the major problem of the branch. Thus the
controversy over messmen, in which tradition, prejudice, and necessity
contended, went on, and the Steward's Branch, a symbol of
discrimination in the Navy, remained to trouble both the service and
the civil rights groups for some time.

[Footnote 9-30: BuPers Cir Ltr, 17 Oct 45.]

[Footnote 9-31: Testimony of Capt Fred Stickney at
National Defense Conference on Negro Affairs, 26
Apr 48, morning session, p. 47.]

[Footnote 9-32: Change 12 to Ankle D-5114, BuPers
Manual, 1942.]

_Black Officers_

The Navy had a racial problem of more immediate concern to men like
Lieutenant Nelson, one of three black officers remaining on active
duty. These were the survivers of a most exclusive group that had
begun its existence with much hope. In the months following graduation
of the first twelve black officers and one warrant officer in March
1944, scores of Negroes had passed through the Navy's training school.
By the end of the war the V-12 program had thirty-six black candidates,
with three others attending the Supply Corps School at Harvard. (p. 244)
The number of black officers had grown at an agonizingly slow rate,
although in June 1944 the Secretary of the Navy approved a personnel
bureau request that in effect removed any numerical quotas for black
officers. Unfortunately, black officers were still limited to filling
"needs as they appeared," and the need for black officers was
curtailed by the restricted range of activities open to them in the
segregated wartime service. Further, most nominees for commissions
were selected from the ranks and depended on the sponsorship of their
commanding officer who might not be able to spare a competent enlisted
man who deserved promotion. Putting the matter in the best possible
light, one Navy historian blamed the dearth of black officers on
bureaucratic inertia.[9-33]

[Footnote 9-33: "BuPers Hist," pp. 83-85, and
Supplement (LN), pp. 4-8, copy in CMH. Unless
otherwise noted the data for this section on black
officers in World War II are from this source.]

[Illustration: COMMANDER NELSON.]

Despite procurement failures and within the limitations of general
segregation policy, the Navy treated black officers with scrupulous
fairness during the