Race Relations in the Armed Services of the United States

A comparison of race relations in our armed forces in World War I and World War II is a canvas which is neither white nor black. It is an indeterminate gray with tiny patches of light here and there which highlight the gray. There are other factors which made the canvas look dark during the last war which cause it today to be, to quote James Weldon Johnson's Creation, darker than a hundred midnights down in a cypress swamp. Let us examine first the modest gains which have been made partly because of a growing awareness of the truth that either the privileges of democracy must be given to all men or none will enjoy them, and partly due to political and other pressures. No other factor has contributed as much to more decent human relations between white and Negro members of the armed services than the War Department's establishment of Officer Candidate Schools in which men are being trained irrespective of race, creed, color or national origin. I have visited some of these schools in the deep South. I have had the opportunity there to talk not only with Negro officer candidates, but with many white ones who, prior to induction into the Army, had never had the opportunity to know or even talk with Negroes of approximately equal educational, economic, and family background. The results of such contacts have been phenomenally far-reaching in a number of instances. Some of the white officers have begun to challenge the concept held by white officers and soldiers of the Negro as an inferior, mentally deficient individual. Some of them have been shocked to learn of the mistreatment of Negro officers and soldiers and have become vocal and active against such mistreatment. Some of them have requested service with colored troops and have urged the establishment of mixed units in the Army as a step towards the abolition of segregation. Equally significant has been the effect upon colored officers, many of whom have for the first time learned that not all white Americans are anti-Negro. In contrast with World War I, the training given to Negro officers has been distinctly better than given them at the segregated Des Moines training school of 1917-18. In today's mixed camps and schools, the Negro officer candidate has received identical training. In addition, far more of them have been trained than in the last war and will undoubtedly give a correspondingly better account of themselves if the present conflict lasts for several years, as it is now apparent it will last. The media of the radio and the motion picture, which were infant industries and means of communication of ideas in 1917-18, have also been a distinct advantage in the present conflict on the matter of race and race relations. A number of the official films made by the War Department, the Motion Picture Division of the Office

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