f soldiers separating from active
duty with a reserve obligation still to fulfill, and within some
limits the Defense Department could assign such men to units in a
manner that could influence the reserve's racial composition. But like
the guard, the reserve also had a distinct local flavor, serving
almost as a social club in some parts of the country. This
characteristic was often an important factor in maintaining a unit at
satisfactory strength. Since segregation sometimes went hand in hand
with the clublike atmosphere, the services feared that a strong stand
on integration might cause a severe decline in the strength of some
units.[20-74] When the Army staff reviewed the situation in 1956,
therefore, it had not pressed for integration of all units, settling
instead for merely "encouraging" commanders to open their units to
Negroes.[20-75]

[Footnote 20-74: ACofS (Reserve Components) Summary
Sheet, 11 Feb 57, sub: Race Issue in Armory Debate,
copy in DCSPER 291.2.]

[Footnote 20-75: DCSPER Summary Sheet, 6 Apr 56, sub:
Policy for Reserve Training Assignments of
Obligated Non-Caucasian Personnel of the Ready
Reserve Who Reside in Segregated Areas, DCSPER
291.2.]

The move toward complete integration of the reserves was slow. In
1956, for example, more than 75 percent of the Army's reserve units in
southern states were still segregated. The other services followed a
similar pattern; in 1962 more than 40 percent of all reserve units in
the country were white; the Army retained six all-black reserve units
as well. Racial exclusion persisted in the Reserve Officers' Training
Corps also, although here the fault was probably not so much a matter
of reserve policy as the lingering segregation pattern in some state
school systems. At the same time, the reserves had more blacks in
nondrill status than in drill status. In other words, more blacks were
in reserve pools where, unassigned to specific units, they did not
participate in active duty training. In 1962, some 75 percent of the
black reservists in the Army and Air Force, 85 percent in the Navy,
and 38 percent in the Marine Corps were assigned to such pools. For
many reservists, paid drill status was desirable; apart from the money
received for such active duty, they had the opportunity to gain (p. 520)
credit towar