, FMF, 2 May 49, sub: Employment of Negroes in
the Marine Corps, MC1008783, MC files.]

Actually, Cates was only forcibly expressing a cardinal tenet common
to all the military services: the civil rights of the individual must
be subordinated to the mission of the service. What might appear to a
civil rights activist to be a callous and prejudiced response to a
legitimate social complaint was more likely an expression of the
commandant's overriding concern for his military mission. Still it was
difficult to explain such elaborate precautions in a corps where
Negroes numbered less than 2 percent of the total strength.[13-75] How
could the integration of 1,500 men throughout the worldwide units of
the corps disrupt its mission, civil rights spokesmen might well (p. 337)
ask, especially given the evidence to the contrary in the Navy? In
view of the President's order, how could the corps justify the
proliferation of very small black units that severely restricted the
spread of occupational opportunities for Negroes?

[Footnote 13-75: On 30 June 1949 the Marine Corps had
1,504 Negroes on active duty, 1.9 percent of the
total if the one-year enlistees were included or
2.08 percent if the one-year enlistees were
excluded. See Office of the Civilian Aide, OSD,
_Negro Strength Summary_, 18 Jul 49, copy in CMH.
For purposes of comparison, the following gives the
percentage of Negroes in the Navy and the Marine
Corps for earlier years.

_Date_ _Navy_ _Marine Corps_

Dec 43 5.0 3.2
Dec 44 5.5 3.6
Dec 45 5.9 5.4
Dec 46 4.7 2.3
Dec 47 5.4 1.6
Feb 48 5.05 1.9

_Source_: Officer in Charge, Pers Acctg & Stat
Control, Memo for File, 23 Apr 48, Pers 215
BuPersRecs.]

[Illustration: 1ST MARINE DIVISION DRILL TEAM ON EXHIBITION _at San
Diego's Balboa Stadium, 1949_.]

The corps ignored these questions during the summer of 1949,
concentrating instead on the problem of finding racially separate
assignments for its 1,000 Negroes in the general service. As the
number of marines continu