[Footnote 23-14: Memo, DASD (CR) for ASD (M), 24 Apr
64, sub: Base Closings; Memo, ASD (M) for ASD
(I&L), 29 Apr 64, sub: Base Closing Decisions; both
in ASD (M) 291.2.]

[Footnote 23-15: Memo, ASD (I&L) for ASD (M), 23 May
64, sub: Base Closing Decisions, copy in CMH.]

[Footnote 23-16: Ltr, Principal Asst for CR, DASD (CP,
IR, & CR) to Stanley T. Gutman, 18 Dec 64, ASD (M)
291.2.]

Clearly, voluntary compliance had its limits, and Fitt said as much on
the occasion of his departure after a year's assignment as the civil
rights deputy. Reviewing the year's activities for Gesell, Fitt
concluded that "we have done everything we could think of" in
formulating civil rights policy and in establishing a monitoring
system for its enforcement. He was confident that the department's
campaign against discrimination had gained enough momentum to insure
continued progress. If, as he put it, the "off-base lot of the Negro
serviceman will not in my time be the same as that of his white
comrade-in-arms" he was nevertheless satisfied that the Department of
Defense was committed to equal opportunity and that commitment was
"bound to be beneficial."[23-17]

[Footnote 23-17: Ltr, DASD (CR) to Gesell, 28 Jul 64,
copy in CMH.]

Fitt's assessment was accurate, no doubt, but not exactly in keeping
with the optimistic spirit of the Gesell Committee and Secretary
McNamara's subsequent equal opportunity commitment to the President.
Obviously more could be achieved through voluntary compliance if the
threat of legal sanctions were available. In the summer of 1964,
therefore, the Defense Department's manpower officials turned to new
federal civil rights legislation for help.

_Civil Rights, 1964-1966_

The need for strong civil rights legislation had become increasingly
apparent in the wake of _Brown_ v. _Board of Education_.[23-18] With
that decision, the judicial branch finally lined up definitively with
the executive in opposition to segregation. But the effect of this
united opposition was blunted by the lack of a strong civil rights
law, something that President Kennedy had not been able to wrestle
from a reluctant legislative branch. The demands of the civil rights
movement only underscored the inability of court judgments and