,
1952," in Essays and Topics of Interest: #4, Race
Relations, p. 36.]

[Footnote 18-18: The Chief of Staff was quoted in
"Integration of the Armed Forces," _Ebony_ 13 (July
1958):22.]

[Illustration: MARINE REINFORCEMENTS. _A light machine gun squad of 3d
Battalion, 1st Marines, arrives during the battle for "Boulder
City."_]

_Assignments_

The 1951 integration order ushered in a new era in the long history of
the Marine Corps, but despite the abolition of segregated units, the
new policy did not bring about completely unrestricted employment of
Negroes throughout the corps. The commandant had retained the option
to employ black marines "where their services can be effectively
utilized," and in the years after the Korean War it became apparent
that the corps recognized definite limits to the kinds of duty to
which black marines could be assigned. Following standard assignment
procedures, the Department of Personnel's Detail Branch selected
individual staff noncommissioned officers for specific duty billets.
After screening the records of a marine and considering his race, the
branch could reject the assignment of a Negro to a billet for any (p. 467)
reason "of overriding interest to the Marine Corps."[18-19]

[Footnote 18-19: Memo, Head of Detail Br, Pers Dept,
for Dir of Pers, 10 Jun 52, sub: Policy Regarding
Negro Marines, MC files. This method of assigning
staff noncommissioned officers still prevailed in
1976.]

By the same token, the assignment of marines in the lower ranks was
left to the individual commands, which filled quotas established by
headquarters. Commanders usually filled the quotas from among eligible
men longest on station, but whether or not Negroes were included in a
transfer quota was left entirely to the discretion of the local
commander. The Department of Personnel reserved the right, however, to
make one racial distinction in regard to bulk quotas: it regulated the
number of black marines it took from recruit depots as replacements,
as insurance against a "disproportionate" number of Negroes in combat
units. Under the screening procedures of Marine headquarters and unit
commanders, black enlisted men were excluded from assignment to
reserve officer training units, recruiting stations, the State