for those in higher ranks, will be Negro. This means that there will
be an improvement compared with the conditions during the First World
War. There is also an under-representation of Negroes among Army
doctors and nurses. Negro women are allowed into the women’s branch of
the Army (the ^WACS”) in numbers commensurate with their proportion
in the population, but they are segregated.
During his entire military history in this country, the Negro has
experienced numerous humiliations of various kinds. He has been abused
because of his race by many white officers, by white soldiers and by white
civilians. There have been race riots in or around camps. The Negro soldier
has usually been punished most severely when he was only one offender
among many, and sometimes even when he was the victim.**^
The present War has already seen a number of such incidents. For
example, on August 14, 1941, a group of unarmed Negro soldiers, marching
on a highway in Arkansas, under the command of a white officer, were
pushed off the road by Arkansas state troopers j
the protesting white
officer was abused as a ‘^nigger lover” and slapped. In Alexandria,
Louisiana, where a small, congested Negro section was the only amusement
area for a large number of Negro soldiers, white military police went into
this Negro area to arrest a drunken Negro soldier. Negroes resisted, and an
hour-long battle followed during which thirty Negroes were wounded.
After this, Negro military police were stationed in the Negro area. In the
spring of 1941, the body of a Negro soldier was found hanging from a tree
in a wood at Fort Benning, Georgia. A white lieutenant of a Coast Artillery
Regiment stationed in Pennsylvania (December, 1941) overstepped his
authority by issuing an order—soon afterwards withdrawn—in which he
threatened with the death penalty ^^relations between white and colored
males and females whether voluntary or not.”^°
To be sure, not all incidents were caused by whites. Some have just been
drunken brawls in which the racial element was secondary. In others it may
have been the unwillingness of Negro soldiers—^particularly Northern
soldiers stationed in the South—^to comply with Southern segregational
patterns which incited the fights. Also, we know more about incidents which
have occurred than we do about incidents that have been prevented. In all
probability, there are several commanders who know how to minimize
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