p, Service
Command, for Assignment of Negro Enlisted Marines;
MC Routing Sheet, Enlisted Coordinator, Personnel
Department, 27 Mar 50, same sub.]

Nor were there any plans for the general integration of black
reservists, although some Negroes were serving in formerly all-white
units. The 9th Infantry Battalion, for instance, had a black
lieutenant. As the assistant commandant, Maj. Gen. Oliver P. Smith,
put it on 4 January 1950, black units would be formed "in any area
where there is an expressed interest" provided that the black
population was large enough to support it.[18-7] When the NAACP
objected to the creation of another all-black reserve unit in New York
City as being contrary to Defense Department policy, the Marine Corps
justified it on the grounds that the choice of integrated or
segregated units must be made by the local community "in accord with
its cultural values."[18-8] Notwithstanding the Secretary of the
Navy's integration order and assignment policies directed toward
effective utilization, it appeared that the Marine Corps in early 1950
was determined to retain its system of racially segregated units
indefinitely.

[Footnote 18-7: Ltr, Smith to Franklin S. Williams,
Asst Special Counsel, NAACP, 4 Jan 50, AO-1, MC
files.]

[Footnote 18-8: Ltr, Roy Wilkins to SecDef, 27 Feb 50;
Memo, SecNav for SecDef, 17 Apr 50, sub: Activation
of Negro Reserve Units in the U.S. Marine Corps;
both in SecDef 291.2. See also Ltr, Asst CMC to
Franklin Williams, 7 Feb 50.]

But the corps failed to reckon with the consequences of the war that
broke out suddenly in Korea in June. Two factors connected with that
conflict caused an abrupt change in Marine race policy. The first was
the great influx of Negroes into the corps. Although the commandant
insisted that race was not considered in recruitment, and in fact
recruitment instructions since 1948 contained no reference to the race
of applicants, few Negroes had joined the Marine Corps in the two
years preceding the war.[18-9] In its defense the corps pointed to its
exceedingly small enlistment quotas during those years and its high
enlistment standards, which together allowed recruiters to accept only
a few men. The classification test average for all recruits enli