Policy Div, "Review
of Suggestions and Recommendations to Improve
Standards, Morale, and Attitudes Toward Stewards
Branch of U.S. Navy" (ca. 2 Aug 51), BuPersRecs.]

Obviously the Navy had to set a steady course if it intended any
lasting racial reform of the Steward's Branch, but its leaders seemed
ambivalent toward the problem. Despite his earlier efforts to raise
the status of stewards, Kimball, in a variation on an old postwar
argument, tried to show that the exclusiveness of the Steward's (p. 421)
Branch actually worked to the Negro's advantage. As he explained to
Lester Granger in November 1952, any action to effect radical or
wholesale changes in ratings "would not only tend to reduce the
efficiency of the Navy, but also in many instances be to the
disadvantage or detriment of the individuals concerned, particularly
those in the senior Steward ratings."[16-84] Supporting this line of
argument, the Chief of Naval Personnel announced the reenlistment
figures for the Steward's Branch--over 80 percent during the Korean
War period. These figures, Vice Admiral James L. Holloway, Jr., added,
proved the branch to be the most popular in the Navy and offered "a
rational measure of the state of the morale and job satisfaction."[16-85]

[Footnote 16-84: Ltr, SecNav for Granger, 19 Nov 52,
SecNav files, GenRecsNav.]

[Footnote 16-85: Ltrs, Chief, NavPers, to James C.
Evans, OSD, 19 Jun 53, and Granger, 28 Jul 53, both
in P 8 (4), BuPersRecs.]

These explanations still figured prominently in the Navy's 1961
defense of its racial statistics. Discussing the matter at a White
House meeting of civil rights leaders, the Chief of Naval Personnel
pointed out that all the black stewards could be replaced with
Filipinos, but the Navy had refrained from such a course for several
reasons. The branch still had the highest reenlistment rate. It
provided jobs for those group IV men the Navy was obliged to accept
but could never use in technical billets. Without the opportunity
provided by the branch, moreover, "many of the rated black stewards
would probably not achieve a petty officer rating at all."[16-86]

[Footnote 16-86: Memo, Chief, NavPers, for Pers B, 23
Sep 61, Harris Wofford Collection, J. F. Kennedy
Library. See also