n planned to interrogate witnesses and, on the basis of
the testimony gathered, issue a report to Congress and the public that
would include recommendations on conscription legislation. Various
Defense Department officials were invited to testify but only James C.
Evans, who acted as department spokesman, accepted. During the (p. 307)
inquiry, which Evans estimated was attended by 180 persons, little
attention was given to Randolph's civil disobedience pledge, but Evans
himself came in for considerable ridicule, and there were headlines
aplenty in the black press.[12-47]

[Footnote 12-47: Ltr, Grant Reynolds and Randolph to
Evans, 3 May 48; Memo, Evans for SecDef, 13 May 48,
sub: Commission of Inquiry; both in SecDef files.
See also A. Philip Randolph, Statement Before
Commission of Inquiry, 8 May 48, copy in USAF
Special Files 35, 1948, SecAF files.]

These attacks were being carried out in an atmosphere of heightened
political interest in the civil rights of black servicemen. Henry A.
Wallace, the Progressive Party's presidential candidate, had for some
time been telling his black audiences that the administration was
insincere because if it wanted to end segregation it could simply
force the resignation of the Secretary of the Army.[12-48] Henry Cabot
Lodge, the Republican senator from Massachusetts, called on Forrestal
to make "a real attempt, well thought out and well organized," to
integrate a sizable part of the armed forces with soldiers
volunteering for such arrangements. Quoting from General Eisenhower's
testimony before the Armed Services Committee, he reminded Forrestal
that segregation was not only an undeserved and unjustified
humiliation to the Negro, but a potential danger to the national
defense effort. In the face of a manpower shortage, it was inexcusable
to view segregation simply as a political question, "of concern to a
few individuals and to a few men in public life and to be dealt with
as adroitly as possible, always with an eye to the largest number of
votes."[12-49]

[Footnote 12-48: New York _Times_, February 16, 1948.]

[Footnote 12-49: Ltr, Sen. Henry C. Lodge, Jr.
(Mass.), to SecDef, 19 Apr 48, D54-1-3, SecDef
files.]

Yet as the timing of Senator Lodge's letter suggests, the political
implicat