Base Equal Opportunity Inventory Responses"
(ca. Jan 64), copy inclosed with Ltr, DASD (CR) to
Gesell, 2 Apr 64, Gesell Collection, J. F. Kennedy
library. For examples of service responses, see
BuPers Instruction 5350.3, 3 Oct 63, and Marine
Corps Order 5350.2, 1 Oct 63. For details of a
service's experiences with conducting an off-base
inventory, see the many documents in CS 291.2 (23
Aug 63).]

The first inventory confirmed the widespread complaints of special
discrimination encountered by black servicemen. It also uncovered
interesting patterns in that discrimination. In matters of commercial
transportation, local schools, and publicly owned facilities such as
libraries and stadiums, the problem of discrimination against black
servicemen was confined almost exclusively to areas around
installations in the south. But segregated public accommodations such
as motels, restaurants, and amusements, a particularly virulent form
of discrimination for servicemen, who as transients had to rely on
such businesses, existed in all parts of the country including areas
as diverse as Iowa, Alaska, Arizona, and Illinois. Discrimination in
these states was especially flagrant since all except Arizona had
legislation prohibiting enforced segregation of public accommodations.
Discrimination in the sale and rental of houses showed a similar
pattern. Only thirty installations out of the 305 reporting were
located in states with equal housing opportunity statutes. These were
in northern states, stretching from Maine to California. At the same
time, some of these installations reported discrimination in housing
despite existing state legislation forbidding such practices. No
differences were reported in the treatment of black and white
servicemen with respect to civilian law enforcement except that in
some communities black servicemen were segregated when taken into
custody for criminal violations.

Generally, the practice of most forms of discrimination was more
intense in the south, but the record of other sections of the country
was no better than mixed, even where legislation forbade such separate
and unequal treatment. Obviously there was much room for progress, and
as indicated in the inventory much still could be done within the
armed forces themselves. The reports revealed that alm