The Golden Thirteen

by Dan Goldberg

  30. Vito Marcantonio to FDR, June 16, 1943, “Detroit Race Riots, 1943–45.”

  31. Sylvia Velkoff to FDR, August 6, 1943, “Detroit Race Riots, 1943–45.”

  32. “Defeat at Detroit,” Nation, July 3, 1943, 4.

  33. Walter White to FDR, telegram, June 21, 1943, “Detroit Race Riots, 1943–45.”

  34. John F. Lang to FDR, July 29, 1943, “Detroit Race Riots, 1943–45.”

  35. Blum, V Was for Victory, 204.

  36. Eleanor Roosevelt, My Day, June 23, 1943, Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, Digital Edition, https://www2.gwu.edu/~erpapers/myday/displaydoc.cfm?_y=1943&_f=md056528b.

  37. “The Negro in the Navy,” 75–79.

  38. Eleanor Roosevelt, My Day, July 14, 1943, Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, Digital Edition, https://www2.gwu.edu/~erpapers/myday/displaydoc.cfm?_y=1943&_f=md056544b.

  39. John Sengstacke to FDR, June 29, 1943, OF 93C, FDRL.

  40. White to FDR, telegram, June 21, 1943, and Jonathan Daniels to Rev. Francis J. Haas, memo, June 29, 1943, both in “Detroit Race Riots, 1943–45.”

  41. Lee, Race Riot, Detroit 1943, 60–62.

  42. Wynn, The Afro-American and the Second World War, 108.

  43. Klinkner, The Unsteady March, 184, 199.

  44. Russell B. Porter, “Harlem Unrest Traced to Long-Standing Ills,” New York Times, August 8, 1943, E10.

  45. Polenberg, One Nation Divisible, 77.

  46. MacGregor, Integration of the Armed Forces, 76–77.

  47. Nichols, Breakthrough on the Color Front, 57.

  48. Lanning, The African-American Soldier, 201–2.

  49. MacGregor, Integration of the Armed Forces, 77.

  50. Hall, “No Colored Sailors on Seagoing Vessels,” 1.

  51. MacGregor, Integration of the Armed Forces, 77.

  52. Ernest Johnson, “Navy Boss Knox Bars Mixed Crews in Navy,” Chicago Defender, November 20, 1943, 1.

  53. “Our Boys to Man Navy Ships: 22 Officers and Crews Will Fight Enemy,” Pittsburgh Courier, February 26, 1944, 1.

  54. “Navy Day for Whom,” Baltimore Afro-American, October 23, 1943, 4.

  55. Cochran, Adlai Stevenson, 135–38; Lobdell, “Frank Knox,” 693.

  56. Stevenson, The Papers of Adlai Stevenson, 77, 79, 90, 105.

  57. MacGregor, Integration of the Armed Forces, 80.

  58. Nelson, The Integration of the Negro into the U.S. Navy, 63.

  59. Adlai Stevenson to Knox, memo, September 29, 1943, Adlai E. Stevenson Papers, MC124, box 387, folder 6.

  60. “The Honorable William Sylvester White,” interview (video), History Makers (website), September 5, 2000, https://www.thehistorymakers.org/biography/honorable-william-sylvester-white.

  61. “Gets 3 Years in Jail for Praising Japs as Hope of Negroes,” Chicago Tribune, April 20, 1943, 12; “Newby Gets Three Years for Sedition,” Chicago Defender, April 24, 1943, 1.

  62. White, NIOHP, 16.

  63. White, NIOHP, 27.

  64. White, NIOHP, 1–18.

  65. White, NIOHP, 26

  66. “Attorney in Navy,” Chicago Defender, November 6, 1943, 6.

  67. White, NIOHP, 53.

  68. Martin, NIOHP, 159.

  69. Reddick, “The Negro in the United States Navy during World War II,” 209.

  70. Nelson, The Integration of the Negro into the US Navy, 29.

  71. Gogan, By Air, Ground, and Sea, 134.

  72. Martin, NIOHP, 29, 40.

  73. Gogan, By Air, Ground, and Sea, 144.

  74. Emmet replaced Admiral John Downes as commandant of the Great Lakes Naval Training Center in 1943 and served in that post until 1945, when he retired. See Werner Bamberger, “Adm. Emmet, 89, Dies; Served in Two Wars,” New York Times, July 8, 1977, 13; Dave Hoff, “Hawks Soften Irish: Bluejackets Apply Finishing Touch,” Daily Illini, November 28, 1943, 4.

  75. “The Negro in the Navy,” 32.

  76. “Commander Armstrong on Navy Officers,” Norfolk Journal and Guide, November 27, 1943, 6.

  77. “The Negro in the Navy,” 32.

  78. Martin, NIOHP, 56.

  79. Sam Barnes, NIOHP, 41–42, 72, 73.

  80. “Letters to Naval Training Commander Reveal Race Youths Are ‘Doing Fine,’” Atlanta Daily World, July 18, 1943, 4.

  81. Newton, Better Than Good, 28–29.

  82. Jeff Smith, “The Douglas Hotel: The Harlem of the West,” San Diego Reader, August 5, 1999.

  83. Ron Grossman, “Breaking a Naval Blockade,” Chicago Tribune, July 8, 1987, 1.

  84. Reagan, NIOHP, 114–15.

  CHAPTER 10: “YOU CAN MAKE ME AN OFFICER, BUT MY PARENTS MADE ME A GENTLEMAN.”

  1. Arbor, NIOHP, 129; Sam Barnes, NIOHP, 203.

  2. Cooper, NIOHP, 22.

  3. John Brindley, Glenn R. Amato, and Ralf H. R. Edle, “Getting Back Together after All These Years,” All Hands, October, 1977, 11.

  4. Brindley, Amato, and Edle, “Getting Back Together after All These Years,” 8.

  5. White, NIOHP, 30.

  6. Sam Barnes, NIOHP, 203.

  7. Cooper, NIOHP, 140.

  8. Lear, Charles Byrd, NPRC St. Louis.

  9. Sam Barnes, NIOHP, 44, 201.

  10. Sam Barnes, NIOHP, 329.

  11. Sam Barnes, NIOHP, 216, 319, 329.

  12. Sam Barnes, NIOHP, 221.

  13. White, NIOHP, 90; Arbor, NIOHP, 22.

  14. Lloyd Wendt, “The Navy’s Debt to the Negro,” Chicago Tribune, May 29, 1949, C5.

  15. Dille, NIOHP, 38; Cooper, NIOHP, 48.

  16. Cooper, NIOHP, 42.

  17. Martin, NIOHP, 69.

  18. Martin, NIOHP, 164; White, NIOHP, 74–75.

  19. Hair, NIOHP, 43.

  20. Cooper, NIOHP, 38; Sam Barnes, NIOHP, 212–13; Sublett, NIOHP, 135; Reagan, NIOHP, 43.

  21. Martin, NIOHP, 67.

  22. Barnes, Phillip George, NPRC St. Louis.

  23. Sublett, NIOHP, 33; Martin, NIOHP, 67; Cooper, NIOHP, 39, 144.

  24. Cooper, NIOHP, 46, 48; Arbor, NIOHP, 135; Martin, NIOHP, 64.

  25. Hair, NIOHP, 51–53, 189–95; White, NIOHP, 68. Cooper, NIOHP, 45.

  26. Martin, NIOHP, 58, Arbor, NIOHP, 60.

  27. Cooper, NIOHP, 50–52; Martin, NIOHP, 77.

  28. Cooper, NIOHP, 53.

  29. Sublett, NIOHP, 35; Cooper, NIOHP, 45; “Pearl Harbor Gets 1st Naval Officers,” Baltimore Afro-American, July 29, 1944, 1.

  30. Lorraine Baugh, interviewed by author, March 11, 2019.

  31. Cooper, NIOHP, 143–44.

  32. Sublett, NIOHP, 142.

  33. Sublett, NIOHP, 29; Richmond, NIOHP, 26.

  34. Sublett, NIOHP, 30; Martin, NIOHP, 170–71.

  35. The syllabus is found in the George Cooper Collection, National Museum of the American Sailor, Great Lakes, IL.

  36. Sublett, NIOHP, 137.

  37. Nelson, The Integration of the Negro into the U.S. Navy, 154–55.

  38. For more on their curriculum, see the George Cooper collection.

  39. Brindley, Amato, and Edle, “Getting Back Together after All These Years,” 8.

  40. White, NIOHP, 72; Sam Barnes, NIOHP, 207; Martin, NIOHP, 163.

  41. Hair, NIOHP, 59.

  42. Brindley, Amato, and Edle, “Getting Back Together after All These Years,” 8.

  43. Cooper, NOIHP, 26.

  44. Stillwell, “The Navy Years,” 5–8.

  45. Peggy Cooper Davis, interview with author, May 11, 2012.

  46. Cooper, NIOHP, 167.

  47. For the story of Phillip Barnes and his sister, see Martin, NIOHP, 58; White, NIOHP, 37; Arbor, NIOHP, 9.

  48. For descriptions of the ruler and pharmacist’s mate, see Martin, NIOHP, 167; Hair, NIOHP, 64-65, 225.

  49. Richmond, NIOHP, 31.

  50. Schneller, Breaking the Color Barrier, 157.

  51. Reagan, NIOHP, 43; Arbor, NIOHP, 132.

  52. White, NIOHP, 107.

  53. John Dille III, interviewed by author, April 16, 2018.

  54. Ron Grossman
, “Breaking a Naval Blockade,” Chicago Tribune, July 8, 1987, 1.

  55. Dille, NIOHP, 1–10.

  56. Ostewig, The Sage of Sinnissippi, 300.

  57. Dille, NIOHP, 25.

  58. Dille, NIOHP, 11, 14, 21–25, 47; Sam Barnes, NIOHP, 228–29, 247–49, 254; Richmond, NIOHP, 4, 20.

  59. Sam Barnes, NIOHP, 204.

  60. Author interview with Paul Richmond, a cousin of Lieutenant Paul Richmond, June 5, 2019.

  61. For Richmond’s relationship to the men, see Sam Barnes, NIOHP, 204, 318; Richmond, NIOHP, 26.

  62. Grossman, “Breaking a Naval Blockade,” 1.

  63. “The Negro in the Navy,” 33.

  64. Nelson, The Integration of the Negro into the U.S. Navy, 54–55.

  65. Arbor, NIOHP, 13.

  66. Reagan, NIOHP, 58.

  67. Sam Barnes, NIOHP, 236

  68. Cooper, NIOHP, 27.

  69. White, NIOHP, 56.

  70. Cooper, NIOHP, 153–54.

  71. “Powell Is Second of Race Made a Warrant Officer,” Norfolk Journal and Guide, June 17, 1944, 16.

  72. Reagan, NIOHP, 191.

  73. Hair, NIOHP, 53.

  74. “Another ‘First’ in Navy,” Baltimore Afro-American, January 27, 1945, 7.

  75. Reagan, NIOHP, 131.

  76. Arbor, NIOHP, 59–60.

  77. White, NIOHP, 112; Nelson, The Integration of the Negro into the U.S. Navy, 155.

  78. “Navy Appoints 12 Ensigns; See[s] Color Line Fade,” Chicago Defender, March 25, 1944, 1.

  79. White, William Sylvester, NPRC St. Louis.

  80. “First Negro Ensigns,” Life, April 24, 1944, 44.

  81. “First Negro Ensigns,” Life, May 15, 1944, 2; “Negro Ensigns,” and “First Negro Ensigns,” Life, June 5, 1944, 2.

  82. Cooper, NIOHP, 28, 168.

  83. Arbor, NIOHP, 148–49.

  84. Cooper, NIOHP, 28.

  85. White, NIOHP, 20.

  86. Arbor, NIOHP, 13.

  87. Arbor, NIOHP, 55.

  CHAPTER 11: “HIS INTELLIGENCE AND JUDGMENT ARE EXCEPTIONAL.”

  1. “End of a Strenuous Life,” Time, May 8, 1944, 12. See, also, Navy Department, “Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox Dies,” press release, April 28, 1944, Adlai E. Stevenson Papers, MC124, Box 387, Folder 7, Princeton University

  2. Sidney Shalett, “Knox Dies in Home of Heart Attack; Navy in Mourning” New York Times, April 29, 1944, 1.

  3. Lobdell, “Frank Knox,” 721.

  4. Navy Department, “Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox Dies”; “Knox, Navy Secretary, Dies of Heart Attack at 70 in Washington,” Washington Post, April 29, 1944, 1.

  5. FDR to Annie Reid Knox, April 26, 1944, President’s Secretary’s Files, box 62, FDRL.

  6. Sam Barnes, NIOHP, 77.

  7. “The Negro in the Navy,” 85.

  8. John H. Sengstacke to Randall Jacobs, March 16, 1944, GenRecsNav, box 37, folder 54-1.

  9. Leland P. Lovette to Knox, memo, March 31, 1944, GenRecsNav, box 37, folder 54-1.

  10. White, William Sylvester, NPRC St. Louis.

  11. White, NIOHP 31–36.

  12. M. Collins, performance report for William White, March 8, 1945, in White, William Sylvester.

  13. Edward Downs, performance report for Frank Sublett, July 4, 1944, in Sublett, Frank, NPRC St. Louis.

  14. William Turek, performance report for Jesse Arbor, July 26, 1944, in Arbor, Jesse Walter, NPRC St. Louis.

  15. LeRoy F. Moore Jr., performance report for George Cooper, May 28, 1945, in Cooper, George, NPRC St. Louis.

  16. “Navy Commissions Negro Lieutenant; Staff Officers Next,” Cleveland Call and Post, May 20, 1944, A1.

  17. “The Negro in the Navy,” 85.

  18. Chief of Naval Personnel, “Negro Training,” in “Great Lakes,” 179.

  19. William Turek, performance report for Reginald Goodwin, August 14, 1944, in Goodwin, Reginald, NPRC St. Louis.

  20. “Ready to Fight V-D at Naval Training Station,” Baltimore Afro-American, June 30, 1945, 10.

  21. “Navy Remedial Schools Lower Illiteracy Ratios,” Pittsburgh Courier, August 5, 1944, 3.

  22. White, NIOHP, 45.

  23. “The Negro in the Navy,” 30; Nelson, The Integration of the Negro into the U.S. Navy, 105, 136.

  24. Reagan, NIOHP, 146.

  25. Nelson, The Integration of the Negro into the U.S. Navy, 159.

  26. Sam Barnes, NIOHP, 237.

  27. Richmond, NIOHP, 31.

  28. Nelson, The Integration of the Negro into the U.S. Navy, 160.

  29. Chief of Naval Personnel, “Negro Training,” in “Great Lakes,” 268.

  30. MacGregor, Integration of the Armed Forces, 82.

  31. Nelson, The Integration of the Negro into the U.S. Navy, 161.

  32. Brindley, Amato, and Edle, “Getting Back Together after All These Years,” 8.

  33. Martin, NIOHP, 93.

  34. Reagan, NIOHP, 146.

  35. Sam Barnes, NIOHP, 72, 79.

  36. Al Monroe, “Swinging in the News,” Chicago Defender, August 26, 1944, 6.

  37. Buckley, American Patriots, 307. See also Ted Sherman, “Lena Horne at 100: WW2 Memories of Meeting Her,” 90isthenewblack (blog), June 30, 2017, https://90isthenewblack.wordpress.com/2017/06/30/lena-horne-at-100-ww2-memories-of-meeting-her/comment-page-1/#comment-951.

  38. Cooper, NIOHP, 31–35.

  39. Sublett, NIOHP, 44, 150.

  40. Hair, NIOHP, 69.

  41. Cooper, NIOHP, 30.

  42. Schneller, Breaking the Color Barrier, 158.

  43. MacGregor, Integration of the Armed Forces, 85.

  44. MacGregor, Integration of the Armed Forces, 85.

  45. Reminiscences of Lester B. Granger, interviewed by William T. Ingersoll, November 1, 1960, and Ed Edwin, May 8, 1961, Columbia Center for Oral History, Columbia University, New York (hereafter cited as Granger reminiscences), 159–60.

  46. Jacobs to Commanding Officers, August, 9, 1944, GenRecsNav, box 37, folder 54–1.

  47. MacGregor, Integration of the Armed Forces, 85–86.

  48. Nelson, The Integration of the Negro into the U.S. Navy, 46.

  49. Nelson, The Integration of the Negro into the U.S. Navy, 49.

  50. MacGregor, Integration of the Armed Forces, 87.

  51. White, A Man Called White, 272–75.

  52. Nelson, The Integration of the Negro into the U.S. Navy, 160–61.

  53. Chief of Naval Personnel, “Negro Training,” in “Great Lakes,” 281–82.

  CHAPTER 12: “YOU FORGET THE COLOR AND YOU REMEMBER THE RANK.”

  1. White, A Man Called White, 278–85.

  2. Arbor, NIOHP, 16, 63.

  3. Arbor, NIOHP, 14.

  4. Sam Barnes, NIOHP, 83.

  5. Sam Barnes, NIOHP, 74–75.

  6. Sublett, NIOHP, 47–48, 161; Reagan, NIOHP, 58.

  7. Martin, NIOHP, 95–96.

  8. Martin, NIOHP, 100–101.

  9. Sublett, NIOHP, 50.

  10. Martin, NIOHP, 97, 187.

  11. Brindley, Amato, and Edle, “Getting Back Together after All These Years,” 8.

  12. R. A. Wolverton to Forrestal, February 13, 1946, in Martin, Graham, NPRC St. Louis.

  13. Levin, The Negro Sailor, 1945.

  14. Hair, NIOHP, 83–84.

  15. Reagan, NIOHP, 60–61.

  16. Hair, NIOHP, 80–81.

  17. James E. Smith, “Negro Ensign Now Skipper of U.S. Navy Combat Ship,” Pittsburgh Courier, September 16, 1944, 1.

  18. Kelly, Proudly We Served, 150.

  19. Hair, NIOHP, 156.

  20. Reagan, NIOHP, 158–59.

  21. Reagan, NIOHP, 194.

  22. Reminiscences of Commander Norman Harry Meyer, interviewed by Paul Stillwell, November 6, 1986, NIOHP, 8, 15.

  23. Hair, NIOHP, 87; Meyer, NIOHP, 17–20.

  24. Hair, NIOHP, 85–86.

  25. Meyer, NIOHP, 24.

  26. Granger reminiscences, 146.

  27. White
, NIOHP, 42.

  28. “Navy’s Mixed Plan Praised,” Norfolk Journal and Guide, July 21, 1945, 1.

  29. Sublett, NIOHP, 163.

  30. Sublett, NIOHP, 40.

  31. Martin, NIOHP, 190.

  32. Sublett, NIOHP, 147.

  33. White, NIOHP, 88.

  34. “Extra! Naval Racial Practice Lagging behind Policy, Granger Reports,” Baltimore Afro-American, November 10, 1945, 1.

  35. H. B. Miller, performance report for William White, June 30, 1946, in White, William Sylvester, NPRC St. Louis.

  36. White, NIOHP, 115.

  37. Chief of Naval Personnel, “Negro Training,” in “Great Lakes,” 276–77, 280.

  38. MacGregor, Integration of the Armed Forces, 144.

  39. “Last All-Colored Class Graduated at Great Lakes,” Baltimore Afro-American, September 8, 1945, 8.

  40. Chief of Naval Personnel, “Negro Training,” in “Great Lakes,” 279–82.

  41. White, NIOHP, 84.

  42. Stillwell, The Golden Thirteen, 162.

  43. Cooper, NIOHP, 36.

  44. Reagan, NIOHP, 205

  45. MacGregor, Integration of the Armed Forces, 242–43.

  46. Nelson, The Integration of the Negro into the U.S. Navy, 159.

  47. Nelson, The Integration of the Negro into the U.S. Navy, 93; MacGregor, Integration of the Armed Forces, 246.

  48. Reagan, NIOHP, 208.

  49. “Dustin’ Off the News,” Chicago Defender, August 20, 1949, 4.

  50. MacGregor, Integration of the Armed Forces, 243.

  51. Gertrude Martin, “Book Reviews,” review of The Integration of the Negro into the U.S. Navy, by Dennis Nelson, Chicago Defender, September 1, 1951, 7.

  52. “Negro Officer Assails Navy’s Treatment but Praises Its Attempt at Improvement,” New York Times, February 2, 1948, 3.

  53. Lester B. Granger, “Our Newer Navy,” New York Amsterdam News, September 1, 1951, 6.

  54. Stillwell, The Golden Thirteen, 190; Sam Barnes, NIOHP, 306–8; Cooper, NIOHP, 50.

  55. “US Navy Will Appoint First Black as Admiral,” Associated Press, April 28, 1971.

  CHAPTER 13: “THERE IS THAT SALUTE YOU NEVER GOT.”

  1. Ben A. Franklin, “8 of First Black Navy Officers Hold Reunion at Sea,” New York Times, April 14, 1982, A18.

  2. Hair, NIOHP, 109–11; James Hair Jr. interviewed by author, April 15, 2011.

  3. Sam Barnes, NIOHP, 130–31.

  4. For the story of the reunion on the USS Kidd, see “Reunion of First Black Navy Officers,” Baltimore Afro-American, April 24, 1982, 6.

  5. Navy death notice, November 21, 1947, in Lear, Charles, NPRC St. Louis.