al, were filled by
Negroes.[7-90]

[Footnote 7-89: Msg, CINCFE to WD for AGPP-P, 3 May
47, C-52352. Although CINCFE was a joint commander,
his report concerned Army personnel only.]

[Footnote 7-90: Ltr, CG, MTO, to TAG, 16 Apr 47, sub:
Utilization of Negro Military Personnel in Overhead
Installations; Ltr, CG, Alaskan Dept, to TAG, 14
Apr 47, same sub; Ltr, CG, EUCOM, to TAG, 15 Apr
47, same sub. All in AGPP-P 291.2 (6 Feb 47).]

Although Negroes held some 7 percent of all overhead positions in the
field services, the picture was far from clear. More than 8 percent of
the Army Air Forces' 105,000 overhead spaces, for example, were filled
by Negroes, but the Army Ground Forces used only 473 Negroes, who
occupied 5 percent of its overhead spaces. In the continental armies
almost 14,000 Negroes were assigned to overhead, 13.35 percent of the
total of such spaces--a more than equitable figure. Yet most were
cooks, bakers, truck drivers, and the like; all finance clerks, motion
picture projectionists, and personnel assistants were white. In the
field commands the use of Negroes in Signal, Ordnance, Transportation,
Medical, and Finance overhead spaces was at a minimum, although
figures varied from one command to the other. The Transportation
Corps, more than 23 percent black, used almost 25 percent of its
Negroes in overhead; the Chemical Corps, 28 percent black, used more
than 30 percent of its Negroes in overhead. At the same time virtually
all skilled military occupational specialties were closed to Negroes
in the Signal Corps, and the Chief of Finance stated flatly: "It is
considered impractical to have negro overhead assigned to these
[field] activities and none are utilized."[7-91]

[Footnote 7-91: The reports of all these services are
inclosures to DF, TAG to D/P&A, 23 Apr 47, sub:
Utilization of Negro Military Personnel in Overhead
Installations, AGPP-P 291.2 (6 Feb 47). The quote
is from Ltr, Chief of Finance Corps to TAG, 25 Mar
47, same sub.]

The survey attested to a dismal lack of progress in the (p. 198)
development of specialist training for Negroes. Although all the
commanders of the zone of interior armies reported that Negroes had