colleagues. Thus despite Lester
Granger's attempt to soften the blow, the conference designed to bring
the opponents together ended with yet another condemnation of
Forrestal's gradualism.

Forrestal himself agreed with the goals of the conferees, he told
Granger, but at the same time he refused to abandon his approach,
insisting that he could not force people into cooperation and mutual
respect by issuing a directive. Instead he arranged for Granger to
meet with Army leaders to spread the gospel of equal opportunity and
ordered a report prepared showing precisely what the Navy did during
the late months of the war and "how much of it has stuck--on the
question of non-segregation both in messing and barracks." The report,
written by Lt. Dennis D. Nelson, was sent to Secretary of the Army
Royall along with sixteen photographs picturing blacks and whites (p. 306)
being trained together and working side by side.[12-46]

[Footnote 12-46: Memo, Forrestal for Marx Leva, 30 Apr
48; Ltr, Nelson to Leva, 24 May 48; Memo, Leva for
SA, 25 May 48. All in D54-1-3, SecDef files.]

[Illustration: NATIONAL DEFENSE CONFERENCE ON NEGRO AFFAIRS.
_Conferees prepare to meet with the press, 26 April 1948._]

Given the vast size of the Army, it was perfectly feasible to open all
training to qualified Negroes and yet continue for years racial
practices that had so quickly proved impossible in the Navy's smaller
general service. Of course, even in the Army the number of segregated
jobs that could be created was limited, and in time Forrestal's
tactics might, it could be argued, have succeeded despite the Army's
size and the intractability of its leaders. Time, however, was
precisely what Forrestal lacked, given the increasing political
strength of the civil rights movement.

Sparked by Randolph's stand before the congressional committee, some
members of the black community geared up for greater protests. Worse
still for an administration facing a critical election, the protest
was finding some support in the camps of the President's rivals. Early
in May, for example, a group of prominent civil rights activists
formed the Commission of Inquiry with the expressed purpose of
examining the treatment of black servicemen during World War II.
Organized by Randolph and Reynolds, the commission boasted Arthur
Garfield Hayes, noted civil libertarian and lawyer, as its counsel.
The commissio