[Footnote 12-44: Department of National Defense,
"National Defense Conference on Negro Affairs," 26
Apr 48. This document includes the testimony and
transcript of the news conference that followed.
Officials appearing before the committee included
James Forrestal, Secretary of Defense; Robert P.
Patterson, former Secretary of War; Marx Leva,
Special Assistant to the Secretary of Defense;
James Evans, Adviser to the Secretary of Defense;
Kenneth C. Royall, Secretary of the Army; John N.
Brown, Assistant Secretary of the Navy; W. Stuart
Symington, Secretary of the Air Force; and
personnel officials and consultants from each
service.]

While the group refrained from endorsing Randolph's position, it also
refrained from criticizing him and strongly supported his thesis that
segregation in itself was discrimination. Nor were its views
soft-pedaled in the press release issued after the conference. The
Secretary of Defense was forced to announce that the black leaders
declined to serve as advisers to the National Military Establishment
as long as the services continued to practice segregation. The group
unanimously recommended that the armed services eliminate segregation
and challenged the Army's interpretation of its own policy, insisting
that the Army could abolish segregation even within the framework of
the Gillem Board recommendations. The members planned no future
meetings but adjourned to prepare their report.[12-45]

[Footnote 12-45: NME Press Releases, 26 Apr and 8 Sep
48.]

This adamant stand should not have surprised the Secretary of Defense.
Forrestal could appreciate more than most the pressures operating on
the group. In the aftermath of the report of the President's Committee
on Civil Rights and in the heightened atmosphere caused by the
rhetoric of the Randolph campaign, these men were also caught up in
the militants' cause. If they were reluctant to attack the services
too severely lest they lose their chance to influence the course of
racial events in the department, they were equally reluctant to accept
the pace of reform dictated by the traditionalists. In the end they
chose to side with their more radical