applied impartially in most
places. One of the reasons for this impartiality, undoubtedly, was the
fact that both local and national Selective Service Boards included
Afro-American representation. In the course of the war, about one million
Afro-Americans saw service on behalf of their country. Their ratio within
the armed forces was almost the same as that within the nation. This had
been the stated goal of the Department of War.

Gradually, the armed forces modified their discriminatory policies in
response to the flood of complaints. The Air Force began to train Negro
pilots although they still received segregated training and served in
segregated squadrons. The Marine Corps accepted Negro recruits for the
first time in its history. They, too, served in segregated units. The
Navy, which had restricted Negroes to menial positions, gradually began
to accept them in almost all noncommissioned positions. Eventually, it
even began to commission some Negro officers. The Army, too, introduced
an extensive program to prepare Negro officers. It trained most of them
in integrated facilities, but they continued to lead segregated units.
As the war grew to a close, the Army announced that it intended to
experiment with integration. However, when the experiment took place,
the integration proved not to be quite what had been expected. Instead of
putting individuals from both races together in the same unit, the Army
took segregated black and white platoons and merged them into an
integrated fighting force although the platoons themselves remained
segregated.

This integrated unit did fight well in the field and made a significant
contribution to the defeat of Germany in 1945. Negro units, as well as
individual Negro soldiers, made outstanding contributions to the war
effort both in Europe and in the Pacific, and they received numerous
commendations and citations. Skeptics noted, however, that not a single
Negro soldier had received the Congressional Medal of Honor in either the
First or Second World Wars, and they suggested that the nation's highest
award was being reserved for whites.

Although most of the hostilities were focused on the enemy, racial
tensions still ran very high within America. Southern whites were
displeased with the self-confidence and manliness brought out in Negroes
by military experience, and they were unhappy with the dignity which a
military uniform conferred upon them.

At the same time, Negro sol