Defense considered open housing for service
families one of these goals, and when his attention was drawn to the
immediacy of the problem by the ACCESS demonstration he acted quickly.
At his instigation Vance ordered the local commanders of all services
to conduct a nationwide census of all apartment houses, housing
developments, and mobile home courts consisting of five or more rental
units within normal commuting distance of all installations having at
least 500 servicemen. He also ordered the commanders to talk to the
owners or operators of these properties personally and to urge them to
open their properties to all servicemen. He organized an Off-base
Equal Opportunity Board, consisting of the open housing coordinators
of each service and his office to monitor the census. Finally, he
announced the establishment of a special action program under the
direction of Thomas D. Morris, now the Assistant Secretary for
Manpower. Aimed at the Washington, D.C., area specifically, the
program was designed to serve as a model for the rest of the
country.[23-83]

[Footnote 23-83: Memo, Dep SecDef for Secys of
Military Departments, 11 Apr 67, sub: Equal
Opportunity for Military Personnel in Rental of
Off-Base Housing. Vance's instructions were spelled
out in great detail, replete with charts and forms,
in Memo, ASD (M) for Dep Under Secys of Military
Departments (Manpower), 22 Apr 67, same sub. Copies
of both in CMH.]

Vance also notified the service secretaries that subsequent to the
census all local commanders would be asked to discuss the census
findings with local community leaders in an effort to mobilize support
for open housing. Later Assistant Secretary Morris, with the help of
the acting civil rights deputy, L. Howard Bennett, spelled out a
program for "aggressive" negotiation with community leaders and
cooperation with other government agencies, in effect a last-ditch
attempt to achieve open housing for servicemen through voluntary
compliance. Underscoring the urgency of the housing campaign, the
department demanded a monthly report from all commanders on their open
housing activities,[23-84] and Morris promptly launched a
proselytizing effort of his own in the metropolitan Washington area.
Described simply by McNamara as "a decent man," Morris spoke
indefatigably bef