How could black men serve as officers in the US army during segregation?
score:14
As a matter of policy, black officers were only supposed to be assigned to black units. In theory, therefore, segregation was actually designed to ensure that blacks would not be giving orders to whites, regardless of ranks.
Negroes would be utilized in units with all-Negro enlisted personnel, but these units did not need to be employed separately . . . Negro officers were to serve only with Negro units and in overhead installations, and should command Negro troops only.
Lee, Ulysses. The Employment of Negro Troops. Government Printing Office, 1966.
Your example of Benjamin O. Davis Jr illustrates this policy. Upon graduation from West Point, the future general was assigned to the 24th regiment, an all black unit. He was promoted to captain in October 1940, in preparation for the creation of an all black flying unit, the Tuskegee Airmen, and became a lieutenant colonel in 1942 when appointed commander of the same.
It's worth noting that none of General Davis' above promotions, not even captain, was made permanent in the regular military until after the Second World War was over. In terms of high rank, he did not become a brigadier general until 1954, long after Truman ordered the desegregation of the military.
His father, Benjamin Davis Sr, however, was promoted to general in 1940 at the same time FDR formalised the acceptance of segregation by ordering the formation of all black units. In this case Roosevelt apparently wanted to forestall African-American criticism, by promoting the only black colonel in the military to general rank.
Upvote:3
I don't know if you have a specific period in mind, but the military desegregated earlier than most of the rest of the country. When Truman signed Executive Order 9981 (1948), it allowed for desegregated units. Before then, units were divided by race.
More post
- 📝 Is the USA Congress explicitly patterned after the British Parliament?
- 📝 Did Portuguese fisherman visit New England prior to 1492?
- 📝 Did the Indo-Greeks play a crucial role in promoting Buddhism?
- 📝 What factors contribute to the fact that only a handful of countries manufacture aircraft jet engines?
- 📝 Which English ship was in Kamchatka in 1793?
- 📝 What was the first example of a foreign mercenary unit?
- 📝 How did Hitler view Fr. Denis Fahey, Fr. Leonard Feeney, J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis?
- 📝 In 1947, how many Reichsmarks would 1 U.S. dollar buy?
- 📝 Did the ancient Chinese use an ink covered finger to sign documents?
- 📝 What was the most important cause of the Second World War?
- 📝 1850s steel technology advance before the Bessemer converter
- 📝 What was the reason for the Dutch attack on Venezuela in 1908?
- 📝 Did any Chinese revolutionaries being helped by the Japanese get suspicious of Japan's intentions?
- 📝 What evidence is there to suggest that 'fear of the bomb' is culturally specific?
- 📝 Did all the the -stan sovereign state names appear synchronously?
- 📝 What was the biggest region in the Holy Roman Empire that was never Protestant, if any?
- 📝 Are there any documented examples of wooden ships which were in active service for 100 years or more? If not, what is the longest?
- 📝 Why was the German Jewish population declining so much that some statisticians predicted its disappearance even before the 3rd Reich?
- 📝 British Diplomat's Guide to the Balkan Races
- 📝 What are the primary sources for the Mongol sack of Baghdad?
- 📝 Did the Jews move from Palestine to Germany?
- 📝 How multilingual would Canaanite citizens have been?
- 📝 When did fluorescent lights become common in Europe?
- 📝 Can anyone find a picture of NSDAP & KPD Workers eating lunch together in 1932 during Berlin Transit Workers Strike?
- 📝 Why was East Asia more religiously tolerant than Europe in medieval time?
- 📝 Identify WW2 ammo
- 📝 Did Lincoln provoke the US civil war?
- 📝 Why do minor political parties in the US receive so few votes?
- 📝 Why were kitchen work surfaces in Sweden apparently so low before the 1950s or so?
- 📝 What was the point of horse armour?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 How could black men serve as officers in the US army during segregation?
- 📝 How long did men have to serve in the US army until they were promoted to sergeants during WW2?
- 📝 How could it be that 80% of townspeople were farmers during the Edo period in Japan?
- 📝 How was ownership of property managed during the Black Death, when so many original owners had died?
- 📝 How was the Roman army in fact organized during Caesar's campaigns in Gaul?
- 📝 How did China deal with the Black Death during the second plague pandemic?
- 📝 During the Middle Ages, how many people could be fed by fishing?
- 📝 During and right after the French Revolution, how did France maintain and operate such a big army all over Europe?
- 📝 What were conditions like for Chinese men subject to recruitment by the army during the Second Sino-Japanese War and Chinese Civil War?
- 📝 How efficiently did the Red Army conduct itself during the invasion of Poland in 1939?
- 📝 How were Warrant Officers appointed to Royal Navy ships during the Age of Sail?
- 📝 How did the James river serve as a natural defense during The US Civil War?
- 📝 How did Mao Zedong's policy abuse affect those in the Five Black Categories during the Cultural Revolution?
- 📝 Why were so many more Jewish men than Jewish women killed during the Holocaust?
- 📝 How did the authorities not find the speakeasy clubs during the prohibition?
- 📝 How did the Nazis plan to defeat America during World War II?
- 📝 Are there any accounts of everyday life during the Black Death?
- 📝 In the Battle of the Coral Sea, how could two Japanese scouts grossly mis-identify two American ships?
- 📝 How many people in the US starved to death during the Great Depression?
- 📝 How were the cities of Milan and Bruges spared by the Black Death?
- 📝 How beneficial were war bonds to the US during WWII
- 📝 How did people deal with ice on the roads during the horse-and-buggy era?
- 📝 Were there any travel restrictions during the Black Death pandemic?
- 📝 During the Great Depression, did the US Army do a study involving paying people to dig a hole and fill it back up?
- 📝 How difficult was to escape from a naval battle after engaging into one during the Age of Sail?
- 📝 How advanced was the satellite technology during the Yom Kippur War?
- 📝 How close was the Soviet Union to collapsing during WW2?
- 📝 In the early 1900s, how did US politicians treat black dignitaries from other countries?
- 📝 How quickly could the Roman legions march? How did it compare to their cavalry?
- 📝 How was beer production affected by the war during WW2?
