cation program was producing some of the finest trained black
troops in the Army.

[Footnote 8-27: Ltr, D/P&A to Huebner, 15 Oct 47,
CSGPA 291.2. This approval did not extend to all
civil rights advocates, some of whom objected to
the segregated training. Walter White, however,
supported the program. See Interv, author with
Huebner.]

[Footnote 8-28: EUCOM Hist Div, _EUCOM Command
Report, 1951_, pp. 128, 251, copy in CMH.]

[Illustration: REPORTING TO KITZINGEN. _Men of Company B, 371st
Infantry Battalion, arrive for refresher course in basic military
training._]

The training program even provoked jealous reaction among some white
troops who claimed that the educational opportunities offered Negroes
discriminated against them. They were right, for in comparison to the
on-duty high school courses offered Negroes, the command restricted
courses for white soldiers to so-called literacy training or
completion of the fifth grade. Command spokesmen quite openly
justified the disparity on the grounds that Negroes on the whole (p. 219)
had received fewer educational opportunities in the United States and
that the program would promote efficiency in the command.[8-29]

[Footnote 8-29: Ltr, Chief, EUCOM TI&E Div, to EUCOM
DCSOPS, 18 Jun 48, cited in Geis Monograph, p.
130.]

Whether a connection can be made between the Kitzingen training
program and improvement in the morale and discipline of black troops,
the fact was that by January 1950 a dramatic change had occurred in
the conduct of black soldiers in the European Command. The rate of
venereal disease among black soldiers had dropped to an average
approximating the rate for white troops (and not much greater than the
always lower average for troops in the United States). This phenomenon
was repeated in the serious incident rate. In the first half of 1950
courts-martial that resulted in bad conduct discharges totaled
fifty-nine for Negroes, a figure that compared well with the 324
similar verdicts for the larger contingent of white soldiers.[8-30] For
once the Army could document what it had always preached, that
education and training were the keys to the better performance of
black troops. The tragedy was that the education program was never
applied throughou