[Footnote 16-103: See New York _Herald Tribune_,
December 2, 1957, and New York Post, March 14,
1957.]

[Footnote 16-104: Gravely would eventually become the
first black admiral in the U.S. Navy.]

But how were these changes being accepted among the rank and file?
Comments from official sources and civil rights groups alike showed
the leaven of racial tolerance at work throughout the service.[16-105]
Reporter Lee Nichols, interviewing members of all the services in (p. 427)
1953,[16-106] found that whites expected blacks to prove themselves in
their assignments while blacks were skeptical that equal opportunities
for assignment were really open to them. Yet the Nichols interviews
reveal a strain of pride and wonderment in the servicemen at the
profound changes they had witnessed.

[Footnote 16-105: See, for example, Ltr, Exec Secy,
President's Cmte on Equal Treatment and Opportunity
in the Armed Services, to CNO, 21 Jun 49, FC file;
Memo, Chief, NavPers, for SecNav, BuPersRecs; Memo,
ASD/M for SA et al., 21 Nov 51, sub: Manuscript on
the Negro in the Armed Forces, SecDef 291.2; Ltr,
Exec Secy, ACLU, to SecNav, 26 Nov 57, SecNav
files, GenRecsNav.]

[Footnote 16-106: Nichols's sampling, presented in the
form of approximately a hundred interviews with men
and women from all the services, was completely
unscientific and informal and was undertaken for
the preparation of his book, _Breakthrough on the
Color Front_. Considering their timing, the
interviews supply an interesting sidelight to the
integration period. They are included in the
Nichols Collection, CMH.]

In time integrated service became routine throughout the Navy, and
instances of Negroes in command of integrated units increased. Bigots
of both races inevitably remained, and the black community continued
to resent the separate Steward's Branch, but the sincerity of the
Navy's promise to integrate the service seemed no longer in doubt.

CHAPTER 17 (p. 428)

The Army Integrates

T