sess., 18 Feb 48, pp.
5603-08, 5657, 5698, 5734-36. The Powell quotation
is on page 5734.]

Black nurses presented a different problem. Two of the wartime nurses
had resigned to marry and the third was on inactive status attending
college. The Navy, Secretary Forrestal claimed in July 1947, was
finding it difficult to replace them or add to their number. Observing
that black leaders had shown considerable interest in the Navy's
nursing program, Forrestal noted that a similar interest had not been
forthcoming from black women themselves. During the Navy's 1946
recruitment drive to attract 1,000 new nurses, only one Negro applied,
and she was disqualified on physical grounds.[9-50]

[Footnote 9-50: Ltr, SecNav to Congresswoman Margaret
Chase Smith (Maine), 24 Jul 47, OG/P14-2,
GenRecsNav.]

_Public Image and the Problem of Numbers_

Individual black nurses no doubt had cogent reasons for failing to
apply for Navy commissions, but the fact that only one applied called
attention to a phenomenon that first appeared about 1946. Black
Americans were beginning to ignore the Navy. Attempts by black reserve
officers to procure NROTC applicants in black high schools and
colleges proved largely unproductive. Nelson spoke before 8,500
potential candidates in 1948, and a special recruiting team reached an
equal number the following year, but the combined effort brought fewer
than ninety black applicants to take the competitive examination.[9-51]
Recruiters had similar problems in the enlistment of Negroes (p. 249)
for general service. Viewed from a different perspective, even the
complaints and demands of black citizens, at flood tide during the
war, now merely trickled into the secretary's office, reflecting, it
could be argued, a growing indifference. That such unwillingness to
enlist, as Lester Granger put it, should occur on the heels of a
widely publicized promise of racial equality in the service was
ironic. The Navy was beginning to welcome the Negro, but the Negro no
longer seemed interested in joining.[9-52]

[Footnote 9-51: Memo, Dir, Pol Div, BuPers, for Capt
William C. Chapman, Office of Information, Navy
Dept, 21 Sep 65; Memo, Chief, NavPers, for Chief,
Bur of Public Relations, 16 Dec 48. QR4; both in
BuPersRecs.]