black women in the postwar Navy nevertheless
concerned several civil rights leaders. Roy Wilkins, for one,
concluded that the Navy's new policy which "hasn't worked out on the
officer level ... hadn't worked on the women's level" either.[9-47] The
Navy's statistics seemed to proved his contention. The service had (p. 248)
68 black enlisted women and 6 officers (including 4 nurses) on V-J
day; a year later the number had been reduced to 5 black WAVES and 1
nurse. The Navy sought to defend these statistics against charges of
discrimination. A spokesman explained that the paucity of black WAVES
resulted from the fact that Negroes were barred from the WAVES until
December 1944, just months before the Navy stopped recruiting all
WAVES. Black WAVES who had remained in the postwar Navy had been
integrated and were being employed without discrimination.[9-48]

[Footnote 9-47: Statement of Roy Wilkins at National
Defense Conference on Negro Affairs, 26 Apr 48,
morning session p. 44.]

[Footnote 9-48: Testimony of Stickney at National
Defense Conference on Negro Affairs, 26 Apr 48,
morning session, p. 43.]

But criticism persisted. In February 1948 the Navy could count six
black WAVES out of a total enlisted force of 1,700, and during
hearings on a bill to regularize the women's services several
congressmen joined with a representative of the NAACP to press for a
specific anti-discrimination amendment. The amendment was defeated,
but not before Congressman Adam Clayton Powell charged that the status
of black women in the Navy proved discrimination and demonstrated that
the administration was practicing "not merely discrimination,
segregation, and Jim Crowism, but total exclusion."[9-49] The same
critics also demanded a similar amendment to the companion legislation
on the WAC's, but it, too, was defeated.

[Footnote 9-49: U.S. Congress, House, Committee on
Armed Services, Subcommittee No. 3, Organization
and Mobilization, _Hearings on S. 1641, To
Establish the Women's Army Corps in the Regular
Army, To Authorize the Enlistment and Appointment
of Women in the Regular Navy and Marine Corps and
the Naval and Marine Corps Reserve and for Other
Purposes_, 80th Cong., 2d