er interested federal agencies.[20-66]

[Footnote 20-66: Memo, Jackson for Dep ASD, Family
Housing-OASD (I&L), 8 Feb 63, sub: Implementation
of EX 11063, Equal Opportunity in Housing, copy in
CMH.]

McNamara, however, "readily agreed" with his housing experts that a
letter on nondiscrimination in family housing was necessary. On 8
March 1963 he informed the service secretaries that effective
immediately all military leases for family housing, that is, contracts
for private housing rented by the services for servicemen, would
contain a nondiscrimination clause in accordance with the President's
executive order. He also ordered military bases to maintain listings
only on nonsegregated private housing.[20-67] Again an attempt to
bring about a needed change was severely limited in effectiveness by
the department's concern for the scope of the commander's authority in
the local community. The application of the President's order would
end segregation in leased housing, but only a small percentage of
black servicemen lived in such housing. The majority of service
families lived off base in private housing, which the new order,
except for banning the listing of segregated properties by base
housing offices, ignored. Barring the use of segregated private
housing to all servicemen, a more direct method of changing the racial
pattern surrounding military installations, would have to wait for a
substantive change in departmental thinking.

[Footnote 20-67: Memo, SecDef for SA et al., 8 Mar 63,
sub: Non-Discrimination in Family Housing; Memo,
ASD (I&L) for Dep ASD (Family Housing), 8 Mar 63;
copies of both in ASD (M) 291.2. The quote is from
the latter document.]

_Reserves and Regulars: A Comparison_

While the interest of both civil rights advocates and defense
officials was focused on off-base concerns during the early 1960's,
discrimination continued to linger in the armed forces. A (p. 518)
particularly sensitive issue to the services, which in the public mind
had complete jurisdiction over all men in uniform, was the position of
the Negro in the reserve components. To generalize on the racial
policies of the fifty-four National Guard organizations is difficult,
but whereas some state guards had been a progressive force in the
integration of