The Negro in the United States Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard

Abstract

At best this statement can serve only as an introduction to the subject of Negro participation in the U. S. Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard in World Wars I and II. Factual data covering the use of Negroes in these services in the first World War are meager and, for the current second World War, the continuation of the first, are buried for the most part in military secrets. The plan to be followed herein is to open the subject in the hope that later, more objective and detailed treatment may be accorded it. The limitations imposed in the subject of this paper will cause to be omitted from it consideration of Negroes, slave and free, who fought with credit and honor in the American Revolution against the British in the Continental Navy. Some of the Negroes volunteered, some were drafted; and others served as substitutes for their masters.1 Following the SpanishAmerican War, limited Negro participation in the Navy has frequently dimmed the democratic hopes of Negroes. Often they have had to fight for their inclusion in various branches of the service. A global war has resulted in an accelerated induction of Negroes into armed forces. Of 1,080,000 or more Negroes to be called, the Army will get approximately 835,000 while the remainder will go to the Navy, Air Forces, Coast Guard, Marines, and