nd other institutions to
interest Negroes in the Navy's reserve officers program. In August
1949, for example, Ens. Wesley Brown, the first Negro to be graduated
from Annapolis, addressed gatherings in Chicago on the opportunities
for Negroes as naval officers.[16-63]

[Footnote 16-62: Memo, Off in Charge, NROTC Tng, for
Chief, Plans & Policy Div, BuPers, 14 Jul 49, sub:
NROTC Personnel Problems, Pers 424, BuPersRecs.]

[Footnote 16-63: Ltr, Granger to Chief, NavPers, 3 Aug
49, Pers 42, BuPersRecs.]

At the same time the Bureau of Naval Personnel wrote special press
releases, arranged interviews for naval officials with members of the
black press, and distributed publicity materials in predominantly
black schools to attract candidates and to assure interested young men
that race was no bar to their selection. In this connection Commander
Heinz bid for and received an invitation to address the Urban League's
annual conference in August 1949 to outline the Navy's program.
The Chief of Naval Personnel, Rear Adm. Thomas L. Sprague, also (p. 415)
arranged for the training of all those engaged in promoting the
program--professors of naval science, naval procurement officers, and
the like. In states where such assignments were considered acceptable,
Sprague planned to appoint Negroes to selection committees.[16-64] In
a related move he also ordered that when local law or custom required
the segregation of facilities used for the administration of
qualifying tests for reserve officer training, the Navy would use its
own facilities for testing. This ruling was used when the 1949
examinations were given in Atlanta and New Orleans; to the delight of
the black press the Navy transferred the test site to its nearby
facilities.[16-65] These efforts had some positive effect. In 1949
alone some 2,700 black youths indicated an interest in the Naval
Reserve Officers' Training Corps by submitting applications.[16-66]

[Footnote 16-64: Memo, Dir of Tng, BuPers, for Chief,
NavPers, 1 Jul 49; Ltr, Granger to Cmdr Luther
Heinz, 3 Aug 49; Ltr, Heinz to Granger, 18 Aug 49.
All in Pers 42, BuPersRecs. See also Interv, author
with Nelson, 26 May 69, and Ltr, Nelson to author,
10 Feb 70, both in CMH files.]

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