African Americans have fought in American conflicts since colonial days. The segregation practiced during the Civil War endured until abolished by President Truman in 1948. Since the all-volunteer force was established in 1973, the number of African American troops has risen; in 1991, they composed 28 percent of the Army and three-fifths of some combat units. Thus desegregation and affirmative action in the military have been years ahead of that in civilian society. Current policy seeks to increase the enlistment of whites and to ensure fully equal treatment and opportunity and good race relations.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
1. U.S., Department of Labor, Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, Revised Order, Number 4, Federal Register, 4 Dec. 1971, p. 234.
2.
2. Charles C. Moskos, Jr., “Racial Integration in the Armed Forces,”American Journal of Sociology, 72: 132-148 (1966).
3.
3. William Brink and Louis Harris, Black and White (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1966), pp. 162-175.
4.
4. Samuel Stoufferet al., The American Soldier (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1949), 1:459.
5.
John Sibley Butler and Malcolm D. Holmes, “Perceived Discrimination and the Military Experience,”Journal of Political and Military Sociology, 9:17, 30 (Spring 1981).
6.
6. Charles C. Moskos, “Success Story: Blacks in the Army,”Atlantic, May 1986, pp. 64, 72.
7.
7. Jack D. Foner, Blacks in the Military in American History (New York: Praeger, 1974), pp. 43, 4-5.
8.
8. Ibid., p. 3.
9.
9. Black Americans in Defense of Our Nation (Washington, DC: Department of Defense, 1981), p. 4.
10.
10. Ibid.
11.
11. United States Army, Europe, Race Relations School, “Black Soldier: A Compendium” (Washington, DC: Department of Defense, 1972), p. 1.
12.
12. John Sibley Butler and Malcolm D. Holmes, “Changing Organizational Structure and the Future of Race Relations in the Military,” in Conscripts and Volunteers, ed. Robert K. Fullinwider (New York: Rowan & Littlefield, 1982), pp. 167-177.
13.
13. Richard J. Stillman, Integration of the Negro in the U.S. Armed Forces (New York: Frederick Praeger, 1968), p. 9.
14.
14. Dwight W. Hoover, Understanding Negro History (Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1968), p. 270.
15.
15. Foner, Blacks in the Military in American History, p. 127.
16.
16. Stillman, Integration of the Negro in the U.S. Armed Forces, p. 11.
17.
17. Black Americans in Defense of Our Nation, p. 28.
18.
18. Ibid.
19.
19. Ibid., p. 21.
20.
20. John Sibley Butler, “The Military as a Vehicle for Social Integration,” in Ethnicity Integration and the Military, ed. Henry Dietzet al. (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1991), p. 38.
21.
21. Black Americans in Defense of Our Nation, pp. 13-14, 18-19.
22.
22. August Mier, Black Protest Thought in the Twentieth Century (New York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1969), p. 25.
23.
23. Butler, “Military as a Vehicle for Social Integration,” p. 38.
24.
24. John P. Davis, The Negro Reference Book (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1971), p. 652.
25.
25. Charles C. Moskos, The American Enlisted Man (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1971), p. 111.
26.
26. James C. Evans, “Integration, Differentiation and Refinement,”Negro History Bulletin, Apr. 1960, p. 151.
27.
27. Peter G. Nordlieet al., Race Relations in the Army (McLean, VA: Westgate Research Park, 1972), p. 12.
28.
28. Ibid., p. 13.
29.
29. Black Americans in Defense of Our Nation, p. 38.
30.
30. Guy R. Marburyet al., Race Relations in the Army (McLean, VA: Human Sciences Research, Champion Press, 1972), p. 25.
31.
U.S., Department of Defense , Report of the Task Force on the Administration of Military Justice (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1972).
32.
32. John Sibley Butler and Kenneth L. Wilson, “The American Soldier Revisited,”Social Science Quarterly, 59:451, 467 (Dec. 1978).
33.
33. Morris Janowitz and Charles C. Moskos, “Racial Composition in the All-Volunteer Force,”Armed Forces and Society, 1:109, 123 (Nov. 1974).
34.
34. Ibid., p. 109.
35.
35. Charles C. Moskos, Jr., “Symposium: Race and the U.S. Military,”Armed Forces and Society, 6:587-594 (Summer 1980).
36.
Regardless of race, veterans of all conflicts but Vietnam earn more than comparable nonveterans. Dudley L. Poston, Jr., et al., “The Influence of Military Service on the Civilian Earning Patterns of Female Veterans,” in Women in the United States Armed Forces, ed. Nancy L. Goldman (Chicago: Inter-University Seminar on Armed Forces and Society, 1984), pp. 152-171.
37.
37. Janowitz and Moskos, “Racial Composition in the All-Volunteer Force,” pp. 115-123.
38.
38. John Sibley Butler, “Race and the All-Volunteer Force,”Armed Forces and Society, 6:594-600 (Summer 1980).
39.
Felton D. Freeman , “The Army as a Social Structure,” ibid., pp. 78-83.
40.
40. Martha A. Marsden, “The Continuing Debate: Women Soldiers in the U.S. Army,” in Life in the Rank and File, ed. David R. Segal and H. Wallace Sinaiko (Washington, DC: Pergamon-Brassey's, 1986), p. 42.
