:Black Sailor, White Navy: Racial Unrest in the Fleet during the Vietnam War Era

Abstract

John Darrell Sherwood, an official historian with the United States Naval Historical Center, has produced a meticulously researched study of racial conflict in the Navy during the Vietnam War. Based on extensive work with naval records as well as interviews with participants, this book tells the story of race riots on ships and in ports in the early 1970s, set in the context of the Navy's efforts to integrate its ranks. Sherwood's work is a valuable contribution to the growing historiography on racial and ethnic minorities in wartime, part of a broader trend in military history that has designated soldiers, sailors, and marines for serious study alongside generals and admirals. The book begins with a look at the history of blacks in the Navy. Wartime exigencies in 1812 and 1861 brought blacks into a Navy otherwise hostile to their inclusion. Many of these sailors were cooks and stewards, but some served in positions of authority. With the Jim Crow era came even stricter segregation, which generally left African Americans relegated to the mess staff. During World War II, manpower needs forced the Navy to enlist more blacks, but still in low-ranking roles. Thanks to protests from civil rights groups and ordinary black servicemen, Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal denounced segregation in 1945, but he maintained the Navy's commitment to promoting individuals by merit (rather than correcting racial imbalances). Despite Forrestal's views, black membership in the Navy, and in the officer classes especially, remained paltry after the war. In 1948 only 4.3 percent of the enlisted force was African American. Asked for an explanation by President Harry Truman's committee on equality in the military, Vice Admiral William Fechteler responded that blacks were “not a seafaring people” (p. 11).