emarks to Fay
had set in motion a chain of action behind the scenes. In the weeks
following, black servicemen were moved from the substandard segregated
housing to integrated Navy-controlled housing both on and off base.
The local commander also arranged for the desegregation of some
off-base social facilities in a effort to improve black morale.[21-46]
If the changes at Pensacola appear more closely related to the
committee's political clout in Washington than to the commander's
interest in reform, they also demonstrate the power for reform that
the commander could exercise. This was the committee's main point,
that equal opportunity was a command responsibility.[21-47] But it
would be hard to sell in the Department of Defense where, as Gesell
himself later admitted, resistance to what was perceived as a
political matter was common to most American military officers.[21-48]

[Footnote 21-46: Ltr, Under SecNav to Chmn Gesell, 5
Jun 63, copy in Gesell Collection, J. F. Kennedy
Library; see also Memo, Under SecNav for SecNav, 13
Sep 63, sub: NAS Pensacola, SecNav file 5420
(1179), GenRecsNav.]

[Footnote 21-47: "Initial Rpt," p. 52.]

[Footnote 21-48: Interv, author with Gesell, 3 Nov
74.]

The most controversial recommendation, however, was that the armed
forces should, when necessary, exercise economic sanctions against
recalcitrant businesses. In the name of troop morale and military
efficiency, the committee wanted commanders to put public
accommodations off limits for all servicemen, and it wanted the
Secretary of Defense, as a last resort, to close the military
installations in communities that persisted in denying black
servicemen their civil rights.[21-49] Again, Gesell elaborated on the
power of base commanders and recommended tactics.

There was also much that they could do in the community to
improve the lot of their blacks. If only they were sensitive to
the situation.... For example, we visited the local community
leaders. I would put it to the local banker who held the mortgage
on the local bowling alley: "what would you do if you were a
commander and some of your men were barred from the local bowling
alley?" He got the point and the alley outside the base was
desegregated overnight. To another I said, "you know,