in the general service
and compete for officer commissions, the committee had approved the
Navy's policy, trusting to time and equal opportunity to produce the
desired result. Unfortunately for the Navy, there would be many
critics both in and out of government in the 1960's who disagreed with
the committee's trust in time and good intentions, for equal opportunity
would remain very much a matter of numbers and percentages. In an (p. 426)
era when a premium would be placed on the size of minority membership,
the palm would go to the other services. "The blunt fact is," Granger
reminded the Secretary of the Navy in 1954, "that as a general rule
the most aspiring Negro youth are apt to have the least interest in a
Navy career, chiefly because the Army and Air Force have up to now
captured the spotlight."[16-101] A decade later the statement still
held.

[Footnote 16-101: Ltr, Granger to SecNav, 7 Jan 54,
SecNav files, GenRecsNav.]

[Illustration: ADMIRAL GRAVELY (_1973 portrait_).]

It was ironic that black youth remained aloof from the Navy in the
1950's when the way of life for Negroes on shipboard and at naval
bases had definitely taken a turn for the better. The general service
was completely integrated, although the black proportion, 4.9 percent
in 1960, was still far less than might reasonably be expected,
considering the black population.[16-102] Negroes were being trained
in every job classification and attended all the Navy's technical
schools. Although not yet represented in proportionate numbers in the
top grades within every rating, Negroes served in all ratings in every
branch, a fact favorably noticed in the metropolitan press.[16-103]
Black officers, still shockingly out of proportion to black strength,
were not much more so than in the other services and were serving more
often with regular commissions in the line as well as on the staff.
Their lack of representation in the upper ranks demonstrated that the
climb to command was slow and arduous even when the discriminatory
tactics of earlier times had been removed. In 1961 the Navy could
finally announce that a black officer, Lt. Comdr. Samuel L. Gravely,
Jr., had been ordered to command a destroyer escort, the USS
_Falgout_.[16-104]

[Footnote 16-102: Memo, ASD/M for SA et al., 21 Nov
51, sub: Manuscript on the Negro in the Armed
Forces, SecDef 291.2.]